Roll or boards is the question
 

Hi everyone,
Several years ago I had put most of my fabric on comic boards. While it looks so great, I need more storage. I am thinking of rolling all my fabrics to make more space. Any pros or cons to this idea, or has anyone done this?

I don’t have a large stash so I’m going to give you my experience as a long-distance motorcycle traveler. To fit more things in my bags, I’ve found rolling tightly allows me to stuff more clothing items in a bag than I can if I fold them. I’ve ridden to Yellowstone National Park twice to work for 3 months & carried my things for that time on my bike. I did use those vacuum bags for pillow & towels & bought work shoes there, but I got a LOT of stuff in the bags! Non-riders are always amazed at how much I can carry on a motorcycle. So give it a try to see if rolling the fabric helps. Of course, while going through your fabric, you may be inspired to start new projects to use it instead of storing it.

Thanks for that info. I been rolling my clothes in my suitcase when I fly. I can get alot more in & see what I have. So I am going to give this a try as well. Thanks for your response.

I fold/roll my fabrics around a 6x24 inch ruler, then pull out the ruler and fold in half lengthwise. They fit perfectly on my bookshelves.

My only concern with rolling fabric, if you mean rolling cylindrically is the wrinkles at the beginning of the roll that would get embedded with time, IMHO. I use the same method as GingerK

As someone who has accumulated a large stash and regrets it, my advice is to spend the time using the fabric rather than changing how it is stored. That said, I do find that I'm using my fabric more since putting it on comic boards, since it's easier to see what I have. I can't quite envision how you would store the rolled fabric and still see it. I guess it depends a lot on how you plan to store the rolled fabric.

We did roll the fabric that a guild put up for sale one year. Each roll was tied with piece of yarn, the yarn color denoting the price of the fabric. During the sale it stayed neater that way. People could see and feel the fabric, knew how large the piece was, and weren't as tempted to open it up. If you roll your fabric you could use yarn ties to show you the yardage, which would be helpful.

Will you be storing them on shelves or in bins or drawers?If i were storing on shelves and rolling the fabric, i’d bowtie each roll with a selvage strip, and when the fabric was one layer deep across , I’d put in a styrofoam board cut to fit. Essentially make more shelves that will divide the stash. I woukd do it by colir. Dollar store has big poster size styrofoam board that are easy to cut.

I do my fabrics like this, except I don't fold it in half. My wire sheves are long enough to fit.

I'd rather have it folded than rolled. Rolling creates a lot of "wad" that every piece will need pressing when taken out for use--my opinion from the experience of purchasing remnants that have been rolled.

I have two large chest on chest's in my sewing room filled with fabric and it's still not enough room for me. Wish I could afford some large bookshelves and comic boards to replace these with. If I could see what I have at a glance I'd use it before buying more and more.