Just thinking about organizing my fabric was daunting. I have fabric everywhere in my craft room. I have tried organizing it before but with limited space, I had few choices so it all ended up in big plastic totes and two dressers. Every time I need something, I have to dig into the totes and everything ends up a chaotic mess. I had to find a better solution.
Years ago, I had a beautiful craft room with shelves and shelves where all my fabric was neatly organized but I moved and had to downsize. I decided to give away 35 boxes of fabric. It was painful but it went to a friend whose husband worked at a school for Native American kids and she taught a lot of them how to sew regalias for pow-wows.
My craft room, or rather my craft storage room, is a small bedroom upstairs. My crafting table and sewing machine are downstairs in the kitchen so I keep fabric in cubbies on the shelves of the table. Cubbies are smaller than plastic tubs but the fabric still gets messed up because I have to dig to find what I want. I needed something that was shallow so I could see it at a glance.
About a year ago, my sweetie bought me a bunch of clear, shallow plastic bins with lids because I had complained how heavy the big tubs were. He just went out and bought them one day. He’s amazing like that. They sat in the craft room until I started using them to carry fabric downstairs for projects. I still hadn’t organized anything though so they were a mess too.
I formed a plan. I mostly have cotton fabric but I do have some flannel and other types. I decided to start with the cotton and flannel for now.
I broke it down by size and color. There would be three sizes.
A yard and over
Under a yard
Small but big enough to use for my bookshelf quilts.
Everything else would be thrown in a scrap bin and probably forgotten because who knows when I will ever really make that scrap quilt I promise myself I’ll make one day.
These bins are light enough to carry up and down the stairs.
I thought the cardboard squares that fat quarters are wrapped around were 5 inches by 5 inches so I started cutting cardboard from the recycling bin and then I went and bought posterboard because who has that much light cardboard? Found a use for those ads that usually get tossed. I think that the fat quarter squares are actually 5 1/2 inches by 5 1/2 inches though but oh well.
I cut 120 squares and started folding fabric around them but that was not enough. I doubled that and then cut more. I have a lot more fabric than I thought I had.
I did my best trying to fold the bigger pieces. I didn’t cut cardboard for them. I did okay but not all of them ended up the same width. They look okayish but way better than they were. I ended up with three bins of the big stuff and I know I have more but I need more of the bins. I have one and a half of the smaller ones so far.
The smallest ones were folded around 3″ x 5″ posterboard and were a pain in the neck.
The above photo has flannel on the side.
It is so nice to see my fabric organized. I’m sure it will make sewing a lot easier. It was a chore to dig through it all. The colors look so nice up against each other.
Crazy Crafty Lady 