Thanks for the close-up and explanation - I wondered how they hung in the files.

Unfortunately, I don't have a sewing room so utilize anything I can including...ArtBin satchels, dresser drawers, and even plastic bags. My dream would be to have s all shelves so they would be together and in the open for easy viewing. A closet for this purpose would be perfect, because then they would be protected from the light.
Grann of 6 has it the way I wish I could.

I store my fabric in plstic totes also, some dark colors , one in white in the basement with very little light in that room.

I store mine on open shelves, stacked flat. I like it because I can see everything right in front of me.

What a great sewing space! What are the white things you have wrapped your fabric around on the shelves?
J.

Wow!! What a cool idea!!!

We have a small house, so all of my fabric is in plastic tubs in the basement. I wish I could display it like everyone else.

I use the plastic stoarge boxes...on a metal shelf that rolls. So I can roll one out into my room if I need to.

You must have some large rooms, those look awesome.

mine are stored in totes or plastic bags...

Right now I have my fabric stored in three drawer plastic roll around. What I would like to have is a large wood storage unit, with shelves. The fabric would be wrapped around plastic holder, then lined up on the shelves. Of course there needs to be doors on it. I would also have a couple drawers in the bottom to store notions, threads, ect.

Big plastic totes on wheels as they get too heavy to lift once the fabric is in them. I either shove bars of soap or pieces of camphor wood in to keep out the bugs and find a place (somewhere) to put them...

Nice

I'm very flexible with storage!

The majority of my storage is in six-drawer dressers (3 beside 3) so the top is useable and I like to put a 3 shelf bookcase on top. I have 5 dressers (two in sewing room (one has all my most used rulers on top, in a folder stand, the other has two bookcases on it for books, my notebooks, and magazines), one in living room with TV on top, one in dining room which matches the furniture, and I can put a cutting board or an ironing pad on top, and one in my storage room that only holds big enough yardage for backings.). I fold the fabric to fit in the drawers and sort by color. I also keep some rulers, all stencils and less often used notions in the drawers.

I also use plastic, stacking drawers, mostly for FQs. I have another cart of plastic drawers next to my sewing machine and I keep current projects in it, with the needed notions. I have a small set of plastic drawers (table top size) to keep sewing machine needles, bobbins, pins, small scissors, white thread, and eye brow razors (my version of a seam ripper).

I keep all scraps in plastic bags by project, so all left overs smaller than FQs go in the bag, and I keep those in plastic totes.

My dining room hutch has 6 doors with shelves behind them, and in there are my cans of starch, glue sticks, iron, threads, lint rollers, notebooks of patterns, and whatever else can sit on a shelf that's messy looking and needs to be hidden. No fabric.

I am trying to downsize (what a joke!!), so I need to find ways to not need room to store fabric, but to use my current needed furniture as my storage. To that end, I am now using the cabinets above the refridge and the sink! I also am hanging large pieces of fabric in my clothes closet. As I get rid of all my excess serving ware, glass ware, bakeware, and excess linens, I find I have more storage in places that are unconventional and I am getting rid of totes, storage shelving, and things look so much neater and I'm actually more organized.

What I really need is a fabric addict's diet before I really run out of places to store it!

Diane

I had all my fabrics and everything to go with in plastic tubs. It was taking me longer to find anything than it was to make my products. So, my daughter said I need to go to Phoenix and go to IKEA so I did. this is what I have now and the cabinets are 48 inches deep. I love my room now and it is high so I put on one wall in my little room.

Maybe you could make up a chart and color it to show how your fabric is stored.

I store them in everything possible. Love your room.

That is genius!

I keep mine in a closet in shoe organizers I found on clearance. I used them the right way up and also on their sides. I took out some of the dividers, too. I wrapped the fabric on comic book boards, which was waaay cheaper than sign board.

I have to say, I absolutely love how it turned out! And won't be changing it.

i would store my fabric in all my kitchen cabinets and eat out every night. my entire dining room would become my la quilting frame room and my living room would be the rest of my quilting space (sewing machines, ironing board, cutting table, on and on and on...). one bedroom would be my laundry room so i could do the wash while i sew, and another bedroom would be the tv room for my husband.
the last bedroom would be for reading and naps.

then i would move next door.

Why, thank you, Bigdogmom! :thumbup:

butterfly wing- I think yu have a nice plan.

Ladies I check the quilt shops for the bolt boards, some of them they just throw away. so I always ask if I can have them then I cut them in half and fold my fabric on them. Works great. Just got back from a Quilt Retreat and picked up about a dozen and a half of these.

thank you. when i move next door, you can come for coffee in the new kitchen and stay over in the new guest room. bring your family - i'll have lots of space. :lol:

I use the plastic 28 qt. containers. I have used them for years and doubt I'll change. I like the fabrics put away from all the dust, cat and dog hair and other creepy things. I used the tubs when I started, but was forever pawing through them to find something - didn't work for me. At time, I had probably 200 of these tubs full of fabric all nicely sorted and labeled. Now I have about 25 left and working my way down. I also use the metal racks, plastic units on wheels and all sizes of plastic boxes for different things. Don't think I would ever do the boards, but I do like them. Makes a pretty display. My boxes are on shelves with the overflow on the floor. Still too many for my small sewing room, but I'm trying.

