Organizing Fabric
So I’ve been thinking of organizing fabric (tons of it) for awhile, but it’s just been one of those things I keep putting off! All of my fabric has been smashed in these bins, and I couldn’t find anything I needed. Can anyone relate? I searched and searched for the perfect solution. I found some great ideas (see below) but one of my face book fans recommended using comic books. GENIOUS. They look like mini fabric bolts at the fabric store. It feels so much more organized and I can actually find what I’m looking for. lol 🙂
Organizing fabric stash…
To get started I bought these ultrapro regular size comic boards.
Then I folded my fabric and began wrapping it around the board. When I reached the end I put 2 pins in to hold the fabric in place. That’s all. It was super easy and made ALL the difference!
Don’t they look so pretty? Organizing makes me happy! 🙂 P.S. I just noticed my boxes on top are TOTALLY off center. lol!
Here is where I got my inspiration.. and some other great ways to organize your fabric!
I LOVE this room from whip stitch!
She organized all her color and fabrics and stored them in bins.
Rolled and labeled fabric ..so fun in this old trunk!
SoO.. How do you organize your fabric?! I’m LOVING mine on the mini bolts. SO much easier to see what I have!
Looks great Jamielyn! If only you could come do mine 🙂
What great ideas. Love it. Makes me want to get back into sewing.
Wow! I love it! Right now mine is in the mushed-all-together stage. I have to clean out my craft room to make room for something….better ;). I’m on the lookout for great organizing ideas so thanks for the post!
Goodness, I SO need to do this with my fabric!! As of right now, all of my fabric is just folded (neatly, at least!) up and stacked into JoAnn’s reusable shopping bags. This looks so much better than my method! 😉 Ha! Thanks for sharing!
Wow I love it! I need to get mine out of our storage room and do the same!
wooooow! I am loving this!! right now, you would absolutely die if you saw what I do with my fabric. They are all in plastic grocery bags :/ I know, seriously no bueno!
Thank you for the inspiration! I will definitely see if I can do something like this!
Oh WOW! That look so nice. My fabric is mostly piled in bins and I hate having to dig through it! Thanks for the great ideas!!
Sign me up for this idea! I so need to organize my fabric like this!
I love it when organization turns out to be so pretty too! Makes me wish I had a fabic collection just so I could organize it.
I love it when organizing turns out to be pretty too.
I really really really need to do this!! (or have someone do it for me?? lol!) I have multiple totes of fabric and I dig and dig and never seem to find what I’m looking for! I like the rolled up idea too!
Cute! I used cardboard for a cheaper alternative 🙂
What a great and cheap idea to store fabric! My collection isn’t quite as big as yours but I would LOVE to see what I have organized! Thanks for the great idea…pinning it right now! =)
LOVE this! I just pinned it!
Being new to the sewing game, all of my scraps still fit in one reusable shopping bag – but I already hate finding them that way. I’m very inspired to do what you’ve done here, thanks for the link to Amazon to buy the comic book boards.
– Jess @ OlyMomma
ugh, I have the same plastic, 3-drawer bin…HATE it…it’s overflowing. I have to figure out where I can do this awesome, inexpensive style of fabric organization!! THANKS!
OH MAN! My husband is a major comic nerd… so much so that he had to take his beloved comics out of their protective sleeves and ditch the boards since he wasn’t sure that they were all acid free and they were taking up precious space….. and I let him throw them away! I knew there was a reason I thought about hoarding them before deciding to say nothing and let him toss them! I’m *just* starting to learn to sew and only have about the size of a shoe box full of tiny scraps and a pair of jeans that are meant to practice on. I’m hoping to turn an old microwave cart into my sewing table and use the shelves underneath to put baskets with fabric and bags of fiber fill, etc. in. I keep all my threads and needles in old cleaned out cookie tins that are difficult to open and they are kept on the upper shelves of my crafting hutch to keep them out of reach of tiny hands. A friend passed on her embroidery thread to me and she kept it all in a cute purple tackle box. None of my sewing friends or family were very creative when it comes to fabric organization though. I’m very thankful for your sharing of all these great ideas! They definitely are influencing my creativity!
Great, great idea! Mine are all stashed in ziplock bags and those same silly plastic drawers! Thanks so much for the inspiration!
Jo-Anna
Ummmm….so my fabric is basically exactly where your fabric used to be. And I thought that I was getting organized when I did that. Ha! That was way back then. I definitely need to some re-organizing…unfortunately it’s low on the priority list right now….but I wish it wasn’t. Guess I gotta blaze through that list!!
LOVE IT! I really don’t have that much fabric yet but I do see it happening in the future! Thanks for sharing such a great way to organize it…this is why I love your blog!!!
I actually do something similar but it’s COMPLETELY FREE!! Fabric Bolt’s… from the fabric stores mine is usually JoAnn’s and they just recycle the bolts after they are empty. Once you unfold it you get 4 mini bolts of cardboard. I cut them out and then from one cardboard bolt I get 4 minis and then I just wrap them all up like you did and I have my fabric stash all pretty!
oh that’s an awesome idea!! i never though of that. thanks for sharing! i’ll have to pick some up next time i’m there.
