Fabric Organizing

Fabric Organizing - Andrie Designs

Hi all! Being the fabric hoarder that I am, I thought I would share with you some tips that Lisa and I use for storing and organizing fabrics! We hope these tips will help you get your stash of pretties under control!

Up first, I’m going to share with you how I store my most prized and most used collections: Tula Pink and my Quilt Market scraps of fabrics! It’s no secret that I am a serious lover of Tula Pink fabrics AND of colour, so I like to store mine where I can see it and use it first before any other fabrics! I have one basket that is all small pieces and scraps that are my go to when it comes to paper piecing and clutch straps. The other basket has all my half metre cuts of Tula Pink plus the last of my Alison Glass and Sarah Golden prints.

My favourite collection of Tula Pink - Andrie Designs
That bonus small basket is my husbands stash of bow tie fabrics which is a story for another day 😉

One of the BEST ways to store your fabrics is by colour. It makes finding the perfect fabric in a pinch really quick PLUS it looks so pretty seeing it in rainbow order! Lisa shared some additional photos of her stash a few years ago in her post My Fabric Stash in case you want to see more pictures!

two pretty poppets - My Fabric Stash

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When it comes to storing your vinyls and cork materials, it’s best to keep them rolled. In some cases you can press out wrinkles but why worry about that and just roll them instead! I have this vintage magazine stand that I store all my large pieces of vinyl and cork in. It’s not pretty but it keeps them safe and tucked away!

Bonus: Try to store your vinyl, cork and even leather away from your heat vents and direct sunlight. It will dry out the materials and lead to cracking!

Organizing vinyl and cork - Andrie Designs

I have a large collection of upholstery leather that I was given, that would have otherwise been thrown out, and these pieces are massive! While storing leather in a roll is also recommended, this was not possible with these pieces! Instead, I snagged some empty cardboard bolts and rolled the leather onto them. They are safety tucked away from the heat and sun, underneath my table. It may take me an eternity to get through this stash though 😉

Organizing Leather and scraps - Andrie Designs
Note that large blue basket is just FILLED with leather scraps!

Last tip to share is to keep all your vinyl and cork scraps stored safely away. Unlike fabric, you can leave all those edges raw so you never know when you might need a little piece! I love how Lisa has her scraps stored safely in a drawer!

two pretty poppets - My Fabric Stash

Do you have a favourite way to store fabrics or are you like me and like to have some on display? Let us know your fabric organizing secrets so we can organize our stash even more!

In the next organization post, will share with you the best ways to store your interfacing! If you are looking for ways to store your notions and hardware, check out Lisa’s My Storage post for tips!

<3 Aimee and Lisa

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7 thoughts on “Fabric Organizing

  1. Kathleen Ellison says:

    Hi, I’ve been told I am a bit obsessive about how I store my fabric stash which is stored in a variety of ways. I store all pieces over 1 metre on rolled on mini bolts on shelves inside a re invented entertainment unit or on shelves in an old single pantry now being re used for additional stash storage. This unit has a large and a small set of drawers underneath the cabinets so I decided to store my fat quarters in those drawers. These bolts are grouped by colour for the most part though there is a section that is grouped by novelty/design. The fat quarters are folded onto mini pieces of 5 1/2″ X 2 1/2″ pieces and also sorted into colour groups. Unfortunately (or fortunately) who knows? I have too many fat quarters for my drawers so the remainder along with new pieces are now being sorted and stored into large cardboard shoe sized boxes which have been labelled on the outside so I know what is in them. I have various other shaped storage boxes which I use to store my cut pieces of fabric scraps also labelled by size. Stabilizers and fusibles are rolled on cardboard cylinders and labelled they stand up in the corner of the room while others (smaller rolls) are kept in the bottom of another cabinet. Well that is how I manage my stash. though to be honest no matter how many times I tell myself I wont be buying anymore till I have used what I have, more still seems to find its way into my sewing room. Where I am going to keep it at this rate is a good question? Thanks for the ideas.

      • kathy.firefly says:

        Thanks Lisa, I was just re reading the blog post in review and having been re organising my sewing room and re evaluating my stash I have become a little anxious about it all. Looking at the stash pics I now think maybe I am a little bit too obsessive about it all. Now what am I going to do with my birthday gift of 20 Fat Quarters? 🙂

  2. Geraldine Penny says:

    Hearing about fabric stashes reminds me that there are those of us who stash because we hate to actually cut into the lovely fabric. I guess we are on the dreamer side of sewing!!!

  3. Kathleen O'Flaherty says:

    The “ vintage magazine rack” you mention I believe is a sewing caddy
    Mom Kept her hand sewing,mending, and knitting in one . Still to be found in Thrift Stores.

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