When I re-did my sewing room, a friend gave me one of these cabinets. I bought two more at Lowe's or Home Depot..cannot remember which one. They are perfect for storing fabrics. They are 4 ft wide and probably about 5.5ft high. The picture is a little dark.

what does anyone do with big yardage - say, 6 - 9 yards? i buy 9 yards at a time for backings for big queens if the price is right.
the storage for small pieces is a lot easier than the big pieces.

mine kinda flop all over themselves. any ideas?

I store mine in Drawers, Unless they are huge amounts then I folf and put in book cases with doors, i have some old Pattern files see pictures and also an old dresser

Large pieces go into tubs. I do have some large pieces in the plastic storage boxes, but anything really large will go into the tub.

Me, too! I started out with gallon Zip Lok bags with fat quarters in them, in the giant clear Rubbermaid tubs. Then I tried to figure how to sort the fat qtrs, by color, by project, by style(solid, floral, stripe, etc.) Ended up mostly batched by project, but I still have to rummage thru everything else to not miss good pieces that haven't been set aside for the project.

I have mine in chest with 4 large drawers, smaller chest with 4 drawers, 2 roll around plastic drawer towers, they have 11 drawers each. All my built in cabinets have all my other hobby things in them. Notions, books, wip, counted cross-stitch, embroidery, notebooks with quilting patterns, sewing machines, crochet notions, batting, anything else I can find for quilting. gonna post some pics someday.

hello, what a wonderful idea. i have on old filing cabinet in the shed that hasn't beenused for years i shall now use it for my material.

thanks again, jane

Hi AliKat,
I love Ikea - Hopefully getting a new Store near us soon, planning permission has recently gone into the local council - YES !!
But I digress, Thank you so much for your suggestion, brilliant, just what I was looking for !!
DottyD.

I absolutely love your idea! Very ingenious, very neat, and very inexpensive compared to all of the cabinets and storage closets.

I have made cards that are about 7" X 12. Walmart sells boxes fairly cheap. The ones I buy are about 64 cents. I cut them up with a craft knife and get 16 cards from the box. then I wind up my fabric. I have mostly small yardages of fabric due to my tight budget. I put them in a bookcase. I have them sorted by some groups such as Falll colors, or christmas fabrics, I have one large group of prints with favorite flowers, and another with berries. I like this because I can see all that I have to choose from. I store fat quaters in small shoe boxes sorted by color.

I was lucky and started out with a totally blank room so was able to pick anything I wanted for storage. I finally bought four, six foot tall, double doors plastic cabinets from the Wally store. Very inexpensive compared to built-ins. I store fabric flat fold now but would like to have them upright like the stores. I can see all my fabric for easy choices and the doors keep out the light from several windows.

Right now I'm using some snap boxes I got from Wal-mart on sale. They snap together and come in 3 sizes. I use them for fat quarters and "honey"? buns (small), small scraps in ziplocks (medium), and larger pieces up to a yard (large). I have the yard or more in a giant gift bag leftover from my daughter's baby shower. Projects in the works are kept in gift bags that we have saved.

i just came back from j's and looked at a storage unit there. you might have seen it. it's a column of drawers, some about 3" deep and some about 1.5" deep. it's framed in black and made of plastic. when i asked the price, the young man separated it into three sections, three very thin drawers and four thick drawers each and told me each section was - are you ready? - $80.00.
since i was looking at the whole column as a good storage unit, it would cost $240.00 for plastic. one of the handles was already broken off and it was tilting. all this for $240.00. that's why people shop ikea. at least you're getting something that approximates wood for that price.

That is an ingenious idea. I love it. I am new and have not much material yet. Do you just buy a yard or two when you see something pretty? To accumulate that much, I guess that is what you do.

Jeanne,
There are some really good ideas here. We're lucky we have this forum to share.

As for me, I started with purchasing only the fabric I needed for a specific pattern.

Then I moved into fat quarters to add as fill-in's and interest to the pattern.

Then I decided to buy half yards, resulting in 2 fat quarters, which cost more than 1 fat quarter but less than 2 fat quarters.

Then I decided to buy a yard and a half, so I would have a square (for little baby blanket backings), plus some left over.

Then I decided I should buy more - if fabric was on sale. I could use it for a focal point for a new pattern. Besides I was planning to retire from my job and I wanted to have plenty in case I couldn't afford it.

At about this time, I really couldn't find any particular piece of fabric - things were too chaotic. Had I had the forum then, I would have started this topic! Anyway, I tried a few things and finally ended up with my lateral filing cabinets.

Now I don't buy much fabric, cause I can find what I've already bought.

And that's how I buy/bought fabric!

Linda