I have plastic bins, cupboards, closet, drawers and a bookshelf for storing fabric. I was thinking it might be nice to have a pantry type cupboard, maybe with glass doors and a pull out worksurface, for storing some things in.
What works for you and what would you change if you could?

I'll be watching, I am in the process of building my sewing space and am interested in the ideas. Your space looks wonderful!

I store my fabric in plastic totes. Yes I would love to have some sort of shelfs so that I can see my fabric. I think I would spend less if I could see what I have available to use up first. I also think I would make better fabric choices if I could see what I have better.

I keep mine in tubs. I would love to be able to have them on flats like in the store, all standing together, perfectly inline just waiting for me to pick them! But I think the tubs is best. With dust, cat hair, dog hair, and sticky fingered children running around the house, put away is my best bet.

First off if I could change anything it would be to have a room like yours. :lol:
Here is how mine is stored. I just straightened all of this out and so far I am happy with it.

I use an inexpensive barrister. We originally bought it at Staples for our videos and cd's. I took it when we set up my current sewing area. It hold mostly fq's and 1/2-yards. Have more fabric in stacked rubbermaid drawers.

that is a nice sewing room

I really like those flat plastic things to wrap fabric in but I don't feel like buying a million of them!!
I'll watch this thread b/c I'm forever trying to get organized.
Nothing seems to work for me :cry:

if i could build my "dream studio", i'd have wood cabinets with glass doors and glass fronted drawers.

in the meantime, i really like using the stackable plastic drawers to store my fabs.

i can see what's in them; they make my space look neat and organized even if what's in the drawers is not; i don't worry about dust getting on my fabs, or about fading at the folds; and they fit my budget. :-)

Your sewing room is very nice. Everything looks well organized and easy to keep clean. Right now I have my fabric in tubs, but it is hard to see what I've got.

I had mine in those rolling plastic drawer units. I bought a vintage china cabinet and am in the process of refolding and putting my fabric in it. So far I love the look. The folding, not so much.

I am watching for a couple of barristers...love the look.

I use Rubbermaid basket bins I got thru WM.com. They are reasonably priced. I bought 4 originally. The plan was to have one drawer for each color, with a drawer for 30's, batiks, and cat fabrics. I now have 12 units (for a total of 60 drawers!!), and could use one or two more. It really helped me out when I got all my fabric together from bins and boxes and folded it to fit -- I got to revisit some old favorites I forgot about, and I also got a good idea of what I had too much of and what I needed more of. I included a pic of one row w/ my big ironing board on top of them. Keeps fabric visible and keeps the cats from getting into it. This is the best solution I have come up with so far (other than custom cabinetry, which I would never be able to afford!!). I may one day make "curtains" for them and attach w/ velcro. One day...sigh...

I would like a narrow taller shelf or glass doored shelving unit to replace the bookshelf.

The last house I lived in there was a small bedroom that I turned into my fabric store room. I put shelves around all the walls and used it just to store my fabric in, that way my work room was for sewing and it kept things a lot neater. I wish I still had that extra room.

The last house I lived in there was a small bedroom that I turned into my fabric store room. I put shelves around all the walls and used it just to store my fabric in, that way my work room was for sewing and it kept things a lot neater. I wish I still had that extra room.

I live in a 2 bedroom home ... well really a 1 bedroom and a studio home - the studio is what was the large master bedroom. [Since I only sleep and read in bed, so why do I need a big bedroom? I'm in the studio when I am awake and love the openess there.]

I bought the IKEA Antonius system and then double stacked one in a closet and the other one is under my embroidery machine table which I also bought at IKEA as I can alter the height of the table to fit my needs. I don't sit while using the embroidery machine by use either my sewing machine, HQ, or my computer while the emb machine does its thing.

ali

I keep mine in the 9 cube shelve organizers you can get at target. I have 2 of them.. could probably use another one.

I keep my fabric in 2 cabinets with doors on them. They are the Sauer (sp?) tall cabinets that you can get from Walmart, Target, etc. I would love to have one more cabinet to really organize my fabrics better.

Me too. Mine are in the cabinets and I have to remember where each color is or there is a lot of door-opening until I find the right bin.

I wish I had doors on all of my stash storage, even man made light will fade fabrics .

I had been storing my fabric in those plastic zippered bags that comforters, sheets, pillow cases and blankets come in. They work really good but I've recently started using thosed boards to put them on my bookcases. I really like how they look there.

I have 7 of the pattern cabinets that you find in any fabric store, all filled with fabric, folded on a 4x12 ruler, and put into the drawer, where I can see all the fabric in that drawer. I have 6 of them, back to back, then a 2 piece counter top, which is my cutting table. Each drawer is designated for a certain background color, although there are usually at least 2 drawers of certain colors. I love how my fabric is stored, I just wish I had my old sewing room back, because this one is very small compared to it.

