Organizing Fabric


I've been making some progress on my goals from last week, although I did get side tracked on things like cleaning Benjamin's room. 


(My husband keeps telling me it's normal that his room should be that messy--like dirty clothes under the carpet messy--but I couldn't get in there to put the laundry away on Saturday and I couldn't take it anymore. And, he couldn't put his own clothes away because his drawers were so messy they were quite literally about to break off the rails. As I was cleaning, I had a flash-forward of him being 15 and me finding pot and condoms in his room instead of broken nerf bullets, dried out markers and lego pieces. I don't think five years will improve his cleaning skills but it's likely to change other things. Yikes.) (Update: Monday p.m. I'm cleaning out B's end of the year backpack and I find the stuff photographed above. What is it? An entire pencil bag devoted to colored pencil shavings.)

Although I really need to start the syllabus and website for summer school (boo!), I've progressed far enough in the rest of my cleaning and sorting that I need to figure out what to do with all of this fabric I've been buying. I've got it in piles and boxes and dresser drawers and plastic storage bins right now. And none of it is washed. So, the plan is to sort and cut it, then wash, dry, label and organize. How is the question.

Here are some possibilities I've seen online. 


I like what Urban Grace did with the tags. Of course, they were only organizing swatches. (I need an Allison too.)

I love these labels for rolled fabric from Just Something I Made. When Kevin and I used to quilt we did something similar. Labeling the size of each piece is not that important to me--I can eye-ball it to see if I have enough. But I do like to have all of certain kinds of fabrics together. Cottons with cottons, etc.

The studio below belongs to Saldos de Concha


















I like the fabric in the glass cabinet. It's protected from dust, but still adds to the color of the room. That's nice, I think. And less messy looking than some of the other systems I've seen about as I search.

Of course, I still am dreaming of this studio I found months ago.

What have you seen?

3 comments:

  1. Hmm, I do not own so much fabric. I do really like the glass cabinet idea for the reasons you mentioned. Do you have closet space or a waredrobe? You could hang each from a hanger and organize it with those thingys that stores put between the sizes on the rack. This would make it very accessible and easy to browse through.

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  2. I have this same problem. I have clear plastic bins that slide under the bed and I have kept some in a cloth shoesorter, each section a differnt color. It is so much harder with smaller irregular piecesto make it look and stay neat. Stacked up like in a glass case keep in mind you must be cafeful pulling out pieces or they will all get jumbled.

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  3. Lisa, I can see your linear brain has a real knack for organization! Want to come help?

    Ellis Crew, you're right about the keeping it neat thing. And, when you've got the plastic bins it get's so hard because you dig through all the bins looking for one thing and then tear them apart.

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