Menu
Sewing space

A Peek Into My New Sewing Studio

Yes, I’ve gotten myself a new sewing studio! For the last 1.5 years, I’ve rented a sewing studio away from home. This has been a real game changer for my work, but it’s also a really small space, just 12 m² (130 ft²), making it hard to film YouTube videos and take photos of garments.

But as luck would have it, I befriended a group of artists that shared a bigger space in the same building. And then, one day, three of them decided to move on to other spaces, leaving only one person, and he didn’t want to take on all the studio rent himself.

So we started to have a conversation about me taking over the remaining space, and then everything happened super quickly! Two weeks ago, I began to move in, and this weekend, I was finally able to set everything up.

This was my friend Oskar’s corner before I moved in 🙂

Ready to fill the white space with all my sewing stuff!

The mess! Moving is so exhausting, even though I only moved three doors in the same corridor.

Now we are talking! This is the sewing area, where everything is set up for a great workflow with lots of accessible storage.

And this is the storage and computer area. You can see all my books on the shelf and the versions that are translated into other languages.

I’ve drilled every hole, assembled every piece of furniture and built all the shelves myself. One evening I was in the studio until midnight, trying to get everything finished. It’s been very exhausting, to say the least, but I find it hard to concentrate on work when my environment is messy.

I’ve also been juggling two different day jobs since October, but now I’m back to part-time, and the rest of the time will be devoted to The Last Stitch and all the fun things I want to create. For the upcoming Fit For Knits Book for instance, we have about 140 pages done by now, but there are still plenty more pages to do.

Also, it feels amazing to have a studio mate. I don’t thrive in loneliness, so making friends in the same building has been a blessing. As luck would have it, Oskar is a writer and photographer, so we also plan to do some work trades in the future.

I will do a more proper studio tour later to show you how I store my sewing stuff, including lots of Ikea hacks. Plus, I finally invested in a large format printer for all those pdf-patterns, so I will post a review once I get it going. I just need to order paper, because I forgot to do that when I bought the printer. Aww. well!

7 Comments

  • COREY
    February 14, 2023 at 5:32 pm

    Sounds Exciting, I hope you are ok for money, we all know how tough it is to move forward with anything without it.

    Reply
  • Kay
    February 15, 2023 at 4:12 am

    Awesome!! Best wishes!!

    Reply
  • Carey
    February 15, 2023 at 5:45 am

    So excited for you! ( And I am also a bit exhausted for you, given all that moving work!) You are such an inspiration for me. 🙂

    Reply
  • Maureen
    February 15, 2023 at 9:23 pm

    I cannot wait to see your finished studio! Is that an IKEA table that you have your machines on? If so, which table is it. I am planning on making a 4 hour trip to my local (haha) IKEA in April. I have the same idea of putting two machines on each table but I was wondering about the weight of two machines on one table. I am so excited to see your makes. I have your jeans book and I purchased your cover stitch machine follow along but haven’t watched it yet. I’ve been watching my 89 year old mom who just passed a month ago. Now I have the time to get started again.

    Reply
    • COREY
      February 16, 2023 at 7:21 pm

      I have a suggestion, look for used office furniture, i purchase a large desk on wheels and also a large and long table and chairs for all under 100 dollars used. The one table has a one sewing machine and serger on it, and i use it for cutting fabric and it fits 150cm wide fabric. The other desk i have 1 serger, and 2 other sewing machines on it, it is at the perfect height for sewing and has ample room all for a price less then the IKEA table.

      Reply
  • Arbor
    March 24, 2023 at 2:00 am

    Johanna, I am super excited for you and your new studio
    that affords you the space you need and deserve, your future collaboration with your studio neighbor, AND for the new book you have coming out! I wish you many blessings and much joy in the months ahead!

    Sincerely,
    Arbor Buchanan

    Reply
  • Kamilla
    April 15, 2023 at 3:13 pm

    It sounds so great, you really deserve it. 👍👍👍

    Reply

Leave a Reply