Originally Posted by
laughingquilter
Maybe this is a stupid question but does anyone "track" their inventory? I'm not talking specific yardage, etc. but I've bought fabric, precuts, yardage, etc. for a specific quilt pattern on a number of occasions and then it gets "stored" away before I get it started and before long I'm buying the fabric for another quilt and the same thing happens. Anyway, I buy and store faster than I sew and finish so I'm finding that I've purchased a pattern twice for two different fabric lines, etc. Is anyone else as bad as I am about doing this? Has anyone come up with any way to track their inventory on hand to prevent you from purchasing something more than once? My husband actually suggested it. He doesn't have a problem with my buying the stuff but he said I should find a way to track it, with pictures, to remind myself what I have rather than possibly buying a pattern twice, etc. Thoughts? Thanks in advance for ANY help you can share in that matter.
I do keep track of everything in my sewing room and it's location. I use excel on my computer. I have a file for fabric, thread by type, patterns, rulers, accuquilt dies, etc. I put most of my fabric in plastics tubs and I # the tubs. Stabilizers is put in drawers, again what # of drawer. Notions are listed by location, like sewing machine top drawer, cutting table north drawer, etc. If I am looking for fabric to match and haven't found it, it goes in a stacking drawer. I also scan my fabric when I get it to my computer and that goes in Windows. I list the mfg., yardage, design name, date purchases and what pattern I plan on using and location. Now when I get a new piece of fabric that I don't have time to make, I can find it again. Last week, I purchases 93 spools of embroidery, I listed the # and color of each. I have that in excel and each maker has it's own page. The main page, has a cross reference to all makers colors, so if I am looking for RA, I may have the same color under a different maker # like DMC. It has saved me lots of dollars by having these files. Plus, my sewing room is large and when we moved here I was losing things, so I had to do something. PS. This took me 2 weeks to do at first, but now it's only a min or two when I get something new. Plus I take pictures of it for insurance purposes as they would never believe me if something happen to my house. that goes on a flash drive and stored in a safety deposit box. I update that once a year. .