Perfect fab storage. Need ideas please.
 

If you lived in a perfect quilting world, money no object, perfect sized room, qualified help available (now THAT'S important), how would you organize your stash? Or is your fabric plan perfect for you? I've read so many threads/posts on organizing and many of them show how we organize according to cost restraints, size of room, amount of fabric, etc.

This spring, or sooner, and after we either go to Goodwill or have a sale, I will be able to redo my fabric room.

So, if you could reorganize your stash, how would you do it? Open shelving? Plastic containers? Cabinets with or without windows? Pretty fabric boxes, (not for me)? Combinations of ideas? I only know I will organize by color and ruler fold my fabric. Comic boards not for me.

Remember, no restrictions.

I can't wait to hear what you would do.

Well, I already have the open shelving, fabric somewhat sorted by color, ( but still needs a better sorting), and 5 3-drawer plastic cabinets. I have different cut sizes in the drawers (6", 6 1/2", 10" squares). I have a large tote box with 2 1/2" strips, as I do a lot of log cabin and strip quilts. Sadly that's about as far as I've gotten, so don't think I'll be much help. Oh, I do agree with finding highly qualified helphttps://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png

I don’t have a large stash so mine is easy to manage. I have an IKEA cube-like storage unit for larger fabric pieces 1/2 to 3 yard cuts by color and then an antique (decorative) shelving unit for fat quarters. I keep smaller pieces in plastic bins by color.

I buy bolts of solid colors and pre cuts of prints. It's easier to store bolts then yardage. Precuts are easy to store in baskets or stacked. A pretty sewing room that functions is my goal.

I really like the one lawyer book case I have with those glass flip down sliding out covers for the shelves. I have it against the north wall away from windows so no sunlight hits them and the glass doors keeps the dust out, yet I have a clear view of them and the doors are so easy to flip back and slide in out of the way. I think I would get more of them! I too just ruler fold all my stash of one yard or more. For the half yard cuts and the fat quarters, I have a cabinet with slide out drawers and have the fabric folded and stacked in rows in the drawers so again, I can see what I have without pulling things out. My scraps would go into clear bins on shelving units. Again sorted by color and/or size of scrap. I like being able to see what I have before I start pulling things out.

Love your ideas that work for you now. Would you change it if you could...or is your plan perfect for you? If you could, would you?

Right now my sewing room is such a mess that there is literally a little path to my sewing machine. My husband came up to tell me dinner was ready and almost tripped !
I've been going from one project to the other w/o cleaning up after. Omg, you should see it.
I have a double closet that he made shelves for, I have a bookcase floor to ceiling, a pegboard wall, etc etc.

I don't think there is a solution for me other than to clean up https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png

I have a very large stash that’s sorted by color. The fabric is folded and stored in big plastic bins that are on shelves in a closet. The really large bins are on the floor. I don’t recommend it as it’s a real pain to lift the bins onto my rolling cart to pick out fabrics. I have the “specialty” fabrics (holiday, silks, Halloween, etc) in smaller bins so those are easier to look through. I also have the BIG problem of not cleaning up after projects, so every surface in my sewing room is pretty much stacked up with fabric.

If I could redo my storage, I’d have a drawer system where the fabrics are sorted by color. I don’t even have an idea of how much that might cost!

I started out with open bookcases but now I've changed over to over freestanding shelving as I found out when I changed to these that I had had a water leak on that wall. Luckily it didn't effect any of my fabrics but had to spray the white bookcases with bleach to kill the mold that had developed on the underside. They are now back up in the library with the books. I arrange by color unless I have a collection of the fabrics and then arrange by color within the collection. My threads are arranged on pegboard with metal hooks by order of their brand thread chart so easy to locate. I also keep my serger threads above my serger machine, my quilting threads as near the quilt machine as possible and the embroidery threads as close to the machine as possible. My regular threads are by color above the sewing machine. I like organization so want to keep things easily found and put back when done using it. Even my scraps by organized by size more so than color though. Fat Qtrs are by color in plastic shoe box containers under the cutting table. My quilts to be quilted are hung up with its backing and batting hanging right behind it .

