Sewing Cabinet Redo

Last summer, we took a trip to the thrift store and bought old sewing cabinets. We needed some new sewing tables that would work well for machine quilting. We redid them and they turned out really nice. We don't know how we would live without them!! Here's a tutorial on how to redo them:

Materials:

• Sewing machine cabinet
• Wood for the shelf & top insert
• Metal Brackets
• Spraypaint
• Electric Sander
• Jigsaw
• Screws
• Wood brackets (1 X 2s for the shelf to sit on)

BEFORE:

1. Buy and clean an old sewing cabinet. Unscrew the old sewing machine and remove all unnecessary parts (extra wood,etc). 
2. Using an electric sander, sand the cabinet. Patch up any holes and fix anything that is broken.
3. Use jigsaw to square up opening. Screw flat metal brackets to the underside of the top of your cabinet. These will hold your table top insert.You need to do this step before your shelf is put in or else you'll do a lot of unscrewing. (Notice, we made a notch on the right side to allow room for the sewing machine cord). 

4. Make a shelf to place the sewing machine on that will make the sewing machine level with the tabletop (measure your machine from the sewing surface to the bottom...this will be the dimension from your tabletop to the shelf)
5. Screw wood brackets into side of cabinet to hold the shelf (see picture below...this picture was taken from the bottom-up so the brackets really go below the shelf).  The shelf will need to be in place before screwing in the brackets.

                                     

6. Spray paint/paint your cabinet any color that you want. 

7.  Trace the outside of your sewing machine top onto a piece of cardboard. Cut out the cardboard, and use it as a pattern to cut the insert that goes on the table top.We happened to have this piece of melamine shelving on hand, you can use any kind of smooth wood.  Make sure the wood is the same thickness as your cabinet table top.

8.  Place the insert on the brackets.

    

 AFTER: