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| The sewing section in The Abyss |
Years ago I inherited a small chest of drawers that my younger brothers had outgrown, and before long I started calling it the Bureau of Fabric because it was a great way to keep my fabric stash contained, even if the insides weren't as neat and tidy as they could have been.
I've since grown out of those 4 drawers into multiple totes--and I keep buying more. Since small projects are my forte, I love hitting up the remnants bins at the craft stores for a few more treasures each trip. In other words: my stash had become a bit unwieldy.
So, the other night, I decided it was time to tame the fabric beast, get rid of all the too-small pieces that were cluttering up the Bureau, and reorganize the usable fabrics that were left.
Inspired both by the way the remnants are rolled when I buy them as well as the practice of rolling clothes for packing to fit more in smaller spaces, I folded then rolled each piece of fabric and piled them all up.
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I'm a fabric-dragon, and this is my hoard. Out of curiosity I measured: this is ~22 cubic feet of fabric.
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Then it was time to add some order to the chaos and, for me, color is my organizing preference: whether it's paper, embellishments, the clothes in my closet, or the fabrics in my studio, I create by color so I group my supplies by color.
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| Sometimes vertical is the only way to go! |
To keep all my fabrics accessible, I stood most of them upright in three plastic totes, this way nothing is buried at the bottom and I don't have to dig around as much. Limited floor space leads to stacking (which defeats the purpose of accessibility) so instead I stood 3 totes up under my sewing table (a 2'x4' folding table), with larger rolls and a few full bolts stacked on top.
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The Bureau of Fabric lives!
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Not everything could fit in the upright totes, though, and the lighter colors maybe wouldn't do as well in open storage as the darker patterns. Those items went back into the chest of drawers but I they're not packed so deep as to make finding things impossible.
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Oooh, room for more stuff!
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This is a great example of how reorganizing saves space: I was able to empty out several totes and it wasn't because I discarded a lot of scraps, it was just a better use of space!
Having my fabric visible from pretty much anywhere in my studio means I'm way more likely to use it in projects. Organizing it this way means I can get to anything without any trouble. And getting it all organized is a great way to start off the upcoming year!
Wishing you creative days,
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