Need help sorting fabric.
 

I am getting ready to sort a large amount of fabric. When you have a piece that is white with pink dots or white with thin green and yellow lines, which pile should I put it in?

Step back- squint- what color do you see?? then sort in that pile..

I think that's a personal thing depending on how you are sorting. I have my civil war all separate and for that if the white is the dominent color then I'd put it with the white and so on. For my other fabric, I'm still working on my system but I keep flannels together, I also keep kids fabric together; mainly because my daughter raids it once in a while and that is where she'd go and it limits her from going all thru it. I recently got a bunch of fabric and I'm also sorting it by type; some of it is for decorating, there is homespun and since I want to make a french braid if I ever get enough (I'm too broke to buy any now). I have a lot of large florals and that is together. Then there is alot the is color coded going dark to light. This is what makes since to me because of the way I quilt. I also have 30 to 40 fabric and thats also done separtely. Figure out how you think you'll use it and try to come up with a system that will allow you to easily find what you need or see what you have when you decide you want to make something. I also don't have what you would call large amounts of fabric and from what I've seen on here most wouldn't call it a stash so I might do it differently if I can every afford to have a "stash". Good luck; it's a good thing you are doing.

When I look at the fabric, what color strikes me? If the pink dots strike me most, it goes with the pinks. If the white background is what I first notice, it goes with whites.

I have all my 30's fabrics in a separate 3 drawer cabinet sorted in colors. Other fabrics are sorted by floral & colors etc. and type of fabric. I try to use colorways to keep them separate. That's about all the farther I go before it all becomes overwhelming to me.

I too have a large stash.
I sort by colour and in addition have separate collections of stripes, plaids, batiks, 30s, novelities, childrens,dots and a couple more I can't offhand remember.

I would put white w/ other colors in them in a separate pile if I had enough of them.

a great question with some awesome answers. I keep holiday, animal print and juvenile fabric separate. But have struggled with the same problem on a lot of the others.

I sort my fabrics different, this means I take my favorite designers separate: all Fassetts together , all AmyButler, PhilipJacobs and BrandonMarblys. My Batics are together, cat fabrics and dots and my redworks too. The rest I sorted by colours!

Thank you for all the help. Keep the suggestions coming. I am formulating a plan in my mind.