I spent Saturday cleaning up my work space because it had become some cluttered I didn’t have a clear work surface. When I was finished, I realized my fabric stash needed a clean out as well. At the moment, there’s more coming in than going out – thus the stash overload! I needed to take stock, re-organize, & let some things go {gulp}. So, I’m sharing the process with y’all today! Lots of fabric {and yarn} candy to see. : D
The Chaos
The first clue that your stash may be overloaded is when your work space is too full of fabric to even sew!
There’s also a stash of fabric {and yarn} under my drafting table. If you watched my latest podcast, I was having trouble getting my feet situated. This would be why!
There’s also this bin in my son’s old room full of my thrifted fabrics.
And of course, there’s the fabric shelf, which is mostly full up…
Can you see the problem? I already spent a day last week trying to tame my yarn stash. Most of it “fit” here…
But there’s another stash here…
And another one in the box on top, the one with the lid popping off!
The box on the bottom is full of leftovers from the baby clothes quilt I made. The smaller box in front is full of paper scraps from misprints, paper piecing, & templates. It’s everything that come out of the magic box I posted on Instagram.
The jeans on top of the box are more of my husband’s that need fixing – joy! : |
Reining in the Chaos
To really go through my stash properly, I needed to first clear off what I was going to work on from my work table. I was going to sew these together, but my stash is in the way!
Once the table was cleared, I started pulling stacks from the top of my fabric shelf to sort things. These are my fat quarter & fat quarter-ish stacks from my 2nd shelf.
I did manage to filter out just a little from my top shelf along with a crochet project that I will never finish.
There’s also a small stack from my second shelf sorting…
So, not much quilting fabric I’m will to part with at this time! I moved on to the lower 4 shelves. They hold my apparel, interior, & utility fabrics. On my first look, I pulled out a few I knew I could part with immediately.
The juvenile knits are mostly leftover from sewing I did for some littles in the family. Since I don’t see much of that in my future, they can go. That green knit came from a Girl Charlee Knit Fix Bag & I just don’t think it’s my color.
Next I had to start pulling things off the shelve, slot by slot, to finish sorting. My “to go” pile grew a little after sorting my linings & satin. The “to go” pile is on the right & the “keep” pile is on the left.
The satin is leftover from costume & prom dress sewing & I really have no use for it now. Onto the rayon & such & the pile grows a little more!
This sorting helped me locate some fabrics that needed a label still. I just use index cards cut into strips for labels. The size, type of fabric, & sometimes place of purchase are noted on each. The “+” means there’s some cut portions beyond the size indicated.
Finally Finished
I finally made it through the whole fabric shelf & my “to go” pile grew a little more! I’m thinking about having a de-stash sale for all of this.
Of course that’s a small bit compared to what’s left on the fabric shelf. There are two empty slots though!
My final task was to sort through the new fabric on my sewing table & under the drafting table. Amazingly enough, I got it to all fit!
The only thing I didn’t get to fit on here is the bin of thrifted fabric, but at least I can sew now!
The next thing I want to do is match my pattern stash to my fabric {and yarn} stash. Plus, I’m putting myself on a fabric & yarn diet at least until the Black Friday sales hit. We’ll see how that goes! ; )
By the way, would anyone be interested in a fabric de-stash if I had one? This is mostly apparel & interior fabrics, but there’s a tiny bit of quilting fabric. Let me know in the comments!
