Ideas for best way to fit fabric into new cabinets needed!
 

I'm working on moving my sewing room from a cramped bedroom upstairs into the much larger living room downstairs.

I've purchased a whole row of cabinets to line one wall and this is where I want to keep my fabric (among other things). Problem is the cabinets are fairly deep so I can't decide how best to store my fabric in them.

The cabinets (inner dimension) are about 14-1/2" deep by about 29" wide. Shelves are adjustable and I purchased extras so height of each shelf can be whatever I want it to be.

My original intention was to just fold the fabric and line them up like books (sort of like with the comic book boards, but no boards inside), but not sure that will work out so well. I have a lot of half-yard cuts and if I fold them to be 14" wide I think they'd be so thin they'd get lost. I could put all the smaller cuts in a separate area maybe, but I really want to put everything all together based on color, without all these separate groupings of fabric (like I have now that drives me crazy).

I don't want double rows on the shelves, I want everything as visible as possible.

Right now my fabric is stored in Rubbermaid drawers...the inner drawer parts are too long for my cabinets unless I turn them sideways...I could do that and use them as bins, but due to their length I could only fit one per shelf and that doesn't work for me. I could buy new bins that fit better (probably), but ugh....I don't really WANT bins if I can avoid it. And I've already spent a small fortune on this room so I'm really DONE spending money I don't need to spend.

Other ideas? I'm kind of at a loss. I don't even have the cabinets built yet (need to paint first) but I'd love to have a solution ready to go because as soon as that room is painted I am going to go NUTS moving my stuff in. I am super anxious to get this room done so I can play in it!

I would Ruler fold yardage around a 6 x 24 ruler and stack them flat. I did this so yardage would fit on a standard bookcase. Your cabinets are deeper so you wouldn't quite be using all the depth. But it works well when you need a particular fabric. You can see them all and only have to disturb a stack to get the fabric out.

I initially ruled out flat stacks but this might be the way for me to go... I have enough extra shelves that I could make the stacks only 8" high or so, that's not a terrible amount of fabric to disturb.... Hmmm....

Tartan - I really, REALLY don't want double rows. All my books are this way (I actually have more books than fabric, believe it or not) and I HATE it but I don't have a choice there. I want my fabric stash to be better.

I do have doors on my cabinets, so that's good. Whatever I come up with, it'll be hidden away.

I would go with Toverly's idea. I originally housed my fabric in a cabinet similar to what you are describing except mine were even deeper. I've since switched over to Lawyer's bookcases and love them. I still have the big cabinet and use it to hold my fq's and UFO's in the drawers. I use the top cabinets for "stuff".

I've got a 14 1/2 deep cabinet and I ruler fold most of my stuff (or at least the new stuff ) Since you have a lot of half yard pieces I did a quick experiment. If you use a 3 inch ruler rather than a 6 incher, they end up about 1/2 inch thick, so you can see the fabric and it takes up the same depth as as a regular 6 inch fold. I think that it might work better if you put a piece of cardboardish type stuff on either side of the whole stack since it would probably be a little less stable sideways than a 6 inch stack. I just used an 18 x 3 ruler to try it. Even with it not reaching the selveges or the fold it worked fine.

linkd - and you're laying the folded fabric flat? Or standing it up like a book?

I'm having trouble envisioning this...you're ending up with the folded fabric 3" wide by 1/2 inch thick and...how deep?

I appreciate all the ideas and feedback I'm getting! As soon as I get the room done I'll post piles of pictures. :) I'm HOPING it'll be completely done before end of the month but that's going to depend on the painter's schedule.

I was originally going to buy regular bookshelves, but then found the deeper ones and bought them without really figuring out how that would work for my fabric. The deeper shelves will be GREAT for everything else I need to store, but now in retrospect I kind of wish I'd gotten a mix of deep and standard bookcases. Too late now, though!

[QUOTE=Sewnoma;6669136]linkd - and you're laying the folded fabric flat? Or standing it up like a book?

Laying it flat. It is about 11 inches deep/long. Leave the fabric as it comes off the bolt (selvage to selvage) fold/wrap it around a ruler placed perpendicular to the fold, slide the ruler out and fold it in half widthwise. The usual instructions (you can probably find a video) involve a 6 x 24 ruler and would leave your with something wider than 6 inches but the same length. If you used a 6 x 24 ruler with a half yard cut I don't think that you would see enough of your fabric to pick it out of the stack. It does look like it will work with a 3 x 24 (I used a 3 x 18 - that's what I had) and only stacked 2 pieces because I was just trying it out.

Lin from Sebastopol