Fabric Storage Inspiration

Lots of fabric storage inspiration to share this week!

Deb Geyer at Contemporary Traditions shared these great ideas for storage and functionality.

Her link: http://contemporarytraditions.blogspot.com/2009/07/quilt-studio-workshop-storage.html

The first is two pieces of plywood, one padded for ironing, mounted to the top of a bookcase. Bonus! There is space between the two sheets of plywood for her cutting mat. Great idea Deb.

The other idea Deb shares would be great especially for those of you with lots of fabric!

She stores her fabric in clear acrylic sweater drawers. What makes this idea ever more clever is how she adds color cards, clearly visible, to indicate the color family stored in each drawer.

Not only a great tip that could be incorporated into other storage, but very pretty to look at!

The next photos are from Marsha at Sassy Mini Dolls. As you may have seen, Marsha also shared her wonderful glitter storage ideas on the last entry.

Her link: http://www.sassyminidolls.blogspot.com/

Marsha does a lot of minis, so she has ideas for mini fabric storage (known as scraps to some of us). "Making miniature dolls I do not have large pieces of fabric so this is how I store them. My hubby built me a worktable that has cubby holes on the side and I purchased these containers to store my fabric They are stored by color. "

"I store the trims in the smaller containers on top of my worktable." (I love the mini 'Boutique' room box!)

And you have to love this! "My laces I store in a train case that I embellished :)" Such a beautiful place to keep all those beautiful trims.

The following are from one of my fellow Crazy Quilters, Mary Anne, from Magpie Mumblings.

Her link: http://magpiesmumblings.blogspot.com/

I really like the idea that this is something that can be customized to your own space and according to the size of your stash! One could also easily personalize a piece like this.

"I use a six drawer chest to hold my fabric 'bits' for crazy quilting. Each drawer is sorted by colour so it's fairly easy to find what I want. Right now the drawers are relatively neat, but once I start on a project I can pretty much guarantee they won't look like this!!"

Mary Anne, I think we all create messes as we work~lol. If there is anyone out there that doesn't, I really want to hear from you. What I love about this idea is how easy it is to access the fabric - messy or not. Thanks for sharing Mary Anne.

I used to work in a design department with several designers. I enjoyed organizing supplies whenever I got the opportunity, even though nothing stayed in place for long with there being so many of us always having projects in the works. I thought the following two storage ideas were worth sharing.

The one above is using open wire baskets. On the outside/front we hung tags, each with a small snippet of the fabric on one side and the back would have information such as fabric content, where purchased and cost as we needed to have this for our records. Below, the fabrics were also kept in large plastic containers on open shelves, sorted by color.

Keep going. There are more ideas shared by others...

Missy/Melisa over at The Little Green Bean Shop generously shared a tutorial you will want to be certain to check out.

Her link: http://maluukkonen.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-addiction.html

Don't her fabrics look awesome!

While her husband worked with the shelving, Melisa worked on some foam core mini bolts for her fabrics! These are wonderful and it is so sweet of her to share a tutorial on creating them. If you have a need for larger boards, you might check with your local fabric store. I asked at the local Hancock Fabrics, and they give their boards away when empty. ChaChing!

Finally, Mandy at Whimsie Dots has her wool sweaters on open shelving.

She keeps bins below with wool scraps sorted by color. These look delicious! All you would have to worry about with this idea is getting the right color into the right bin. Great idea!

She also attached clothespins to hold some of her creations. You have to love that! This would even be a great idea for hanging ribbons or trims near your fabrics!

These last two aren't as wonderfully illustrated as the others, but might still inspire an idea that would work for you. I have posted them before and hope to maybe elaborate on them as I proceed with my room. Sorry for the repetition.

Hang larger quantities of fabric on the old wooden pants hangers or make use of your closet space for shelving that can be closed off when you need to hide it or left open for inspiration on your next project.

I also wanted to point out one of my very favorite publications, Studios, by Cloth-Paper-Scissors, often has great storage ideas for fabrics and other materials. The Spring 2011 issue (with Ty Pennington on the cover) has a section on Apps for your iPad etc. I had no idea these existed since I get by but by no means am I 'tech savy'. There is even an App called Fabric Stash that allows you to carry your inventory of fabric with you in your iPad, iPhone and iPad Touch! Who knew!?! I love, love, love this magazine for inspiration and ideas! If you haven't seen one and/or can't find it in your area, email me and I will get you the contact info so you can drool too.

Another place to look for great ideas for storing any of your supplies is by observing how shops display their inventory. You never know where your next great idea may come from.

Link: I have one other blog link to share with you - actually two to the same blog. Although not specific to fabric storage, I think you might enjoy the images, tutorials and business tips offered there. Check them out by clicking on the following links.

http://studio11charms.blogspot.com/2011/03/more-organizing-ideas-for-your-craft.html http://studio11charms.blogspot.com/2011/03/cute-ways-to-keep-organized.html

I want to thank each of you that were so sweet to share your ideas with the rest of us! Have a wonderful week! I will choose another storage item on a later post. Thank you all for checking in and for sharing your images and ideas! I love hearing from you.