Originally Posted by rneugin
i saw somewhere yesterday to use plastic boards to put big peices of fabric on store on shelf like in fabric shop i wonder if cardboard would work as well i have a lady that saves me the cardboard that her bolts come on. smaller peices could go in plastic bins.
The problem with using cardboard, or the bolt cardboards that come from Joannes or your quilt shoppe... is that cardboard is not archival/non-acid. So over time, what ever you store rolled up or around on cardboard will be exposed to acids leaching out of the board. You will... WILL... get lines, bleaching, discolorations and such ... that look like they were 'striped' onto the fabric. The stains do not wash out.
Yes, Polor Notions has the plastic boards (as do at least 2 other companies) where you tuck the fabric into tabs on the board, then wind it around (just like if it were on a bolt). They work great. Another group of quilters came up with using Comic Book Boards. These things are archival and safe, for they are used by serious Comic book collectors to package their priceless comic books on. They are not as stiff as the plastic boards, cause they are treated foam boards. But they come in different sizes, and are slightly cheaper. Sometimes they are listed as 'silver' boards. You can google Comic Book Boards to see them, or Google Polar Notions for the other (polar makes both fat quarter size and larger piece sized plastic boards). Both the plastic Polar Notions boards and the Comic Book boards work great - you wind up your material on them, tuck or pin... then sit them up on your shelving/bookcases just like books.
But seriously... don't use regular cardboard or the bolt boards from the stores. They are not meant to store fabrics on for long periods of time.