Sew Organized Part 3: Fabric and Scraps

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Welcome to part 3 of our Sew Organized series.  Today we're talking all about fabric - ideas for storing and organizing yardage, pre-cuts, fat quarters, scraps...all of it.  

First of all I want to just say that there's no one best way to organize your fabric.  We all create differently and we're all inspired by different things.  

If you already have a system in place that works for you, great!  I'd love to hear any tips and ideas you have to share.  

If you don't have a system yet, take a minute to think about how you choose fabrics when starting a quilt.  Do you first reach for a particular designer?  Or do you look for certain colors first?  Or maybe you like to work in specific styles, like Civil War era?

To be honest, I use a combination of all of these!  Here's where I store most of my fabric stash. 

As you can see, I use a combination of shelves and bins to organize and store everything.  

Storing by Color

When I start a project I often begin with colors in mind.  So it's most helpful to me to have my yardage stored by color.  

I try to keep myself limited to one stack of each color but as you can see in the photo below my aqua and green stacks have overflowed and are taking over the purple and brown spots.  Time to thin those out a little!

I also prefer to sort my scraps by color but you could also sort them by size.  My scraps are stored in the bins on the very top shelf and everything is just stuffed in there.  When I need to dig through for a scrap project it's kinda fun to just dump the whole bin out and make a colorful mess.  Clean up is easy because I just stuff everything back in, click on the lid and put it back on the shelf.  

Here's another way to store fabrics by color:

photo from Lori Holt, Bee in My Bonnet

This is a view of Lori Holt's storage - cute baskets with everything sorted by color.  


Storing by Size

There are a few sizes which are handy to keep separate from the others.  Anything about fat quarter size or bigger is folded on the shelf.  Everything else is sorted by size or stuffed into the scrap bins.

Orphan jelly roll strips and leftover binding strips (2.5" wide) get put together in this bin.  This is sure handy if I ever want to make a scrappy binding!  

I corral charm packs in this bin - which makes them easy to find when I'm ready to make a charm pack friendly quilt. In this bin I also have a stack of hand cut low volume charm squares.  The bin keeps them from fraying and I can easily grab a few to add in to projects!  I bought my bin at Walmart, and they no longer stock these.  But here are some similar ones on Amazon.

And 2.5" squares go into this bin.  These are so great for small projects and scrap projects like these!  Sometimes if I don't have an immediate use for a mini charm pack, I'll open it up and put all of the mini charms in here with these squares. 

I don't have a ton of jelly rolls, fat quarter bundles or layer cakes.  A few are kept in the closet, and my favorites are on a shelf and do double duty as cheerful decor!

Since pre-cuts like this are already conveniently bundled up there's not many storage options besides keeping them on a shelf or in a box or bin somewhere...

...or displayed in a lovely cabinet like this one!  I love it with the cake stands on top and the bundles of fabric all arranged inside.

Photo from Jessie Lathroum / Inside the Paper Box

Storing by Designer or Style

If you have a favorite designer it's nice to be able to find everything from that designer without doing a lot of digging through everything else.  I have a friend who loves everything from Fig Tree & Co. and keeps all of her Fig Tree prints together on the shelf.  I have two bins set aside for Bonnie & Camille fabrics. Another friend of mine is a huge fan of Lori Holt and keeps Lori's fabrics separate from the rest of her stash.  

 You could also sort by style - all reproduction prints together, all low volume prints together, all Civil War together, etc.  Most of my stash is very similar, but I do keep my 1920-30s reproduction prints together in one bin - and I've been using them a lot lately and have found it handy to have them all together like this.  

I also keep I-spy fabrics (mostly juvenile prints) in a box together and all Christmas prints together.  When I want to make a Christmas quilt I start in that bin and then add in some basics and blender prints from my stash.  


Need ideas on WHERE to store all of that fabric?  
(click on the photo for more information)

How about in drawers:

Photo from My Fabric Obsession

Stand alone shelves like these from Amazon:

Photo from Tallgrass Prairie Studio

Or in a filing cabinet?

Photo from The Thinking Closet

This hanging storage was meant for shoes - but works great for fabric:

Photo from Bryn Alexandra

Plastic bins like these fit great underneath a bed or under a desk:

Photo from Flamingo Toes

And I love this idea - an over the door shoe organizer that's now used for scrap storage.  The clear pockets make it easy to see just what's in there: 

Photo from Pioneer Valley Girl

And another fun idea for scraps - mason jars in rainbow order!

Photo from Canoe Ridge Creations

There's really so so so much out there for fabric storage and organization ideas and I know I've just scratched the surface!  If you have any tips and ideas you'd like to share, comment below.

Want to see even more ideas?  Check out my Sewing Room Organization pinterest board - and be sure to follow me because I'll keep adding great ideas to the board as I find them!


Next week will be our final week and we'll be talking about organizing projects.

Did you miss part 1 and part 2?  Find them here:
Sew Organized Part 1: Tips for Storing Quilting Tools and Rulers
Sew Organized Part 2:  Tips for Storing Patterns, Magazines and Books