As I have mentioned before, I currently use our guest room as my sewing space. It’s a little cramped with a big bed in there, but it works OK.
When I got my new sewing machine, though, I forced myself to do a major clean and re-organize to make it “worthy” of my fancy new purchase.
The bulk of my stash was previously in some open wire shelves, and while it was an OK solution, it was becoming a little too messy. The stacks were precarious, and larger pieces of yardage were stuck in the back until I practically forgot they were there. Scraps were in a set of plastic drawers, organized by color.
Now, I’ve got my stash (basically anything from a scant fat quarter on up to several yards) nicely folded and in those drawers, organized by color.
Aaahh, it makes me so happy. I like that it is both easily visible and completely contained. One drawer for reds and pinks, one for oranges and yellows, one green, one (stuffed to the brim) blue, one purple and white/multicolored prints, one brown/black/gray, and even a separate drawer for colored solids. (And yes, I had fun with my label-maker.)
I used a 5.5″ wide piece of cardboard to fold everything from the scant fat quarters up to about 1/2 to maybe 3/4 yard. The template was just the right size so that the fabric can be two-across, and is just shorter than the depth of the drawer. Larger pieces were folded around my 6″ ruler and then folded in half, and tucked in the back. As you can see, the drawer itself is easy to pull completely out of the shelf and look at an entire color group, which is nice.
The old wire shelves have moved to the other side of the room, and now hold works in progress, and stacks of fabric that I have pulled for a particular project, as well as batting and other miscellaneous things. Hopefully the “miscellaneous” category won’t get too out of control and the shelves won’t become a catch-all for everything I don’t feel like putting away.
But my question for you, fellow fabric fiends, is how you organize your scraps (basically from maybe half of a fat quarter down to 2″ squares). For the moment, I have moved mine into latching clear plastic boxes, also organized by color. And it’s certainly a good start: again both visible and contained at the same time.
But in talking to someone a week or two ago, I found that she actually cuts all of her scraps into uniform sizes and stores them that way. Some 10″ squares, some 6″ squares, and on down the line. On the one hand, the organization and neatness of it certainly has some appeal to me, over my tangled mass shoved in a box. But it also makes me weirdly nervous. Cutting is just so… final. The one thing you really can’t un-do. What would be the “right” sizes to cut? What would simultaneously most useful and least wasteful?
So, an informal poll of my handful of readers: how do you store your scraps? Are they in a big mess in a plastic bag? Sorted by color? Organized by size? Do you cut them before storing, or just toss them in a box and figure it out later?
