Tips for storing and organizing fabric for crafts. Post your ideas.
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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
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