The Cottage Mama Studio

I find seeing others creative spaces to be so inspiring, don't you?  It's neat to take a peak into someone else's world.  Not everyone is able to have a craft room or studio, but it doesn't have to be much, even an armoire or closet that is all your own can do the trick.

Lately, I have been very busy with my handmade children's clothing business, The Cottage Mama.  I am preparing to launch my fall line as well as a few new items that I think will round-out The Cottage Mama.  I feel so blessed to have my own little corner of the cottage and I thought you might like to take a peak into where The Cottage Mama creates.


So here it is - The Cottage Mama Studio.  This is a small room with french doors off of our dining room.  This is what it looks like as you enter from the dining room.


Here is another angle looking into the studio.  I don't love the chair I currently have, but it works for now.  I'm dying to get something more vintage looking.  I do, however, love that this chair has wheels - it makes it very easy to move from the computer to my sewing machines.



These are two very long tables that come together in the corner.  I love them.  They are from IKEA and were very affordable.  They are a great height for me and the white looks very clean in this room.


What sewing machine and serger do I use?  Well, here they are.  They are nothing fancy, but I love them.  Both are Brother machines which I think are incredibly user-friendly.  My sewing machine is a Brother CS 6000i and my serger is a Brother 1034D.  I would highly recommend both of these machines!


I have both of my pedals labeled just so there is no confusion between my serger and sewing machine.  I also just love my label maker and use any opportunity to label things.


This large galvanized, metal container is filled with trim, piping and bias tape.  Some new and some vintage.  I ended up at a fabric store that was trying to get rid of old stock and these were all 5 for $1.00 - it was a super-deal and a very exciting day!!


I keep my cutting mat (the yellow piece on the table) out at all times since I am usually cutting patterns daily.  This mat fits perfectly and is 36" wide, which is perfect for an entire yard of fabric.


In the corner I have a bunch of my trim (i.e. piping and rick rack) that I use frequently in this fun tiered metal basket.  I got this in the kitchen section of a local home store and thought it would be perfect for the studio.


Underneath the two long tables I have these great metal baskets that slide in and out.  I got these at IKEA too, but they were found in the closet department.  They had something very similar in the office department, but the ones in the closet department were much more inexpensive.



In the bottom two drawers I keep scraps from fabrics that I am currently working with.  That way if I need to grab some fabric for a button or a fabric yo-yo, I have it right there next to my machines.


In the drawer, second from the top, I keep all of my vintage linens that are waiting to be turned into something.  I have many pillowcases that will someday become dresses and lots of hankies.  I find most of these linens at antique stores and my Grandma Ethel has sent me some wonderful linens as well.


I keep the things that I reach for most often in the top drawer.  My sewing scissors, a variety of thread, my clothing labels.  I keep the matching thread to my clothing labels in the same bag.  That way when I need to sew on a label, the thread is right there.

Also, I made myself a little hand-sewing kit and covered button kit.  The hand-sewing kit is great because I can just grab it and take it in the other room to easily sew on buttons or whatever else.  It contains thread, a little pair of scissors, and hand-sewing needles.  The covered button kit has all of the pieces I need to make fabric covered buttons in all sizes.  Both of these little kits definitely make life easier.



The other sliding bins are filled mainly with shipping and packaging supplies.  I have large spools of grosgrain ribbon, teal tissue paper, clear plastic bags, twine, ect.......all for making sure The Cottage Mama packages arrive in style.


This is my cricut expression.  I keep this stored underneath the tables and pull it out whenever necessary.  I don't use it too often, so I didn't feel it needed to be on top.  I need to do more with this great machine, so I think I will be coming up with a few projects for this one soon!


On the other end of the long table is my computer.  I use a Mac and I love it!!  I use to be a PC user, but my husband is in advertising and got us a Mac when we needed a new computer.  I really think, "once you go mac, you never go back".



