alaskasunshine

Ice blossom,
thank you for all your information. Honestly I’m in a quandary because the boxes are sparkley and so pretty, so beautiful with barns, snow filled scenes, even a sweet ribbon bow on the magnetic flip lid. However I did order large 4 piece set with split lids on Amazon. They are just so blah! Oh dear what’s a girlie girl to do?

iceblossom, which would you choose? Is lining the boxes with acid free tissue paper sufficient? My husband was so generous with the fabric splurge I am uncomfortable spending more just to store these beauties.

Thank you to all that responded to my question you all are the best ))

Iceblossom

Yes, just acid free paper is sufficient and is advised even for plastic storage, good to put between say a red and a gold fabric to keep transfer down that way. And like I say, it's relatively cheap and easy to get. I like that about stuff!

But again, watch where you place your boxes and make sure there is airflow. When I grew up in Alaska you didn't want to place a piano against the outside wall because the temperature changes would be enough to put it out of tune throughout the year. Of course, insulation and stuff is better now and I've moved to a warmer climate but I still don't put my bed along the north outside wall of a house even though that really seems to have been intended for my bedroom.

I use cardboard legal office boxes for my storage that I buy at the nearby office supply store. The lightweight ones don't hold up to my use, but the heavy weight ones do. They do come in acid free. The bottoms are all lined with my tissue paper, the sides used to be but they need periodic care they don't always get... I like that I can easily write in large marker what is inside the box. The advantage of them is they are designed to be stacked and can go up 4-5 high if you need to. Again, I prefer to have them on wire shelves but there are always some boxes that I make sure to rotate/short term fabric that do get stacked. Fabric folds well within them, and the lids are easy to lift off and peek inside. I tried stacking my fabric on edge so I could see the whole box at once but that didn't work well for me at all, different boxes have different amounts, not all are full and the fabric got all wonky and required ironing again. I prewash my fabrics before they go into the boxes and I hate ironing. The boxes are sorted by color/theme and I currently have about 20 boxes of fabric. Figure about the size of a two-sliding door closet, but my closet is full of other things.

In the past 10 years, I've removed about 10-12 large black plastic garbage bags full of stuff so while I'm still surrounded by stacks it is returning to be a sewing room instead of a fabric storage room. Some people think I have a large stash, but I know people who have entire basements and storage units full of stuff, so I don't feel bad but I have decided to try and limit my purchases.

Edit: My tops are kept in three large clear plastic totes right by the door to my room, but protected from the light by the desk. I keep them there where I can see them to guilt me into quilting them down. Sometimes that works, but I still piece about 5 times as fast as I quilt down.

ladyinpurple135

The Sharpie pens don’t eat the fabric but they do get a yellow halo around the words, etc. I know because I have a shirt I’ve used for signatures from Nascar drivers and there are yellow halos around the signatures - which are at least 20 years old. I’d never use any Sharpie on a quilt for anything, but I would use other pens that are acid-free - scrapbook people always use them and they are perfect.

KatSki

I store my fabric in the decorative boxes I purchased from Michael's more than 5 years ago and I have not noticed any discoloration or deterioration in the fabric. The are listed as photo boxes, that may be the reason. I also store my yards of fabric in file folders and they also look fine when I go to use them.