Organizing the Maker Stashes ~ Apparel Fabrics

This past Monday I issued the challenge for June in my 2019 Maker Finish-Along. It’s a challenge to organize the maker stashes & I have many of those! I’d promised to do a blog post about how I organize my stashes. It didn’t take long for me to realize that this needed to be a series of posts! Today I’m talking mostly about apparel fabrics, but there is look into my quilting fabrics as well. I will go into more detail about the quilting fabrics in my next post on Monday. I’m not sure how many post will be in this series, but it will continue on through this month until I’ve covered all my stashes, haha! : )

Current Fabric Storage

If you’ve been around for awhile you’ve probably seen my fabric shelf…

It contains a majority of my fabric stash from apparel to home decor to quilting fabrics. I found it while out thrifting one day & you can read about it’s makeover in this post. That’s from my first year of blogging, so things may look a little different! Anyway, back to the fabric storage situation! Here’s another shelf in my maker space that holds quilts in progress, quilt scraps, bag making supplies, & some overflow from the other shelf.

I also have a bin of fabric in the other room, which I’m hoping will fit in after I reorganize. That didn’t work out with the yarn, but I can always dream! : D

I started at the top of the main fabric shelf & emptied a large container of super scraps into two nicer looking jars. That pile in the front didn’t fit & I put it in a gallon baggie. This is a signal to me that it’s time to use it or lose it!

Instead of starting on the top two shelves, which are quilting fabrics, I moved right into the apparel fabrics. That was mostly because there was a stack of them on the top of the shelf! Now sometime last year I went through all my apparel fabrics, measured them, & labeled them like so…

I’ve realized this simply isn’t working for me! The labels get smooshed & the pin likes to poke me in the finger. No one wants to bleed on their fabric! Something that also wasn’t working for me was the way I had them folded. They hang off the front of the shelf & I don’t like that.

I ordered 2 packs of comic book boards from Connecting Threads to help out with my organizing. I’ve seen many quilters use these to organize their stash & I thought they may be useful for my other fabric as well. I started off folding my knits like this…

I’m also cutting a little sample & stapling it to an index card with useful info. Something that was causing me issues was how to get the fabric to stay in place. I tried pins {ouch!} & then binder clips…

Both of these things caused issues when putting things back on my shelf. They got hung up on the other fabric & the binder clips just added extra bulk. I also realized the boards don’t work well for yardage when it comes to apparel fabrics. Especially slinky knits!

I did find a solution for holding fabric on the boards – painter’s tape! That also gives you a glimpse of how I’ll be storing my quilting cotton yardage, but more on that in next week’s post. : )

Something that became very apparent to me was that I needed a slightly different solution for different types of fabrics.

Folding Apparel Fabrics

One of my issues with storing fabric was that it was hanging off the front of the shelf. The main shelf I use has partitions because it was an old library book shelf. I measured the partitions to get a better idea of how I needed to fold my fabric if I wanted it to fit. Something I should have done a long time ago!

Most apparel fabrics, especially knits, are between 52″ to 62″ +/- wide. This is how I folded 1 yard & larger cuts to fit on my shelf. Fabric usually comes folded in half with selvages touching, but I had a few that I had to refold this way. Then I folded each piece in 3rds…

It’s best to do this on a large table & be aware of how fabric is folding if it hangs off the table.

I used a ruler that’s 6 1/2″ wide as a guide for folding the fabric. For the knits I folded over one end a bit then started rolling it up.

I did leave the ruler in until the end to help keep things straight. Then I just pulled it right out!

That’s all that was really needed for my larger yardages of apparel fabrics. I didn’t tape or secure the back because they will be stacked on top of each other. For my half yard cuts & large scraps I did use the boards.

I folded the half yard cuts in half lengthwise & tucked a board between the fabric on one end.

After rolling it up, I secured the end with painters tape & noted the size & place bought at the top of the board.

This did make it bulkier at one end, so it may be better to not tuck in the board. I’m not redoing it now though, haha! My half yard cuts & large scraps won’t have a sample card because there’s only so much of them. That’s why I put the info on the board.

Labeling & Cataloging

Some of my larger, bulkier scraps & smaller knit scraps didn’t work on the boards. I folded them to fit on the shelf & used a Sharpie & more painter’s tape to label those. The “plus” means there’s more fabric beyond the measurement but it’s a different size. I usually just measure the biggest portion of the scraps.

I had intended the index cards to go into my binder like the picture below. This binder was going to be for logging my projects & fabric stash, but I think it’s just going to be for the fabric now. It’s a Happy Planner I got on clearance because it was almost out of date. Since I don’t need the calendar pages, it’s perfect for storing fabric samples!

Those stickers come off of fabrics I order from Fabric Mart & they have some useful info on them. I think I’m going to just use the dividers for different sections of fabric. The index cards were working at first, but I think it will be easier to just put the samples right on the page with the info I need to know. Another thing that index cards are good for is labeling bins of supplies…

This bin is divided with stacks of boxes & drawer dividers & that’s why I have different “tiers”. You can use a label like this for any bin you might need to store fabric in, even the clear ones. It’s easier to know what’s in them at a glance!

This post is really the beginning of my maker stash organizing & I’m still right in the middle of it! There are stacks of fabric everywhere right now. On my sewing table…

And under my drafting table…

Sometimes you have to make a bigger mess before you get everything straightened out! I do have two shelves emptied out…

Of course there’s four more on this shelf!

My dog is perplexed because she keeps trying to lay in front of the shelf to take a nap. That puts her square in my way & I keep poking her to move! : D

So, a little recap:

• Cut a little snippet of apparel & home decor yardages to start a fabric log. I will be doing something different for my quilting fabrics, which I’ll explain in Monday’s post.
• An out of date planner can be recycled into logs for most maker stashes.
• Index cards are also useful for fabric logs & labeling bins.
• Fold fabric to fit your storage! No matter what you’re using for storage, folding the fabric to the same/similar sizes will make it easier to manage.

I hope you found some useful information in this post to get started organizing your maker stashes. Just remember that it may take some time if your stash is larger – like mine! Do what you can when you can so you don’t get overwhelmed. Having a system in place will make it so much easier when you get ready to start a new project. Hope y’all have a wonderful weekend & I’ll be back with the next installment on Monday!