Aug 16, 2006

SBQ - Fabric Organization

I am so on the ball today! SBQ came out and on the very same day, I am actually answering it. How efficient is that?!?


Do you have an organizational system for your fabric? If so, what is it? If not, what do you store your fabric in? How do people store their fabric, especially those small but potentially usable pieces? Do they sort by count? How do they label itor otherwise know what each piece is?

Being the crafty person I am, I made this storage box that holds my cross stitch fabric stash. I came up with this idea while shopping for groceries at Aldi's one Saturday. This is a box that the packages of brown sugar come in. I snagged the box and the lid (You're allowed to do that at Aldi's) and used them to haul home some of my groceries. Then I used contact paper I had on hand and made a new storage box! It's 11"W by 13"L by 6.5"D. With the contact paper, the lid fits snugly. Not bad for FREE!


As you can see, I currently keep all my fabric stash in it. I have an Anne Cloth afghan, bookmarks, waste canvas, vinyl weave, aida of all colors and counts, evenweaves, hardanger, and linens. The ones that came in packages, stay in the packages until I want to use them. Little bits and pieces are kept in a ziploc bag - not sorted by count or anything (yet). Some of the packages are labeled, some are not. It's not a big deal to me that the aida isn't labeled since I have a handy dandy ruler that quickly tells me what the count it. One day when I have no projects left to stitch (Like that's gonna happen?), I may go through and organize it a little better. For now, this works for me. I did make a second box to separate the evenweaves/linens from the aida stuff but so far I haven't done it. LOL

I just read an article in the Oct 2006 issue of Just Cross Stitch that gave a couple of good tips:

  • To minimize wrinkles, fabric should be stored flat with as few folds as possible. The longer the creases remain in the fabric, the harder it is to remove them. Hmmm.... Maybe I should rethink my storage methods!
  • To label fabrics, write the count and color on a small piece of paper and tack it to the fabric with some small stitches using a light color. Don't use pins or paperclips because over time they can rust.

3 comments:

ayujaded said...

hello, as I was passing by, i can't help it but admiring ur blog entries and pictures. hope u dont mind me visiting while reading ur stuff :) bye now

Patti-Rocky Mtn Stitcher said...

Clever. I've got mine in baskets. But haven't a clue what most are.

Lyn said...

I don't have near the amount of stash as you, but I have a system of sorts. I cannot remember if I discussed it on my blog. I know I wanted to, but whether I did is a different matter. Anyway, a house cleaning client I had for a long time gave me a cedar chest. I have all my supplies in it. The thread, currently just good ole cotton DMC for the most part, are on bobbins and then in containers I bought meant to store them. I have them labeled. Part of the cedar chest is organized, the other part needs major help!