Storage Solution for Organizing my Stash

I’ve spent the last 5 days or so organizing my stash. I had had it with the overflowing, unruly stash taking over my sewing space (and many other areas of our house). I’m not a neat-freak, but feel creating is more fun when the space is tidy, and the only materials set out are the ones I plan to use. [plus I sensed a mutiny from the fabric-haters-club brewing, saying something about why do we have this fabric in the living room? and they did not act amused when I used their own words “haters are gonna hate” back at them] So…I need to make the fabric fit or give it the boot.
[I have a trunk full of fabric being kicked out] And sorry if I disappoint, but the before shots were too embarrassing to share. Sorry.

As with most everything, there is always more than one way of doing things. In fact, I believe there are many ways of doing most things. Do what works for you, I say. I asked the brilliant ladies over at SewingMamas.com how they do tame their stash for some ideas, as well as on my facebook page. And indeed I learned of many different ways that work for others. Here is what I ended up doing. [though it may only be interesting to me–I’m sharing anyway]

I sorted by type first. {warning: these bins are ugly and not inspiring] So I have a huge container full of denim and corduroy. Swimsuit fabric gets its own, home deco and window treatment share, one for patterns that I can’t seem to part with and don’t plan to use anytime soon, and the knit scraps has the largest container of them all. These will all fit in the loft of our outbuilding / kid’s playhouse, which will someday become a sewing studio for me.

I then separated the quilting cottons  by color, pulling any scraps along the way and making one for solids. It wasn’t all going to fit, so I started ironing it all.  Yes, ironing. I have done more ironing in the past few days then in my whole life combined. I don’t like ironing. At all. I remember someone telling me that when she buys new fabric, she always washes and irons it right away. I thought she was nuts, but now I see her wisdom. It’s really an enabling activity.

The way I looked at it was if I was willing to iron it, then it was worth keeping. I soon started seeing a clear distinction between the worthy and undeserving.  It’s amazing how much more I could fit into the clear storage bins when they are ironed.  Look at how much I got to fit, plus it looks so pretty – all neat and pressed.

Oh, and evidently, I like dots. A lot. All kinds of dots. My dots collection deserved their own container, which, as you can see, is full. Even I found it hilarious how I easily tossed a scrap of any other color, but if it’s a dotty kind of fabric, then no scrap was too small.

I also  gave each color its own scrap mini bin, instead of one huge scrap bin. And yes, after trimming each piece to a more manageable shape, I ironed each scrap to make it worthy of keeping.

Over at Sewingmamas, many ladies shared that they like to roll their fabric. I thought I’d give this method a try. To keep it rolled, I tried doing paper, like the fabric stores do.

But quickly gave that up. Looking on the floor [which was a complete disaster through this ordeal], I had all these scraps of knit fabric on the floor from trimming my knit scraps:

I used them to tie the rolled knits, to keep them nice and compact, so I could keep more [remember I said if it doesn’t fit, it had to leave home].  These work really well in keeping the rolls tight and as small as they can be. I also did this to my french terry and sweatshirt fleece.

I tied them into bows, not to be cute [though I love cute things], but to be able to tie and untie them at will. Then I put the fabric rolls into bins: solids, prints, and stripes/dots.

And put the left over strips of knits into a jar. I like putting things into fun shaped jars. Not sure why.

For pattern magazines and special patterns, they go here:

I have bins for other patterns that are smaller, like Kwik Sew. They love on top of the cabinet. When I trace a pattern, the tracing gets folded and placed in a manilla envelope. Another great tip from SewingMamas.com .

I also have a special bin just for collections. I don’t have too many. I do have my treasured Dear Stella fabric, which is going to someday become my quilt, my king sized quilt. It’s still in the dreaming stage and sits awaiting its destiny. I don’t have quite enough, but plan to keep adding to it. The main fabric is from the Heirloom collection.

I’m done for now. I still have to find a nice bookcase to hold the knits that live inside. On the very bottom, you see some of my dolls in their boxes, resting comfortable and undisturbed.

It was interesting to me to see what colors I buy the most (and least) of. My old method grouped many colors together, so I was completely unaware that I buy mostly blues and pinks. Oh and dots. I’ve always been good about keeping notions organized, like items in clear bins and shelved. I think I need to now be in the habit of putting fabric folded and back in its place.

What storage methods work for you? Do you have any tips to share? Please share in the comments. I love having more ways to choose from 🙂