Thursday, March 20, 2014

Sewing Organization (Part 2)





Well, I'm back again...this time I didn't just take a break from blogging but I actually took a vacation to a lovely beach.The warm sunshine and salty ocean was wonderful after what continues to be a cold Canadian winter and it feels great to be refreshed. I have enjoyed catching up on all my favorite blogs and adding new patterns to my pattern stash on pinterest..

I've  hesitated to share part two of this series with you...I feel kinda embarrassed..... so bare with me just a sec while I talk to husband...
Psst...Handsome, there is nothing to see here. NOOOOOTHING. Boring old sewing stuff that you wouldn't be the least bit interested in. I'm pretty sure that you should go check out something else like this or how about this! Yes yes! Go on check out all the pretty Jeeps!

 Okay... so he is not easily fooled but maybe a little humor will ease the blow of  what he reads in this post, Part 2 of Sewing Organization.  Not that he really cares as much as I am embarrassed.

Organizing the stash. Ugh. My stash is embarrassingly big. Twenty years...or more... of doing this sewing thing as a hobby and always on the prowl for pretty fabric but not always having the time  to sew up said fabric means that the stash has grown to unmanageable proportions.  Due to a small sewing space, I tend to store my stash in totes and often forget what and how much of it I have.

I recently decided that I would take stock of the stash and sort of catalogue it. I found these index cards that came already on a ring and knew that they would be perfect for this little project. Each card has a small swatch of the fabric with any content information and how much of it I have. I love this set up!





I love that I can browse through my fabrics and not have to go digging through totes to determine if I have enough of something for a particular pattern. I also have to pay more attention to content of a fabric when I purchase it so I can record that as well. I am learning more about fabric content because of this.
The goal now is to continue to catalogue everything as it comes in and more importantly....
use what I already have!!!! I'm working on it, really I am.

How do you organize your precious fabrics?



5 comments:

  1. I'm pleased you enjoyed your holiday. Now is a good time of year to go! I'm impressed with your new system - I would love to be that organised! I have two shelves of folded fabric, one refashion pile and a scrap bag so feel the fabric situation is under control. My patterns (which are kept in small drawers) drive me crazy though. Even though I should be able to look through them easily enough, I can never find the one I want!

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    1. Thanks Philippa! But now I have to keep up the system...but it will be worth it.

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  2. Woo that's a nice system! I've tried to do the cut out a swatch thing but failed miserably. Right now I'm just recording yardage in an excel spreadsheet.

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  3. I love this idea! Luckily I don't have that much stash - although I have lots of leftovers which drive me nuts.

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    \outl0\strokewidth0 \strokec2 Wow I'm so impressed by your organisation Margo! I don't have much of a stash but I could really do with keeping a note of the type of fabric it is as I don't have a clue about most of what I have!

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