Fabric Organization Madness!

I'm not an organized person by nature. In fact, one thing that attracted me to my husband is that when he would visit me in grad school, he would clean up my apartment! Okay, at first that got on my nerves, but I learned to appreciate it ;)  He also used to have typed out labels on his files...sadly (sniff, sniff) this is now a thing of the past, but I digress, that is material for another blog, another place :P

My quest today was to organize the fabric I have collected over the last 2 years, since I learned to sew! Yes, I am a fabric hoarder in such a short period of time! I am turning into my mother, and I admit it. :P

I have fabric here:

okay, and here and here and here:

 

Sooooooo, since I have redone my sewing room, I am trying to get organized and also make my space pretty! I found this idea for fabric storage using foam board, and decided to go for it! Here are the final results, and I couldn't be more pleased!!!!

Here's how I went about my awesome fabric organization/fabric display redo!

Step 1:

Buy foam boards! I bought mine at Dollar Tree. They are $1 for 20" x 30". Hobby Lobby actually had some for $1.99 and they were 50% off, but they were nicer/thicker, and I decided the Dollar Tree ones would be easier to cut.

Step 2: Cut the foam- each piece will give 8 pieces...they each end up being 7.5" x 10." I used a rotary cutter, but I'm sure an X-acto knife would also work!

this is what you end up with!

Step 3: Fold and fold and fold and fold and roll and roll and roll and roll!!!! Seriously, I was having flashbacks of working at Casual Corner and folding til the wee hours of the night after a huge sale. Anyway, I wrapped the fabric around the foam board and then just pinned it. Careful how you pin though, on small pieces of fabric (since it's not that thick.) I had to play with the pin so I wouldn't get poked!

final result (well, SOME of them!)

sometimes I folded it like this, sometimes i didn't. I'm wild like that! PS I love this fabric!

Step 4: Vow to not buy more fabric until you use up what you have!!!!!!!!!!!

I was originally planning on doing all the fabric that was originally on this shelf (as well as overflow some I pulled out of bins) but as I folded (and folded and folded and folded) I decided not to do everything, and to just roll the pretty cottons/quilting cottons. Getting 60" fabrics and knits around that little board didn't sound so fun, so I just folded the other apparel fabric and knits nicely! I am okay with that :) When I get nicer shelves, I might place the foam boards vertically like library books, but this works for me for now!

Here is the whole shelf that I don't think is too much of an eye sore...actually I love being able to see my pretty fabrics:

I still do have some bins, but they are now more organized and I know where everything is and what I have (TOO MUCH!!!!). I separated my bins into bulky fabrics (fleece, etc), scraps less than 1 yard but still usable for maybe bodices for my 4 year olds dresses (and fat quarters), and baby material/flannel, etc that I buy for random presents I seem to need to make :) 

Happy folding!!!! (PS, please reprimand me if you see a post on Facebook about my going to the fabric store!!!)