How do you store your fabric?

A recent thought came to be concerning fabric storage. How do you store your fabric stash? Everyone has different ways to store their fabric, based on their individual circumstances.

The way I store my fabric is based on what type of sewing space I had over the years. When we lived in base housing on Camp Pendleton years ago, I only had a small table stuffed in the corner of our bedroom dedicated to sewing. So I used those plastic tubs you can get at Target to store fabric under the bed. It wasn’t really efficient, as you had to dig through the tubs when you needed something. But for the time being, it worked. When we bought our first house in Temecula, I did have a little more room, but still no dedicated sewing space. I would set up a table in the bedroom or use the dining room table if necessary.

Now I find that I have an entire bedroom upstairs to dedicate to my sewing. Yay! (Although I do have to share a closet with my husband’s military uniforms!) I have space for both my quilting fabric and my fashion fabric. So I thought I would share some of my ideas for storing that fabric stash!!

1:             Separate the fabric for quilting and the fashion fabric (also called dressmaking fabric). It is easier for me to keep them separate as they are used for such different projects.

2:             Prewash. Whenever I bring new fabric into the house, I always prewash it before I store it. If it is machine washable, it gets washed and dried and then folded and put away. Always. This way I never have an issue wondering if I have pre washed and shrunk a fabric.

3:            I always run an iron over the fabric to get the worst of the wrinkles out and then fold the fabric and put it away in the drawers.

4:            If for some reason I can’t prewash that day, I leave the fabric in the bag I brought it home in on my sewing table. This reminds me that it is unwashed.

Currently I have two “dressers” for storing fabric. The one I use for my fashion fabric is an older blue 4-drawer dresser that used to be in my son’s bedroom when he was little. It is not the prettiest thing, but it serves its purpose. All the fabric is folded and then placed in the drawers organized by type.  (And the drawers are lined with tissue paper). One drawer for wool, one for silks and silk like, one for linings and one for misc. It works out really well and it is easy to find something when I need it.

For the quilt fabric, I use a plastic 3 drawer-rolling cart (like you get at Target). I keep solid quilting fabric in one and the printed fabric in another. The top drawer is used for misc quilting stencils and perhaps some unfinished quilting blocks.

I also have a large metal shelving unit that I use for books, sewing magazines and all my notions. I use the colored printed boxes that you can get a Michael’s very inexpensively. (Perhaps 5 for $10?). They are called photo boxes and used for storing pictures for scrapbooking. I label them and it keeps everything organized. One each for thread, ribbons, sewing notions, zippers, bias tape, etc. They look really pretty sitting on the shelf and it is so easy to find what I am looking for.

So that’s my way of organizing my sewing room and fabric stash. Everyone has different needs for their sewing and is at a different place in their life. This works for me, but might not work for everyone.

So how do you store your fabric??