I would purchase custom-built tall cabinets with cedar shelving and glass doors using museum glass with 99% UV protection.

Eh, right now is definitely not my ideal, but I'm glad I still have a room I can put my two sewing machines out, and have some room to cut/press. Storage is in another room, in plastic tubs. Ideally, they'd be nicely folded on an open shelf, but now I'm thinking I'd like sewingpup's lawyer's bookcase idea even better. That way the fabric would be neat, visible, but not open to dust/pets.I dream of having a large, sunlit studio type room for my hobby. I love using natural light to look at the color of fabric -it's a big part of what I love about quilting!

We can customize technology all we want in this scenario, right? I'd get one of those huge conveyor belt systems that dry cleaners use. Have all my fabric ironed, hung along the conveyor belt roughly grouped by color, and assigned a number. The number and a picture of the fabric, along with some sort of tagging descriptor system (color, whether it's multicolored, pattern size, pattern style, how much of the fabric I have left, etc) is entered into a computer program so I can search by the parameters of what I'm looking for. So, say, my pattern calls for 2 yards of blue fabric with a small print. I'd be able to search the tags "blue", "2+ yards", and "small print" to get a list of all my fabric that meets all 3 of those requirements. It'd also have an exclusion function so that if my pattern would look okay with a blue/green combo fabric but not a blue/pink combo, I could add in blue fabrics with multiple colors but exclude any that are tagged with "pink" as a descriptor.

It'd be the best of both worlds, in my opinion. When I just want to browse my fabrics for inspiration, they'd all be hung right there for my enjoyment but when I'm hunting for one specific fabric, I won't fall in love with one that's like 3/4 of a yard when I need 1 1/2 for my pattern, because I'd only see fabrics in my fabric searching computer program that fit what I need.

I make kits and don't just buy yardage so mine is stored in tubs. I have maybe 7 pieces that are just yardage which I will use for small projects like bags.

Ok, you just 'won' this thread! That's awesome! :D

Vadalia, Yes, I want that system. Sounds wonderful. I am redoing my stash right now. I have ikea cabinets with baskets and and draws and shelves. the cabinet are 23 inches deep so I had it laid on top of each other. every time I wanted a piece I messed up the whole pile. Now I am using boards and folding fabric on them. They will stack two deep which may still be a problem. The baskets hold all kinds of things I need. If the basket is too high, I slip the basket out to fine what I need. I still have totes and containers around here in the corner. My house is just not big enough.

If money is no object I would hire someone to come in and sort/organize my stash better. Currently it is semi organized. I have no dedicated sewing room, so it currently is all in mostly frosted tubs. I would want a cabinet, with fabric on boards, organized by color. I'd want scraps (which I save but never use) separate. Seasonal would be separate, as would all my FQ's. As long as they are here, another cabinet would be used to store all my notions ,threads, rulers, cutters, buttons and miscellaneous stuff. I'd also like a cabinet for all my books, magazines and patterns, Everything would need to be labeled to make finding things easier. I'd then like a dedicated drop spot, shelf or basket to put things into until they can come and put the items back where they came from. Too much to ask??

All my cotton yardage is ruler folded and is in pattern cabinets drawers, sorted by background color. I have 8 of the cabinets. I also have a dresser with the "runovers". All the flannels, wool and home decorator fabrics are in the small shed. There's not enough room in the sewing room. LOL

I'd then like a dedicated drop spot, shelf or basket to put things into until they can come and put the items back where they came from. Too much to ask??

OMG! I just realized my fabric room AND sewing room is a drop spot!!!

I would want to have designated areas to function for different activities. They would include a cutting, ironing station, separate tables for 3 loved machines that I would like to have out all the time. There would be 36 inch wide cabinet drawers for the embroidery, serger and quilting threads. Zippers would be organized in a shallow drawer by size with dividers separating them.
The cabinet would include a slide out board like a secretary desk for flat space as needed.

Slide out drawers with dividers would hold the layer cakes upright. The drawer slides would be auto close.

