My sewing table

When I got serious about quilting and finally got my own sewing room I knew I had to have a great table that made it easier to do my craft (Is "do" the right word there?  It seems odd.).

We had just finished remodeling so we had some odd parts still lying around.  One of them was a door.  Another was our handyman who was finishing up those things that never seem to really get done after a HUGE remodel, but I digress.  I asked him if he could transform that door into a table with a hole for my sewing machine so the bed of the machine was level with the top of the table.  "Sure, draw me a sketch."

Now my hubby is a real architect but I didn't let that stop me from drawing an elementary stick figure table that produced.....

Ta Da!
 

You didn't really expect me to clean it off completely did you?

 Just ignore all the detritus that is my working mess.  What I want you to focus on is the table.  A little tour:  On the right side of the photo is the currently empty hole in which my machine sits.  It has a shelf underneath which is the darker colored wood.  To the left of that is plenty of room for my cutting mat since I am a lazy woman who like to cut sitting down.  To the left of that is my fan because, well, at my age a person can't have too much external cooling.  To the left of that is my unruly ruler collection.

What the picture doesn't show is that there is about a foot of room to the right of the machine where I have a bin for the tools I use often and a amall box where I keep my current Leader-Ender project.

Let me show you a few more detailed shots of the table:

This is the machine "shelf/well" looking toward the right side where you can see the hole for the cords.  The way my machine fits in, it is pretty tight against this side making it hard to thread very many cords into this slot.  If I were making another one, I would leave about 3/4 of an inch free to the right.   In this shot you can also see the trim pieces that he added to finish off the raw edges left from cutting the hole. Because of the tightness issue, I opted not to have him trim that right side.  The trim lies about 1/4 inch below the surface of the table.  1/4 inch is the thickness of the acrylic top that surrounds the machine.

Here is the front view of that shelf.  It was left open so that I can easily get at things.  At least that was the premise.  In reality, my chubby hands can't get at anything.

Ahh, the top of the machine shelf with the acrylic surround in place.
The white strip is masking tape that marks my 1/4 inch.

This is a crude shot of how the shelf is attached to the table from underneath.

After the table was done I painted it with two coats of polyurethane I wanted it to be very slick so that quilts would glide over it while I machine quilted.  I also bought four legs at IKEA.  They had legs that were very inexpensive but were adjustable so I could make the table exactly the height that fits me. 

If you make one for yourself and if you use multiple machines, make the shelf deep enough to hold your thickest machine - that is the depth you measure from the table to the bed of the machine.  For example, I use a Pfaff (deep machine) and a Juki (not as deep).  All I had to do was set the Juki in the shelf well and measure how much lower it was than the top of the table.  I found some boards that thickness (I ended up having to stack two boards together to get the rights thickness) then cut them to fit inside the shelf. 

Another measurement to take into account is how far away from you you like your machine.  I was lucky in that the machine ends up being a pretty comfortable distance from the edge of the table but I really would prefer it a smidge closer to me.

My handyman cut the acrylic to fit inside the shelf/well and fit around my machine.  I don't know how he made those measurements but I think you can figure it out.  He had to get a saw blade that was specific to cutting acrylic.  I suggest reading some resources on the internet before embarking on this part of the project.

If you need more information just ask.  If you end up making one for yourself I would LOVE to see photos.  If you have a table you like, include a link in your comment.  I think that our creative spaces only get better when we get input from lots of sources.

Have a wonderful and relaxing Labor Day Weekend.

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