Posted on Categories Cosplay

How do you set up/organize your cosplay and sewing space?

I was reading on cosplay.com and came across this thread about organizing your cosplay/ sewing space.

To be totally honest, right now I need to clean up and organize after our DragonCon trip, but I thought I’d try to answer the following questions, in the event it’s helpful for anyone else. I’m planning on re-organizing my space this weekend so if things change, I’ll update the following.

And if you have any tips, tricks, or ideas, add them in the comments!

If you sew for other things besides cosplay, how does the cosplay work into your sewing room? 

I normally sew fashion garments for myself but I can tell that I need to adjust my room to accompany both. I also use my room for drawing. I have a desk (soon to be drawing table) in the closet and try to use that space for art since drawing tends to take up less space than the explosion that is sewing.

Right now I have several bookshelves full of fabric, organized by type of fabric, and one bookshelf of reference books. I have a small chest of drawers for sewing notion (zippers, elastics, trim), and the top shelf of the closet has bins. Those are organized by:

  • Tapes and glues
  • markers
  • pencils
  • inks and pens
  • fabric and acrylic paint
  • watercolor
  • printing and framing supplies
  • grommets and corsetry supplies

I also have a set of plastic drawers for patterns, and a file folder box with custom patterns, slopers, and altered patterns.

And random cardboard boxes full of things.


Is your space all over the house or do you have a specialized sewing room? 

I have a dedicated room I’m supposed to stay in.

Does your sewing room “travel”? 

Right now, it’s spread all over the house like the chaos butterfly I am. I tend to take things with me, as the scatterbrained multi-tasker I am. Also, I work with limited space in my office, and my work table is dedicated to the sewing machine and serger that live on it. If I need to cut fabric or something on a self-healing mat, I need the dining room table. If I want to hang out with my husband and do hand work while watching tv, it travels with me to the den.
How do you manage remnants and things you bought for specific projects? 

I have bags and boxes full of them. I’m supposed to go through them annually but it’s hard because you never know when you’ll need a little bit of a specific fabric.
Do you ever throw things away?

When I’m forced to.
Do you use wall-space? Under-the-bed space? Closet space?

I tend to put everything in boxes or in piles. I mostly use bookshelves and the limited space in my closet… or the shed in the backyard for things like spray paint or power tools.
How do you store your machine? How many machines do you have?

I leave my machines out all the time, I have two (normal sewing machine and a serger). I try to keep a dust cover on them, but they get a decent amount of use.
Do you use other people’s sewing space? Do you share a sewing space?

Nope! I share a house with my husband, so sometimes when our hobbies travel, we have to share things like the dining room table.
Do you keep your sewing space neat or are things tossed about?

It always looks in disarray.
How much do you invest into organizing your sewing space?

I bought a bunch of bins a few years ago. I think I spent around $50 on them. I’d like to put in some built-in bookshelves in this alcove I have, but don’t yet have the time or money to invest in it, when the $20 MDF bookshelf from target works for now.
Do you re-organize often?

I try to give it a good clean/organization once a year, but I really should do it more. A good deep clean/ organization weekend lasts me around 2 weeks before it’s crazy again.

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