18 DIY Sewing Table Plans

diy sewing table plans

Maybe you’re ready to upgrade from doing all your sewing while crammed in the least convenient corner of the dining room table, or maybe the sewing table that you already use is no longer “cutting” it.

It’s time to DIY!

Whether you make your sewing table from scratch or modify it from an existing piece of furniture, DIYing it is a great way not only to avoid buying something else new that will one day end up in the waste stream but also to make yourself the exact custom sewing table that you need, exactly the way you want it. Want a drop-in table for your machine? The smallest footprint possible? The largest cutting area it’s humanly conceivable to stuff into your house? You can DIY all of that!

Check out the following round-up of my favorite DIY sewing table plans and tutorials. Your sewing stuff will be off the dining room table in no time!

1. Dining Table To Sewing Table

A low-quality dining table is an excellent candidate to upcycle into a sewing table that’s perfect for free-motion quilting. Dining tables of a certain price point don’t wear particularly well, and so they’re often being replaced. They don’t have a great resale value, so you really can get one for way cheap or even rescue one from a landfill fate. Reinforce those wobbly legs, cover up that cheap laminate with enamel and polyurethane, and you’ll never be able to tell that people used to eat their dinner on top of it!

Find the plans at Amy’s Free Motion Quilting Adventures

2. Drop-In Sewing Table Hack

Rather than offering a specific project using a specific (IKEA) table, this tutorial instead gives you the basic methodology that you can use to modify ANY existing table into a drop-in sewing table. Read on for other tutorials that DO use a specific IKEA table as the starting point!

Find the plans at The Quilter’s Planner

3. Entertainment Center To Sewing Cabinet

An entertainment center has a LOT of space inside for storage, and it’s a terrific way to hide your sewing machine and supplies when they’re not in use.

Find the plans at Remodelicious

4. Home Office Unit To Sewing Station

The starting piece of furniture is similar to an entertainment center, but the home office unit generally also has a little pull-out desk that’s just the right size for holding your sewing machine for quick projects.

Find the plans at Skruben

5. Fold-Down Sewing Table

diy sewing table
Photo by Karisa or Petite Modern Life

For this project, you’ll need a tabletop and one folding or screw-on leg. That sounds like a lot, but this is really a beginner woodworking project, and an excellent choice for creating some dedicated sewing space when there’s otherwise no extra room in your place.

Find the plans at Petite Modern Life

6. Folding Table

Considering how nicely this DIY sewing table masquerades as a side table, you won’t believe how roomy it gets when it’s completely unfolded!

Find the plans at In Her Garage

7. IKEA Ingo Table Makeover

People often treat their IKEA furniture as disposable, which is gross, but it does mean that it’s often pretty easy to find the exact make and model that you want gently used on the resale market–or even for free!

Find the plans at Quilt Fabrication

8. IKEA Melltorp To Sewing Desk

I like that even after its makeover, this piece of furniture still looks more like a desk than a typical sewing table.

Find the plans at IKEA Hackers

9. Modular Sewing/Craft Table

modular craft desk
Photo by Ana White

Okay, this IS a big project, but Ana White is renowned for her clear instructions and detailed plans, and her made-from-scratch creations allow you to get completely away from having to upcycle old furniture. Your DIY sewing table will be 100% custom to your space!

Find the plans at Ana White

10. Multi-Machine Sewing Table

This project is the perfect example of the way that DIY allows you the custom build of your dreams. Most store-bought sewing tables are built to house just one brand, so what do you do if you’ve got several machines that you sew with interchangeably? Make a sewing table with tracks that will allow you to set up each machine just the way you like it!

Find the plans at Instructables

11. Sewing/Cutting Table

If there’s one thing that you need just as much as a dedicated sewing space, it’s a nice big cutting table! This tutorial gives you both in one, making over a bookshelf (IKEA, of course!) and adding a tabletop for the perfect sewing and cutting station.

Find the plans at Noodlehead

12. Sewing Table Conversion to a New Sewing Machine

Sewing tables actually aren’t that uncommon, but they’re generally all custom-built to fit whatever antique brand of sewing machine they used to hold. The good news, though, is that an antique sewing table is also probably well-made and quite sturdy, and you can modify it to fit your new sewing machine!

Find the plans at eHow

13. Drop-Down Table

This project is similar to the fold-down sewing table I mentioned earlier, but this table is made from scratch, meaning that you can size it exactly to your available wall and floor space.

Find the plans at Woodworking for Mere Mortals

14. Sewing Table From a Desk with a Drawer

It takes some careful measuring while you’re out thrifting, but it IS possible to easily convert a desk into a drop-in sewing table by making use of an existing drawer that’s the same height as the sewing machine’s base.

Find the plans at Busy Bee No. 16

15. Storage Cube Table Remake

Hit up any thrift store or dumpster dive for about five minutes and you’ll find more storage cubes than you’ll know what to do with. At least you can upcycle some of them into this rolling sewing table!

Find the plans at Family Handyman

16. Table From Scratch

I mean, building your sewing table completely from scratch IS the best way to get exactly what you want!

Find the plans at Instructables

17. Tabletop Plus Box

This DIY sewing table plan breaks down its components surprisingly simply: you need a tabletop, you need a box the same dimensions as the bottom of your sewing machine, and you need to cut a hole in the tabletop that matches the box. It’s as simple as that!

Find the plans at Dad And

18. Workbench

workbench
Photo by Jen Woodhouse

Here’s another heavy-duty, made-from-scratch multi-purpose sewing table and cutting station. It’s got plenty of room to spread out, and the tabletop is easy to replace if it gets damaged (I’m looking at you, hot iron!).

Find the plans at Jen Woodhouse

P.S. Have a side table that you’d love to upcycle, but none of these tutorials are quite what you’re looking for? Check out this round-up of even more ways to upcycle a side table!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top