On the right side of the computer are most of my supplies.  My father-in-law built me these shelves and I think they are so wonderful (thanks Jeff)!  I love being able to see what I have to work with and it is inspiring on a daily basis.  It definitely helps me in developing some of my designs and just looks so pretty.



All of my fabric is arranged by color.  I thought about arranging it by collection or designer, but I think this is much more pleasing to the eye.  It also helps me to see coordinates from other lines that may work together.


Most of my cotton fabric is stored on these fabric organizers.  I have seen and heard of some DIY versions of these, but personally these are my favorite.  They have tabs that secure the fabric, they are very light-weight and they keep the fabric from becoming wrinkled.  Each one can hold up to six yards of fabric.  You would not have believed how much room my fabric was taking up before I discovered these organizers - it was a mess!


There are two different sized organizers - large and small.  The small is perfect for storing different trim and smaller pieces of fabric.


So, what's in my stash? Lots of things.......mostly girly stuff (after all, I'm a Mama to two little ladies).  I've got Art Gallery "Sugar", Art Gallery "Girly Girl", Heather Bailey "Nicey Jane" and "Freshcut", Anna Maria Horner "Garden Party", Amy Butler "Love" and "Midwest Modern", Sandi Henderson "Meadowsweet", Riley Blake "Wheels" and "All-Star", a little Alexander Henry, Tina Givens, Jennifer Paganelli, David Walker, Tanya Whelan, some Japanese imports and a bunch more!

I've got about 25 yards of Art Gallery's new "Paradise" (August release) and 40+ yards of Amy Butler's new "Soul Blossom" (September release) that should be arriving sometime in the next month - wooohooo - can't wait!


In the red boxes, I keep my interfacing, fusible fleece and oil cloth.  I use interfacing quite a bit so this is handy to have close by.




On the shelf above the fabric I store my buttons.  I use fabric covered buttons on almost every garment.  So here I have them arranged by size.  I just use little tags from the office supply store to label each jar.  Also the lids are the same ones I made in this tutorial.



On the other end of the shelf, I have some other supplies.  Glue, size labels, blank note cards, and lots of trim.  If you are ever at your local fabric store, just ask them if they have any empty trim holders - they are always happy to give me the empty ones.


I also keep my tags ready to hang on my garments.  It's so much easier to thread a ton of them all at one time, that way I can just grab one when I need it.


Way at the top of my shelves I keep some blue vintage jars that I just love.  These jars were given to me by my Grandma Peggy.  The wire baskets below are meant for produce storage, but I thought they worked just great to store scraps that I use less frequently.  I try to keep more bold scraps (reds, yellows, orange, bright green and blue) in one and pastels in the other.




This little room already had a deep closet, so I use these shelves to store things I don't need all of the time.  I have a whole box of knit fabric, some of my chenille and minky.  Also things like some of my serger thread, craft supplies, scrapbooking supplies, iron, hole punch, kids art supplies, spray adhesive.......and the list goes on and on....... are all stored in these shelves.


Above these shelves I have three embroidery hoops with fabric pieces from designer Heather Bailey's "Nicey Jane" fabric line.


On the wall next to the deep shelves is my thread rack, ironing board, and white boards (I use these for taking pictures).  Hopefully my father-in-law is going to help me install an ironing board that folds down from the wall.  I think this will save a lot of space and be more practical than this giant one.




Here is some of my thread that is all arranged by color.  To be honest, I haven't really found one thread to be better than another - I use both Gutermann and Coats and Clarks.


I store some of my spools of ribbon on a pants hanger that is hung on the door knob of one of the french doors.


And one of the best things that was installed in my studio was this baby gate.  It enables me to keep all of my sewing supplies out (machines, rotary cutters, scissors, pins) and use my hot iron without having to worry about my girls getting hurt.

I hope you enjoyed this little peak inside my studio.  I don't have a huge space, but it's a space I can call my own, and for that I feel very blessed.

Here are a few of the new pieces that have been completed for fall: