After seeing a great post with pictures of a sewing room, I am wondering - how do most people organize their fabric? Totally by color or by quantity of fabric? What or why does your system work best for you?

I have shelves all over the walls filled plastic baskets and my fabric is organised by colour with a few buckets for scraps.

Mine is mostly organized by theme like, holiday, lighthouses, children , southwest etc. But I have small pieces like FQ stored separately. I also keep corrdinates together, I have some that I have gotten for a want-to-do theme but have not found right pattern yet.

But it used to be filed by color, so next time I organize it will probably change.

I do mine mostly by color. Makes it easier to see what I've got...I also used the foam boards so that my fabric sits up like bolts. I went to Lowe's and bought a pkg of the foam floor underlayment for $37..I got hundreds out of it as opposed to the 4-5 you get from the art foam boards at $4 each. Made a huge difference in actually seeing what I have. My FQ's are stored by color in a wooden shoe storage cabinet. Perfect. My scraps are also sorted by color...this picture of my scrap buckets were taken last year...its exploed since then...=) that means I've been sewing!! =)

I"m speechless... WOW!

I arrange by color, then by theme like: floral, civil war, children, flannel etc.

Wow!!!! Great! Love it - thanks for sharing!

I arrange by prints (then by color), solids, flannels, holiday, novelty, etc.

I arrange by color then size and also novelty and batiks

Shoe boxes are a great size for folded FQ's. Anything larger I sort by pattern (juveniles, florals, coordinated fabrics from one designer). Smaller pieces are in bins, as folded as I can make them.

Here's what I posted in the other thread.
I tend to buy fabrics from a single line or ones that I picked out to go together so I store them together like that. But right now they are folded and stuffed into a cabinet. I bought some of those comic book boards to fold them onto and organize but they seem kinda flimsy. I read about it on several blogs. I know about the plastic sign material but I couldn't find a sign shop that has it around here.

Here is the thread-there are some more ideas in it:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-83589-1.htm

I don't have a very big stash...yet. But I organize by colour (including prints with that colour predominantly), longest yardage to smallest (FQ) piled up. I also organize by project and keep fabrics for one project together in one of those zip up bags you get with sheet sets or blankets.

Love your storage

Isn't it amazing the stuff one can find in a DIY store that can be used for purposes I'm sure the vendors never intended? :D

Wow! what a stash Ronna. Love how you have it organized.

The fabric shops around here have oodles of the empty cardboards the fabrics come on and they just bundle them up and garbage them. If you ask, they will GIVE you all you want just so they can get rid of them the easy way.
When you wrap your fabric on them, label the end of each cardboard with the amount of yardage you have on each of them, shelve them by color and you can tell at first glance what you have. Store other smaller fabs in bins labeled scraps, holiday, solids, prints, etc. I have a shortage of space and find this way works the best for me.
Good Luck! Now you can enjoy more time sewing and less time searching.

Color in transparent shoe boxes. When you are limited to space, I think that works the best. Edie

Thanks for sharing pictures and what you use. I feel I should have bought stock in the foam core. I'm not even close to having enough. Will check with my Lowe's today!

I need to do that before I buy anymore material, seems like I'am duplicating myself, not that it won't be used. I have a lot of squares all sizes and triangles all sizes that I have in plastic boxes that I bought at the $1 store. I also have 2 3 drawer plastic bins that I have my strips in. Never thought of the foam boards for flooring to organize my stash, I have to check that out.

That's a great tip! I was going to buy those too. I've wanted to store my material like this. I don't think I will be as NEAT as you, but you are a good organizer for me to strive to be like. I gotta get to Lowe's.

I have gotten so overwhelmed at times that I organize by project first and the then left overs are by color

Love the way you separated your scraps. Mine all get tossed in a basket which means I have to dump it out to find the small piece of a color I need.

Will need to explore your idea further! Thanks for sharing!

We're supposed to organize? Guess I didn't get that memo.

THAT'S WHAT I DO! Gotta look in goodwill for clear plastic containers! She has some great ideas and organization tips. Guess what I'm doing today?

Do you cut down your scraps ? If so how big? Mine are so sloppy

ORGANIZE? Can you define that for me please??

