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.
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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. Smaller ones I put in zip lock or clear veggie bags so I can see what I need.
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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.
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.
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.
1) I use Metal Grid Cubes... I bought some of mine at Costco & some at the thrift store. These Grid-Cubes can be configured to any shape & size you need... You can even put them together to go up & over a desk (against the wall), but I just stack them on top of a long table or set them on the ground (like shelves) or hang them on the wall... Now, IF I need a "drawer" I use square plastic dish-pans I buy at the dollar store... These Dish Pans just slide in & out of the 13x13" grids like a drawer would so you can store your sewing, crafting supplies & patterns in the dish-pan "drawers"...
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2) OR, you can hang coated wire or wood shelves covered with contact paper onto your walls & stack folded fabric on these shelves. This works great of you have No floor space... but have a bit of wall space... Use a piece of fabric (as a curtain) that's the same color as your wall to hang in front of this shelf & it'll just blend in to your wall & you'll hardly see it!
3) I have A TON of fabric so I also use clear rectangular plastic bins stacked on end (usually without the lids on).. I fold the fabric into thin pieces so I can see each piece & pattern then stack them into the bins as they are up on their side... (the long way, kind of like a chest of drawers) When I'm finished, I can put the lids on if I want & stack them... (You just have to use care when using plastic bins & air them out once in a while & NEVER put pricey fabric in plastic!)
---> To help me find my fabric, I arrange my fabrics like this: In one bin: Black & Navy fabrics... in the Second: White & Light Color Summer Cottons... 3rd: Kids fabrics & colorful Cotton Prints, & lastly all Stretch Knits & Ribbing... SO in only 4 bins, I can get most of my fabric, & even find it later!
* Grids also work great to store your yarn! Unless it's wool... THEN, store it in a sealed Plastic Bin or other sealed container with a baggie with either cedar oil, eucalyptus or tea tree oil on a paper towel in the ziplock baggie... This way, the moths will stay away!
Here's a picture of the "GRIDS" I'm talking about:
www.nextag.com/
I am storing some costumes and some fabric in a small store. We don't have a lot of room in our store to hang things, so ideally I want to use one of the shelves for costumes and fabric.
Can anyone help? If I store the fabric in plastic containers with holes in, will the fabric keep? Thanks for reading
Louise
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. If thats not big enough you may want to try a plastic storage cabinet meant for outside. many of them can be disguised as furniture. good luck
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.
Another thought.....if your fabric is just flat pieces perhaps you could put onto bolts. Wal-Marts craft dept usually has some empty bolts in the trash can or ask if they have any....they might even save for you as they use up fabric. They are just cardboard type things but your fabric could be wrapped around them and then those could be stacked on shelves or in a closet ....or stood up inside some sort of a barrel type container.
Hope that helps,
Debbie52
I use apple boxes and clear plastic tubs with lids. I am so jealous of your fabric! What a wonderful windfall!
Place the fabric in hefty bags, use a vacuum to remove ALL of the air - these re home-made shrinking bags. You can find exact instructions on how to do this with a Thriftyfun search.
You lucky duck! I'd go through them all to make sure they're clean and in good condition (no offense to the donor), then make a master list of everything, and on each bin put a list of its contents with a small scrap of each fabric, all in a zip-lock envelope. I have bins of fabric too (about a dozen), and I wish I'd done this right when I bought each piece. I also wish I'd done this as I bought yarn.
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'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. Use that to cover the hangers with the cut fabric. Then store the bolts in that as well. Keeps bugs, dust off your materials! Hang it all in the closet.
Oh wow, I have definite fabric stash envy! And a lot of empathy for your storage predicament. Have you considered trouser hangers for the off-bolt stuff, and maybe several of those cascading hangers to keep types together?
Considering the amount of space the boxes must take up, I'm wondering if wardrobes (armoire) wouldn't be a good way to organize, too-the bolts could be stored upright inside a wardrobe right along with the loose fabric you've organized on hangers, and it would probably take up much less room than the boxes. Depending on how big your stash is you could have a wardrobe for each type of fabric you have.
You could hit the yard sales and thrift shops for a wardrobe, or you can buy fabric/vinyl ones at big-box stores. A wood wardrobe here in the UK can be found for as small an amount as £5 in the charity shops (lol, just found one last week, and it turned out to be a 1930s Art Deco), the last time I was in the States I saw a really lovely one at a yard sale for $10.
I am using my £5 wardrobe for my clothes, but I think I'll go looking for another to use for my fabric stash-I think I'd feel very chic with my fabric stash peeping out from an open wardrobe:)
