Once upon a time I used to be organized. Now with a 7-month old baby, a husband, a dog and 2 jobs I will admit there are some things around here that just don’t (and won’t) get done. I used to stress over it and now I just accept it. If you can relate to this… don’t be ashamed! I’m sure you do a lot more for your family than keeping everything spic-and-span.
Fortunately for me I have a mother and a younger sister who like to clean and organize. Well, maybe they don’t like it but they always help me out when they come into town. They were here this past weekend and the room in need some serious Niecy Nash loving —-> my sewing room! Are you surprised?
Anyway… I’m constantly working on so many different projects that I don’t have time to tidy up after each one or else I would never get any work done. So, with not a lot of (comfortable) storage space in my sewing room… (and by comfortable I mean I need to be able to see every piece of fabric I own and be able to access it at the drop of a dime without having to move boxes, open bins, and scavenge for it.) When I had a very small fabric stash I would just keep all my small pieces in plastic baggies and toss them all in a bin. I would sort through the baggies without having to have fabric all over the place. Then I read somewhere that storing fabric in plastic baggies isn’t recommended because if there is any moisture in there it will mold and rot (ew, gross.)
My genius mother came up with a fabulous idea and here it is! We sorted all my fabrics by color and then tied them up in cute bundles and store them in a big plastic bin. Now whenever I need fabric I simply grab the bundle with the color I need! You could use this idea and sort by whatever you want, floral prints, retro fabrics, etc. This idea definitely helped me stay better organized and it takes up a lot less space than putting each piece of fabric on shelves.
How do you store your fabric? I’m curious.
Anonymous
I had the same issue.. Only I had a big stash. Not Enormous but boardering on huge.
Like you, I need to see my fabric, especially whtn I am trying to match colors and styles. I found using three tall bookshelves all put together along one wall in my sewing room with 1-2 shelves devoted to each color was a life saver. [Should have bolted them to the wall while they were empty, but that is my error..I don’t have little ones anymore] I have sorted by the ROY G BIV (Red, Burg., Pink, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, dark Indigo, Violet, White, Creme and Black) Beads, and Ribbons too
It really helped me to sort all of the items that I had by color. Wrap the fabric around cardboards (approx 9 inches square) and pop them in plastic ziplocks. They stand beautifully on the shelves (especially since I used non-slip shelf liner and baggies from the dollar store and discarded cardboard from costco. I put a basket on each shelf for the smaller items I had such as bits less than fat quarters, ribbon, and beads. Looks beautiful. Not finished yet, but so much more organized than I was. ALso made a shelf with a ‘holiday’ per month category. Two short baskets, divided smaller holiday fabrics into Jan-June, and July – December.
Also found that having one overall color theme- such as ‘White’ (as in all of the book cases, my main working desk, the walls, doors and racks) or black (one small book shelf and one ‘twirly’ thing for storage but also differientiates the sewing and creating areas – as well as use of canning Jars and jars that stack are mighty helpful. Simple needs such as thread look so pretty displayed in an old clear Vase or pins stuck in a big styrofoam ball covered with fabric to look like a ring or jewel. Paint the back of items that will be showing white to help bounce light in a room. I really do love my sewing room now. It is the room in our house I want to hang in most. 🙂 Good Luck.