Having the right tools for any project is so very nice. Now that I'm starting to sew more I found I had the same problem as everyone else, lack of a work surface. The costume shops I worked in (in the distant past) were outfitted with brown paper covered cork surfaced tables. Big tables, usually made of 8' x 4' theatre platforms up on 3' plywood legs. They were perfect for laying out fabric, securing it down with draping pins (those heavy silver push pins) and tracing patterns. You can also jot notes directly onto the table top, have no fear when using those needle sharp tracing wheels. You don't have to worry about nicking the table (or your super sharp scissors). And whenever the brown paper gets ripped up or dirty you simple take it off and re-cover the table. I needed one, I had to have one of these tables for my very own. I happened to have a table top from Ikea I had been lugging from apartment to apartment with me for years. And so the plan was hatched.

to sum up
Get or make a table which is kitchen counter height, glue a sheet of 1/4" to 1/2" cork down to cover the entire top surface, cover it with brown paper which is secured underneath with masking tape, and there you go.

a bit more information
In The Costume Technician's Handbook by Rosemary Ingham and Liz Covey they talk about the cutting table.

"The ideal cutting table should be a flat, sturdy surface, wide enough to lay out a 45-inch wide piece of fabric, and between six and eight feet long. It should stand about waist high. You should be able to stick pins into the cutting table surface to hold your patterns and fabrics in place. In many shops the cutting tables are covered with 1/2-inch thick cork sheets. Cork makes a beautiful working surface, but it does have some disadvantages. It's expensive, hard to clean if something is accidentally spilled on it, and, after a couple of years of use, cork bits begin to chip away. A practical cutting table surface can be created with a sheet of homosote (also called wallboard, fiberboard, or building board) covered with muslin, brown paper, or plastic sheeting. When you need to fashion temporary cutting tables, use folding banquet tables or ping-pong tables and set them up on wooden blocks, bricks, or cinderblocks. Cover a sheet of homosote, lay it on top, and you're in business."

The only example of a costume shop cutting table I could find online is this A Wardrobe Cutting Table at the Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology. This article focuses on the construction of the table, with a lip around the table top and storage drawers at each end. "The top is made of a full sheet of 3/4 inch plywood, with the cork work surface glued to that." In this picture you can see the brown paper held down by masking tape. And 4' x 8' x 6mm bulletin-board cork is listed in the list of construction materials.

I had the table top already - 31" wide by 59". I decided that adjustable legs from Ikea would be great - they have a few which are adjustable up to 36" or so.

After some pathetic poking around Home Depot and office supply places, Lisa (thank you Lisa!) pointed out that The Cork Store sells rolls of cork in small amounts. This was exactly what I was looking for. I ordered BB13, which is an cheaper composite, 6.0mm thick, roughly 1/4". My table is just under five feet long, so I ordered 6' to have plenty.

I wanted something to protect my pins from possibly getting dulled by hitting the table top underneath the cork. In hindsight I probably don't need this. At Home Depot we found hardboard (which is like pegboard without the holes), which came in 4' x 2' sheets for pretty cheap. We bought three to fit over the table. These cut very well using a utility knife. We screwed the hardboard to the table top.

We bought contact cement, rubber cement's more serious older brother, to secure the cork to the hardboard. We used it along each end of the table, and on either side of the middle. I was worried about getting the ends of pins sticky so we left the middle of the cork without glue.

Altogether this project took about 4 hours, with all of our bumbling around finding the right screws and tools. This doesn't count the two (!) trips to Ikea in the attempt to find suitable table legs. And best of all I have plenty of cork left over.

And, I just realized, this would work very well as a blocking table for knitting projects. I could mark a grid on the paper, cover it with a sheet of clear plastic and just pin the item down. Now I just have to knit something which is big enough to require blocking.

To see even more pictures of the process (which I put together more for my own reference) click here for a pop-up window with all the details.

what I would do differently
If I had more room in my house I would have used a 48" wide table, my Ikea table top is about 31" wide. After having used it for a few days I would suggest putting a layer of homosote (instead of something like hardboard) inbetween unless you have cork thicker than 6mm. I'm finding I need the extra surface to dig into with pins. And I probably would have glued the hell out of the cork, using a wood glue which one can squirt out, brushing the contact cement on was tedious.

Perhaps I wouldn't cut the cork exactly to size before attaching it to the table top. It makes sense to cut the cork with about 2" of overlap on all sides, gluing it down flat, then flipping the table top over (so the cork is underneath) and trimming off the excess. I didn't think about this until after the fact, of course. My table worked out fine but there was some worry about getting everything to line up nicely.

update
07.10.02: On a recent trip home to visit family I discovered my Dad is years ahead of me on this. My brother builds (and flys) radio control airplanes. My father built him a large working table, 3' high, the suface covered in a huge sheet of 6 or 8 mm homosote. This table is uncovered, since it's meant to be messed up, and has lasted at least 6 years of paint, solvents, gouges, hot irons and major power tools. I should have consulted higher up on the Reardon Project Family Tree before I set out!