I have the baskets in the racks too and I love them, at least can see what I have and with everything folded it stays pretty neat.

Mine are in plastic tubs, not much room so for now this is what I have to use. Soon hope to move to third floor there is lots of room there!!

Shelves, plastic totes, baskets and anything else I can find to stach in. No I would not change it in any way. I like the way I have it.

i keep all my fabric, batting, etc in a walking in closet and i wouldn't change a thing.

it has floor to ceiling shelves and is never exposed to sun.

Giant Rubbermaid tubs with lids---and no, I wouldn't change a thing. Having it as organized as some of you (folded neatly on shelves) would probably make me not want to touch it---so I wouldn't mess it up after doing all the work organizing. I like rummaging through tubs!

My sewing room used to be third Bedroom. My husband removed closet doors and built shelves. So I have shelves about 12 feet long, from floor to ceiling. I love having all my fabric where I can see it. Only 1 window and I keep the blinds closed, have good lighting.

I like the baskets.

Mine is in closets with bi-fold doors to keep the light out and the air circulating. I want everything closed up so it is neat looking. I had too many years of my fabric on open shelves getting fade lines in a north room with one window. No more light on my fabric if I can help it.

I use cardboard boxes and a few plastic totes. I would love a nice cabnit though!

Mine is stored in plastic tubs , totes and cardboard boxes.Ig I could have my choice I would like open shelves with doors or curtains etc. to keep out dust and light. Diane C.

I've thought, in the past that having those wire drawers in stacks would be the way to go. But now, since I've discovered I really make a lot of quilts w/ pp, those small bits of fabric would fall out the spaces. So I guess I'll just stick with my covered tubs. It would be nice if my room was larger, so I wouldn't have to move my ironing board to get to some of the colors. I originally had the fabric sorted by value within each box, but no more. I have too much and so many different sized pieces in each box. I do find that having them divided by color is easiest for me.
I see people having their fabric wrapped on some sort of card and piled on a shelf - but the colors are all mixed up. That would be difficult for me, to have them like that.

I used to store mine in plastic totes on shelves in a large closet. I had them all organized with snips of the fabric on the outside that said how much yardage of each of the larger pieces and smaller bins organized by color. But - I found I wasn't using it because it became hard to lift the bins down off the shelves and open them (arthritis.) Things never got put back (so it was messy despite all the bins) and I found myself buying new material instead. Now I use wire baskets and shelves in a 36" wide tall cabinet and a cutting table with drawers that holds fabric folded on little bolts. It holds the same as 20 linear feet of bookshelves - plus it has a large drawer that currently holds 2 crib sized & 2 queen sized warm and natural battings. That and a few other baskets are working very nicely for me - I know were everything, I can see what I am looking for without opening and lifting.

That looks so neat and easy to get at.

I have wire bins in my sewing room closet my husband purchased from Lowes. They were easy to install and reasonably priced.
My fabrics don't get any light so no fading.
They are sturdy and will last a lifetime.
They are easy to see into so I can pull out the bin with the color of fabric I am looking for.
And most important of all my fabric can breath.
I would not trade them for anything, I am totally
satisfied with them.

I have 2 Sauder cupboards. The widest one is a wardrobe and I can sort colors into plastic tubs that fit perfectly on the shelves. There is one all the way across the top and shorter ones down one side. The tubs can be taken out to look for the 'perfect' piece. I wish there were shelves on both sides but it works well as the stash builds! At one time there were free tape measures in bags of batting so I glued one to the edge of the top shelf so I can easily measure pieces of fabric without taking them to the cutting table. I like that the solid doors protect the fabrics from light and that they don't reveal the mess that can happen in there.

If I could have anything I want to store my fabric, I'd have cabinets like yours and I would stack some of them floor to ceiling. I wouldn't want a 24" deep cabinet of any kind because too much would get shoved to the back and never seen again. I used to design kitchens for one of the big home improvement stores and learned how to "work" cabinets. I'd build a toe kick base for a wall cabinet to sit on, then stack more wall cabinets in the configuration that would fit in my room. You can buy veneer panels to put on the sides that will make them look like one cabinet.

I use 2 lateral file cabinets that I picked up when an office closed. They were filled with hanging file folders. I ironed my fabric, folded it lengthwise in half, and wound it around the files, as if they were bolts. I secured the top with long rubber bands. I can "wind" up to 4 yards of cotton fabric and still close the drawers!

This works like a charm. I can see the fabric at a glance, and it stays neatly waiting for me! Since the drawers close, sunlight is not a problem.

For smaller pieces (fat quarters, etc.) I use see-through bins.