If I have a project going on, I put all that fabric in a Rubbermaid tote until the project is done. Then i fold it & put it according to color in my cabinets.....

Thank you so much for answering my questions. Just 1 more? So after a project, you get your "project" tote, fold the leftover, if it is LESS than 1/2 yd. you separate it from the smaller pieces? Put the small pieces in the plastic containers by color, then 1/2 yd or less in a cabinet by color?
I was always trying to keep every bit of fabric together!

Ok I think it may have been my fabric you saw. At least part of it LOL! I seperate general fabric by color. I also seperate by type ie Orientals, 30's, Civil War, Moda Marbels. and sometimes I try to keep lines together if I am going to design a pattern with that fabric. So that is how I determine where it goes. I also fold the fabric over a 6 by 24 inch rulerr just like it comes off the bolt. I slid it off and fold in half. I love seeing all the fabric neatly organized and as I said before I can pull fabric easier for projects.

I do mine by color. I wind them around my big ruler, then pull the ruler out and fold them in half. I put a little note on them with the amount of fabric. I've also written the amount on the selvage edge, but it's harder to find there. Sorting by color allows me to see at a glance how much I have of each and whether I need to buy more or less when I'm out shopping.

Since I used to sew a lot of clothing, I separate the types of fabric, flannel from cotton from knit, etc. I have two bookcases in my sewing room closet, one for cottons and one for flannels.

I've collected empty cardboard bolts from JA's. Each one cut down (8" wide by 11") will give me four good solid "mini" bolts to wrap my fabric on if it is 1 yd or more (I use a flathead pin and a small snip of paper to label quantity). I like them shelved like books because it makes it easier to pull stuff out and put it away.

My cotton is organized by color; my flannel is organized by gender, girls on one shelf, boys on another. I'm not much into FQs so that isn't an issue (yet ;-}). Larger yardage or wider (58"+) are hanging from skirt/slack hangers between the two bookcases with full size bolts on the floor below.

All my smaller pieces I have folded on top of the bookcase or in a cloth bag or basket. I make skull caps that I sell on etsy and in a bike shop in SoCal - all that is in a big basket. My scraps an in plastic bins, separate by type of fabric - no color organization there yet.

And of course, stuff for a specific project are collected together in a box or plastic zip bag (like you get when you buy sheets and stuff).

Oh yeah, I have one plastic zip bag specifically for Christmas fabrics. Plus there are 6 - 7 bins out in the garage - those sorted by type of fabric and color.

Too bad we have to live in our house, I think I could fill it up with fabric - oh my.

I work at a bank and we get boxes of paper that have cardboard dividers of 81/2 x 11 between the paper, so I used those cardboard sheets as mini bolts... one usually works, but on occasion, I use two for a little more support. They stand up real nice in the cabinet, and I arrange by color- The best thing....These cardboard "bolts" cost nothing!!! SCORE!!!

Very nice arrangement for your stash. I would like to do this in the closet in my sewing room.

I have my fabric by color in drawers and containers.
But the best thing I do is:
I have drawers of precut strips by color. If I feel like sewing all I need to do is go grab some strips.
the sizes I keep are
1 1/2"
2"
2 1/2"
3 1/2"
4 1/2"
If I do not have enough to keep a size by color I do separate by light and dark.
I keep my strips in a system called
"A Scrap USER System" brought to me by Bonnie Hunter of www.quiltville.com
It saves so much time. After I finish a project all the scraps get cut into these usable sizes.
Warning! You may need to by stock in Rubbermaid.
Subee
http://www.subeesews.com

Oh, to be so organized

Once I ran out of shelves I started stacking it on the floor then one day it tumbled over and since then I just keep stacking it any place it will fit and balance gave up on orginazation about a year ago! Maybe some day when I retire I will have the time to fix it all up again.Good luck with your project.

Still working on building a stash, I'm sort of gravitating to precuts.....

I have a habit of buying coordinating fabric, so they are shelfed together on one side of the room. The other side the fabrics are shelfed by colors.

Wow, what a fantastic looking organizing sytem!!!

I do this also! I also cut smaller scraps into what Bonnie Hunter calls squares and bricks. Check out her website and her Scrap User System. It is in a pdf file you can download. I highly recommend it! The small squares can be used as leaders and enders.