The stash is ruler folded on the closet shelves. No comic boards here.

$$ no object? I'd have a whole wall of built in cabinets with drawers in the bottom 3' and sliding design boards in the fronts.

I have one of those cabinets, too. I don’t have a large stash cuz I try to not go crazy...I made fabric baskets by color and store FQ and odd sizes I can grab and go. Mini bolts for 1/yd - 2/yd, and larger are on the bolt. When my house was built last year, I designed my walk-in closet shelves to suit the bolt size and my craft boxes. I keep scraps cut in specific sizes in decorative boxes to match my colors.....which is bright, white, and black... lol..

Here is my barrister bookcase. Keeps fabrics dust-free...love it!

Teen, that's a beautiful piece of furniture. Love the fab baskets and mini quilts on the wall. (Did you tidy up for the pic?)

I have my stash in a closet with wire shelving and cubbies for the fabric. Works for me.

Can you say why you don’t want the comic boards?

Our system includes kitchen cabinets in our sewing room with most fabrics ruler folded and sorted by color in the uppers. Solids are in one cabinet. Blenders are in one cabinet. Holiday is in one cabinet. Precuts including GQ are in one cabinet.

In the lowers we have large cuts (backing), kits, and bolts. We also have a lower cabinet for packaged batting. Another lower has stray tools, a basket of seldom-used rulers, a backup iron, and a mystery corner 🤣. We have made a flat ironing surface and put on one counter, and we cut on an island made of kitchen lowers.

We have one bookshelf with doors where we store books and I-Spy fabrics.

If we were starting again, I would like to have some shallow, tall shelves to store fabric. I’ve seen IKEA shelves that fit the bill - I think they’re Billy shelves. Fabric would be folded on boards and standing upright. It’s not a complete disaster to pull stacks of fabric when we’re making selections, but it is a bit of a pain putting everything back, and making sure it’s stacked straight so everything fits. I just think having it stored upright “quilt shop style” would make it easier to take out and put away. I like the way we have everything sorted; it is very easy to find what we’re looking for. We would still have some lowers with an ironing station. We would cut on the Martelli table.

Sorry if the pic is upside down!

Wesing...easy to answer. I started ruler folding when I start quilting decades ago. Just got comfortable with this process. When the comic boards came into the picture, I decided I would rather buy fabric or notions rather than the boards. Sometimes old dogs refuse to learn new tricks. Our black labs taught us well.https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png

I don't want to fold the yardage in to a second fold, wrap the board, and then unfold it again to cut it on the work table. The other issue for me is yardage would be too thick around the boards. I ruler fold on a 6.5 inch wide ruler. Then fold that in half. They stack nicely on the shelf.

I do have some of the hard plastic boards that I use as uprights for storing layer cakes in bins. They make nice separators.

As soon as I get organized, again, I need to FIX my fabric bookshelf. Oh and suppose need to clear off a place to ruler fold. No, wait. That activity comes under the heading of organize...right?

My sewing studio was designed back in 1997 just for my needs then. It included ample shelving in 2 Pantry cabinets and additional upper cabinets space. The cutting table is a wider counter top over lower cabinets t hat house many other crafting supplies. I house 6 sewing machines in this room and also my computer station with access to a bathroom on site. Over the years it seems to have gotten smaller and smaller and I have taken over our guest room with a 10' quilting frame and another sewing machine mounted to the frame and another 7 machines in there. I have one more machine in the living room.

I have used up a ton of scraps the past 2-3 weeks. I am in the process of making a strip quilt. Then I have already cut pieces for 2 more quilts to work on during this Winter.

My room looks pretty good right now. All my fabrics have been washed, dries and folded over a 6"x24" ruler and on shelves in my closet. No light or sun allowed. Works great for me.

I have used Magazine Boards, available on Amazon. I have wound the fabric on the boards, secured with plastic coated paper clips and they stack or go into office paper boxes. Very easy to find a piece of fabric that is needed. I put several FQ on the same board to sort by color. Takes time to do but really worth the effort.