I’m a fabric person. It comes with the territory of being a seamstress, I guess. Regular shopping has never been my favorite pastime, but I could spend hours wandering through fabric shops, seeing and touching all of the cloth. I’m instantly inspired and see through the bolts to the possibilities of skirts and tops, leggings and dresses and swimsuits. Along with all the wandering, inevitably comes buying, and then storing at home.

Over the last ten years, I’ve collected hundreds of yards of fabric (that I’m slowly stash busting into projects) and these are a few of the solutions that work to keep the fabrics fresh, organized, and ready to use at a moment’s notice.

1. PREWASH AND DRY
This is a widely recognized practice for sewing. Rather than waiting to prewash until I choose a project for a particular fabric, I prewash and dry all of my fabric right when I get home from the fabric store, so that I can store it ready to use.

This ginger mango laundry detergent by method has the most amazing smell that stays with the fabric even out of the dryer. I mean, ginger mango? I can’t help but bury my nose into the folds of cloth every time I pull out a batch of fabric (or just my family’s regular laundry.) It’s fresh without being overwhelming and strong without being overpowering. And because it’s mild, I feel comfortable using it on both new and vintage material that I’m washing for my stash.

The new collaboration between method and asos is full of inspiration. I love browsing the styles for ideas of what to make, or what to pair with my handmades. ( Right now you can use the code THREEFORME for $3 off your online purchase of method detergent! Score!)Once my awesome smelling fabric comes out of the dryer, I decide which of my storage methods to use. Because I sew mostly apparel, I buy yardage. Anything over 2 yards gets bolted, and under 2 yards gets rolled or folded.
2. MAKE BOLTS FROM CARDBOARD
This large-cut solution has been such a huge help to organize my fabric. It’s free, easy, and make all of the fabric easy to see at once. The process is really simple. I use strips of cardboard from moving boxes, but you could use any cardboard you have on hand. Cut it into similarly-sized pieces, and then fold your fabric yardage to a width a couple inches more narrow than the bolt. Roll the fabric around the cardboard bolt until you get to the end, then secure with a single straight pin to keep it on there! The top shelf of my studio closet is filled with cardboard bolts from one end to the other, in color order (of course) so I can easily see and choose which material I’d like to use for my next project.3. SORT BY SIZE
Again, because I’m sewing clothing and not quilts, it’s important for me to know the quantity of a particular fabric I have on hand. I don’t want to look in my drawer and fall in love with a fabric just to pull it out and realize I only have a fat quarter when I need a yard. So, for fabric that doesn’t meet my 2 yard bolt requirement, I store pieces by yard and half-yard, roughly. Anything under a half-yard is considered a “scrap” that I can use for little things like baby gifts, contrast pockets, and zipper pouches. 4. ROLL AND STORE ONE DEEP
These days I love rolling my fabrics into short, fat bundles, then storing them only one-deep in my fabric drawers. The rolling gives each fabric a little more bulk and height, so I can layer them each one-deep along the drawer and see every piece at a glance. This should work with any type of drawer or basket, too. with deeper drawers you could roll them and store them on-end like scrolls, to be able to see all of the prints at once.

5. STORE FABRIC WHERE YOU CAN SEE IT
You don’t necessarily have to be able to see all of it at once, like with my bolt shelf, but it’s so helpful to know what you have and be inspired by the material if you don’t forget about it all! When we lived in DC I had a great little setup in our coat closet, and I stored all of my fabric in these clear plastic bins.

Now that I have a studio at home, I keep the fabric in the closet on bolts or in the drawers, all ginger-mangoy smelling clean, dried, and ready for whatever new idea strikes!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.