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Organizing Fabric

You might say that organization is just another one of my hobbies. I find myself unable enjoy sewing unless my supplies and equipment are categorized and labeled. I find it really helps my productivity to be able to lay my hand on some particular piece of equipment or fabric when I need it. I thought you might find it entertaining to see some of my organizational efforts.

Fabric and ... more fabric

OK. So I have a lot of fabric. I might even be willing to admit that I have more fabric than any one person needs, but it never seems like too much. And that's in part because I keep it organized.

Stage 1: In the Beginning

Back in the early days of my fabriholicsm I used to just keep it categorized in a few labeled boxes and that was enough. But I eventually reached a threshold point where I could not longer remember what fabric I had, not even something I had bought only weeks before. And there were too many boxes to search through.

Stage 2

Then I read a message on the SewingList from someone who had an organization method that sounded appealing. With a few modifications, this is what I used.

Below you'll see some pictures of my fabric swatchbook.

In my swatchbook I have my fabrics categorized roughly by type, e.g. children's, lightweight/silk, pile/cord/velvet, etc... I usually fit 9 swatches per page although sometimes I'll take a larger swatch if I want to show large color variations or patterns. For the pages of the book I bought a ream of white card stock and hole-punched it for a 3-ring binder. The swatches are attached using double-sided, clear tape. Each swatch is labeled with the fiber content, yardage, width, and in some cases where it was purchased.

Sometimes if I need a "fabric fix" I can just browse my swatchbook and get it out of my system. The fabric itself is store in plastic containers in which I have melted ventilation holes (with an old soldering iron). The containers are labeled according to the type of fabric they contain.

 

Stage 3

Finally, I now have too much fabric to reasonably use the old swatching system. I've graduated to a similar system, but I record less data about each fabric, and I store many more swatches per page. Each page or two contains the swatches for a different bin of fabric and I use 45-gallon bins now. See below for pictures. The bins are broken roughly by type, e.g. I have two corduroy bins, with swatches on two pieces of cardstock, both sides. The bins are labeled with their number so I can pick them out easily.

And yes, that is a 4-inch binder.
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