Most of the fabric I purchase is on bolts that are 54 inches long and difficult to store. I found a cardboard blueprint storage box at Staples and now all my bolts are stored on end. They stay neat, don't fall all over the place and I can easily view the fabrics.
By Gon2oahu from Victoria, B.C.
Some people have yards of fabric. I have a room full. All colors, all types, all different yardages, tons and tons. I hate keeping them in large storage containers. I even tried putting a swatch outside the storage container to see what is inside. It still doesn't work. Any ideas?
By Marie
Try using clear trash or storage bags, and organizing the bags by fabric type, printed on a masking tape label on each bag. Then you can see what is in the bag. For example, fleece-solid colors, fleece-holiday prints, fleece- animal prints. After bagging and labeling, store alphabetically. Hope this helps.
Oooh, I have fabric stash envy:)
I used to organise mine by hanging the lengths on skirt hanger trees in a clear garment bag to make the fabric easy to see and keep the dust off.
I used a quilting pin to attach a label to each length noting the fabric content (poly-cotton, 100% cotton, etc), any care instructions, the pattern number I thought I might use that fabric for, and the size of the length (3 yds, etc).
Worked really well for me, I could simply open the closet door and browse!
I moved to the UK in 2010 and left my fabric stash with my DIL, sniffle. But I've slightly rebuilt the stash and am about to restart the stash organisation using a charity shop wardrobe.
I found a shoe rack when I was browsing the local "as is" store. It was $1.00 so I scarfed it up and have all my larger pieces on it.
I'd like to know any suggestions for storing and organizing fabrics. I have bolts and bolts of it, probably close to 100 bolts or folds of fabric. Right now it's all in huge TV boxes and 30 gallon plastic containers.
By Winnie-007
Seperate all material for instance all calico in one pile and so on. Once you got it sorted if you have closet space use the space bags for cut fabrics or hang them on hangers. There is a garment bag that is oblong and square.
I am looking for ideas to store large, heavy quantities of fabric. I read some posts and saw some really cool ideas, yet my problem is a lot larger. I have approximately 35 bins of wools and denim given to me and I would love to find a better way of storing them. The woolen are about 5 yards each.
It sounds like you have alot of fabric there. I don't have anything close to that, but i do store all my fabric in trunk, i got it at a clearance store. I know they sell them at walmart.
Is this fabric on bolts? If so, why not get a clean plastic garbage can and stand them up inside it. Maybe one with a lid would work to keep them clean.
Tips for storing and organizing fabric for crafts. Post your ideas.
I use a unused chest of drawers in my guest bedroom to store fabric. Under the bed storage boxes will work well, the ones with rollers are especially nice.
An in-expensive way, this is the way I do it, is to got to your local liquer store and get empty boxes. When storing your fabric in it, cut a swatch and tape it the outside of your box so you know what is inside. Not only do these stack real well it saves on time on trying to find the type and color of fabric if it is on the outside of the box.
If each piece of fabric is large, try doing this. Place each piece folded into a gallon or Jumbo resealable (generic Ziploc) bag. Then place all these resealable bags into the clear zippered bags that blankets come in. Using this method, you will be able to see exactly which fabric is in each zippered bag, and the fabric will not come unfolded when reaching in for only one bag.
If you're a quilter and use fat quarters cheap plastic storage drawers on wheels are handy. I have some tall thin ones with 5 drawers in each. The drawers are deep back to front and very similar dimensions to a folded fat quarter so I 'file' them upright in the drawers grouped in colours, plains, patterns and light, medium and dark tones. Larger pieces, up to 2 yards, are folded and put in the bottom drawers. This allows me to open the drawers and flip through to find a suitable piece.
Regards
Jo
I haven't tried this, but I have heard of folding fabric pieces into rectangles and handing the pieces over coat hangers, like you would hang pants. Hung this way in a closet or on a rod installed on the wall, it would be easy to see what colors you have and flip through pieces to find what you need.
Fat quarters and 1/2 yards can be folded into 1/4th's then 1/4th's again, which fit nicely into the Sterlite CD boxes on end, so you can see all the fabric in the box. For pieces up to 2 to 3 yards, rolling the fabric at 8" (per Nancy Johnson-Srebro) and folding into thirds will fit nicely into the 22 quart plastic boxes. I'm still working on the thicker cloth at 3 yards and above.
Check out this website.
You can store your fabric on a mini-bolt, just like they do in store!
http://www.thefabricorganizer.com
I recently purchased on-line these great fabric storage sheets that actually store your fabric without having to store away in bins, you can visibly see all of your fabric and its super easy!! You might want to check out Polar Notions.com for information. Im glad I did.
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I use the vacuum sealed storage bags. I recently stored two laundry baskets of fabric in one bag, and when I vacuumed the air out of them, it was only 1.5" thick. Great for stacking on the top shelf of my closet. I packed like colors together and now have no clutter in my closets
I purchased (from Ikea) wire baskets which fit into a frame, and the frame has rollers. There are several size frames. I purchased four frames which contain 4 baskets each; a frame can be attached to the top of another. So now I have 2 frames which each contain 8 baskets that roll into a closet. The Container Store has similar frames; have also seen the frames at Lowe's.
I need some suggestions for storing fabric. I have a nice sized room for storage but now it's a mess and is very overwhelming.
Janet
I use and save lots of material. I purchased from the Dollar store the sweater bags or under the bed bags for my fabric. They are clear and cheap. I can store the material anywhere and see what I have.
By Diane
The hangers made for multiple pairs of pants or skirts make it wasy to keep fabric visible and wrinklefree in your closet. Use the plastic hangers that come with skirts or slacks for lightweight yardage..
DON'T STORE FABRIC IN AIRTIGHT PLASTIC!!!! Fabric needs to breathe. Fold fabric to fit on a shelf and put a little wrapper of muslin around it, to keep dust off. To make a visual reference of what you have, cut a triangle off one corner, glue it to a 3x5 card, and note down how much you have. Also, note on the card cleaning/washing instructions, where you bought it, and ow much you paid.
I store my fabric in a bench that I use as a seat at my dedicated sewing table which is a console table. They were both unfinished pieces so when finished (if ever I get to it) they look meant to be. Projects I am working on or really want to do stay out on nice wood hangers so they look me right in the face and motivate me. Leaving your fabric out long term will fade them even in indirect light.