GREAT ideas! I am always looking for more ways to organize my craft areas – these are such cute, but easy to access ways of organizing! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thanks so much for stopping by!! Your so sweet!! Can’t wait to get to know you better. xo!
J – you’re going to love this one: check out this blog post to see what you can do with tubes….
oh that’s awesome!! great idea!
Wow – that’s crazy cool! I just have bags and piles. Everywhere. I have no organization and it’s so completely overwhelming, because not only do I not know what I have, but also half of it is on the floor so I can’t move my chair much (I only have about a 5’x7′ space for my sewing/crafting). Oh, and most of my fabrics are FQ’s or smaller. How do you organize STRIPS and FQs? Ugh.
lol! I was the same way!! It’s so nice to have it all organized. All my scraps I keep in little bins coordinated by color.
This is such a good idea! All of my fabric is shoved in a container and I can’t even see what I have. I need to do this! Thanks for sharing!
I love this idea. It looks fabulous!! Love that inspiration room from whip stitch. I want one just like it. The colors are gorgeous.
Ruth
How cool is all that? I only have a little fabric as I’m not really a sewer, but you can come organize my yarn anytime!
This is a great idea (one that I’ve used and totally LOVED), but I want to make sure you are giving credit to the person who wrote about it last year. Maggie from Smashed Peas and Carrots.
Here is the post: http://smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com/2010/11/mini-fabric-bolts-and-some-studio.html
I’m sure you didn’t know about it because I know you would have credited her properly. So I just thought I’d let you know.
And you stash looks awesome btw 🙂
Love this idea! My fabric storage looks exactly like yours did with stuffed drawers. My wheels are turning now…thank you for the ideas and inspiration!
Would love for you to stop by and say hello {http://sweetsewnstitches.blogspot.com/}
I have been doing that for years – it made all the difference in the world between knowing what I have on hand and having to spend 30 minutes sorting through bins only to get frustrated and go buy more fabric. Good job!!
Great inspiration, Jaimelyn! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for commenting. Hope you have a great weekend! xo
I’d love to know where you found the hanging shelves in this photo?
http://www.iheartnaptime.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image14.png
Hey! That actually isn’t my shelf.. I love it too though! There should be a link under that photo to their blog.
great ideas!
This likes a work of art. Great idea.
Thanks.
Tanya
Should say looks like a work of art. Sorry.
Great photos. I’m in the midst of organizing my laundry/sewing/craft room and really needed the inspiration!
Love your fabric organizing ideas!
I used to just stack all of my fabric folded on shelves. I’ve just started folding on boards to stand on the sheves like books. It looks neat and seems to take up less room too.
I rarely buy fat quarters unless they are for children’s I spy quilts.
I buy at least a metre/ yard, but usually 2 or 3 metres/yards and if I was to put those onto a board for each fabric I’d never get all my fabric into my work room cupboards.
So after washing and ironing a fabric I fold it lengthwise (as it was on the bolt) and then lengthwise again. Then depending how deep the shelves are for the cupboard that a particular colour goes into, I fold it into 3 or four folds.
I have an enormous stash having been a quilter for about 35 years and a fabric lover since childhood.
At 75 I will never use it all but it still amazes me that I often don’t have the exact shade I’m looking for or I have the colour but it’s either too small or too big a print. A reason for having to buy more.
I forgot to say that I stack my fabric flat, not on edge, I get more in that way.
Marie
I use the Comic Board method for my yardage. Everything else is neatly folded and stacked on my shelves.
Wow, I am so happy to have discovered this page! I’m in the process of attempting to declutter, and organize my home. I’ve found that when things get in too much of a disarray, I slack off on crafting, which in turn leads to a sense of frustration and lack of fulfillment. I’ve not sewn in a couple of years or more. I get so frustrated trying to figure out how to organize my fabric. Right now, it’s all stuffed in plastic tubs, but I have to dig through them all to see what I have. I feel like you’re an answer to prayer! I’m ordering the comic boards tonight. Thank you, again!
I live in a very humid climate. Is there any chance of the pins rusting and staining the fabric, or should I find an alternate method of securing the fabric to the boards?
Stainless steel pins shouldn’t rust, but if you’re concerned I would use binding clips (but then the fabric organization won’t be as flat).
Thank you so much for your response. Finding this older blog post of yours on Pinterest has proved to make such an improvement to my crafting area. I got my comic boards in, and spent much of yesterday wrapping my fabric on them. It makes me happy to see all my neatly folded boards of fabric, instead of the mess it was. 🙂
I would love to know where you found the two double cubes that look just the right size for the comic-book fabric wrapping (in the picture with the “off-center” bins on top! They look to be just the right 7″ or so depth for the job!! Thx.
Hi Karen! I belive I got them at Michaels! 🙂
I am working on my reorganizing with comic boards and filing in filing cabinet. I also have some fabrics organized using the fabric organizers ordered online. I have used hanging file folders in filing bins too. Still working on it all a little at a time. Fabric, fabric everywhere, buy more if I dare.
Good luck!! 🙂
I don’t have any organized plans yet! I’m on Pinterest looking for something.