A frequent question that comes to me via email is regarding my Fabric Organizers. I have written about them several times on the blog and I absolutely love them. They are not cheap and it’s hard to stomach the investment sometimes when really all it is, is a piece of plastic board that you are wrapping your fabric around. I totally get that. So how about a few other options?
I wanted to share an idea with you that someone shared with me about two years ago in a fabric group that I belonged to (yes, there are groups for fabric obsessed people like myself). If you are looking for a more inexpensive, economical way to organize your fabric, try ordering a set of Archival Comic Book Boards. Now I don’t organize my fabric this way because I’m hooked on my other organizers, but here’s what they look like:
They come in many different sizes and generally come in packs of 100 for less than $20. Now they aren’t going to be as sturdy as some of the fabric organizers that are made of plastic, but they will do the trick getting your fabric looking neat and tidy. And if you have a lot of smaller cuts of lots of different prints, these comic book boards will save you a lot of money. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend them for keeping large cuts (5 yards +) organized as they can look a little sloppy with huge amounts of fabric. But for 4 yards or less, these will be great!
You may have already heard about this before as I know a lot of people store their fabric this way, but just in case you hadn’t, I thought I would pass along the information to you. I found a whole bunch over on Amazon if you want to check them out.
Here are some other folks that have used these comic book boards to organize their gorgeous fabric:
Here is another fun ‘filing’ technique which is kind of a combination of comic book boards and a file box. I think this looks great and would be perfect if you don’t have shelves or are storing fabric under a bed. I couldn’t seem to locate the source for this picture, but it is a beautiful box of fabric.
If you are looking for a plastic organizer, I have recently been informed that there is another option on the market in addition to the ones that I use from Polar Notions:
There is nothing better than having a nice, beautiful organized stash of fabric. I hope these pictures give you some ideas for alternative ways to organize all your pretties. Just looking at a pretty fabric stash makes me happy (this coming from an admitted serious fabric addict).
Lindsay Wilkes is the owner and designer behind The Cottage Mama. She creates timeless, vintage inspired sewing patterns for children’s clothes. She is also a fabric designer for Riley Black Designers / Penny Rose Fabrics, author of the book ‘Sew Classic Clothes for Girls’ and can be seen teaching nationwide and online in her video series ‘Lessons with Lindsay’ sponsored by Baby Lock Sewing and Embroidery machines.
Hi Lindsay,
I just did a post on this very topic. I used cardboard squares that I ordered, precut. You can see what I did here: http://deborahfillmer.com/2012/07/30/ya-i-did-that/
Your fabric looks great! Another great idea 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
I prewash and then iron my fabric before I store it. I use the hanging method using the pendaflex files. It is so easy and a great way to store my fabric.
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I too organized my fabrics using comic boards and it worked out great. I too am fabric obsessed and well I bought 500 boards and it’s still not enough 😛 — another thing that I did do was gather up a bunch of finished bolts from Joanns and cut them to the same size as comic boards to save a little money and they worked for my flannel and non-designer cottons.
This makes me wish I didn’t have to shove all my fabric into one little closet =) Organizing fabric that has to sit 3 rows deep is a challenge!
Not many fabrics,all are in a drawer by color.I don´t prewash,I like finish the quilt and then wash it.
Thanks Lindsay! I really need to get a handle on my fabric stash. Most likely if I organized it one of these ways I would be able to store more!! But we won’t tell my hubby that!!!!
I saw your post months ago (thank you so much!) and fell in love with the organizing of these but they were out of my price range. I ended up making my own by cutting large pieces of corrugated plastic from Home Depot and they work great!
Thank you so much for this post. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in Creative Busy Bee Craft Inspirations, under the Page 5 post on Aug. 11, 2012. Thanks again.