My Fabric Closet

As part of Sew, Mama, Sew!'s fat quarter month, they're asking bloggers to share photos of their fabric supplies.  Since my fabric closet is freshly cleaned, I thought I would play along.  Find out more here.

So, here's my fabric closet.  My sewing room is the second master suite in our house, so my room has its own closet (and bathroom!).  I took out the closet doors and hanging rod and put in some sets of shelves.  They're just bookcases left over from my old apartment, which is why they don't match. 

That white thing behind the chair is my design wall, which I made out of a piece of drywall and some cotton batting.  I used drywall because it's sturdy, can hold pins and can stand on its own. 

 

I store most of my fabric in little plastic tubs.  I find it easier to keep organized since, if I'm in a hurry, I can just stuff the fabric back in the tub and close the lid.  I also like being able to bring a tub over to my work table to browse.  The bins are labeled because I'm a messy sewer and my fabrics often find their way into the wrong bins.  This makes cleaning them up a little faster.

 

These smaller bins hold cuts of half a yard or less (which is almost all of my fabric) and are organized by color.  I love to buy monochromatic prints, since I find that I use them the most.  When I really fall in love with a collection, I buy small cuts of a bunch (or all) of the prints and give it it's own bin.  Right now, I have bins of Erin Michael's Lush, Heather Ross' Mendocino, Joelle Hoverson's Cake Rock Beach, and Etsuko Furuya's Echino.  I also have separate bins for reproduction-look fabrics, madras plaids and shirting fabrics.  I keep a larger bin for what I call "picture prints" like owls, sushi, etc.

 

Here's a look inside one of the bins.

 

And another. 

I prewash everything as soon as it comes into my room.  Luckily for me, our laundry closet is right outside the door to my sewing room!  I try to press everything when it comes out of the dryer, but I'm not always great about it, so some of the fabric looks a little wrinkly.  I'm quite the steam iron enthusiast though, so this problem is usually solved pretty quickly as soon as I start working on a project.

Seeing the Flea Market Fancy fabric in these last couple of shots is making me wistful.  I'm very, very close to running out of the tiny scraps I have left!

Of course, not all prints are monochromatic, so I keep slightly larger bins for those.  I have them divided into Cool, Bright, Deep and Light, which seems to work nicely for the prints I have.  That laundry basket is full of interfacing, white flannel, canvas, fusible webbing, iron-on vinyl, fiberfill, freezer paper and batting scraps.

 

I recently switched the shelves on this bookcase to try to thwart my cats' continuing efforts to climb behind the stacks of fabric and push them off the shelves.  So far it's been successful.  These larger bins have less then half yard cuts of solids and vintage sheets and linens.  I store these by temperature.  I also keep a little basket to collect selvedge because, one day, I'm going to finish my selvedge quilt.

These shelves house cuts of fabric larger than a half yard.  Most are two yards or less.  Linen and linen blends are on the top shelf.  Cotton prints are on the next two.  (You can really see here how few cuts, in relation the hundreds I have, are larger than a half yard!)  The lower shelf has solids, including denim and what I think of an "fancy' cottons like Amy Butler Quilting Solids, Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton or Kaufman Carolina Chambray.  I stack the solids by temperature.  The top shelf of the closet was recently cleared of bins of other kinds of fabric (wool, silk, etc.) that I don't use very often.  I'm now using that space to store finished and in-progress quilts, as well as batting.  If you go back to the first picture, you can see a black plastic tray.  I have two of these and use them to keep in-progress quilt tops organized while they're being pieced.

 

I also keep a lamp in here, so I can see everything.

The SMS post also asks about favorite prints.  I've noticed that lots of collections have a token stripe print to set off the typical florals, dots, scrolls, etc.  I like this idea, but love finding alternatives to the standard stripe.  It may sound odd, but I really have a soft spot for animal prints.  Jennifer Paganelli had an awesome zebra print in her Mod Girls collection (it looks like it will also be a part of Flower Power, which I can hardly wait for!).  Alexander Henry has a great cheetah print that you can see in the above photo.  I also adore the faux-bois fabric we've seen in Joel Dewberry's Aviary and Ginseng and in Erin Michael's Lush. 

Anyway, that's my fabric collection . . . and that was a really long post!

Comments

[Kitt's Krafts]

What lovely fabrics and so inspiring. You look so wonderfully organized. =^..^=

[jodie]

I have to wipe the drool off of my face now

[Courtney]

I really love this post! I like to see how others organize their spaces. I am going to have to steal that design wall idea!

[Robyn]

Wow. I can't believe you have such an amazing area. I have so little space -- my spare room is a sewing room/office/music room -- a whole wall is dedicated to my husband's thousands of record albums, and I only have been able to claim a portion of the closet in that room for my fabric stash!

[Karla]

It's absolutely beautiful, and I'm so jealous! What a great space!

[Alissa]

Ok. This is AMAZING. You are an inspiration. I'm putting this computer down RIGHT NOW and going to tidy my stash.

[Sherri]

Your fabric stash is inspiring...thanks for sharing! And I was just wondering about iron-on vinyl...what is it used for and where do you buy it?

[Patty]

Goodness, you are so organized and your fabrics look so wonderful!

P.S. I love your little white chair.

[Frogdancer]

I'm thinking that you're the most organised sewer I know!

[betsy]

wow, I am envius.
How do you manage to store the ironing board?
My stays out 365 days unless I have company then I have to run and hide it.

[Libby]

I am in awe of your organization. Very impressive

[Grace]

I have a chest and my fabrics are all piled into it. I have been organising it according to what I like and what I don't really like (some were stashes I had to buy in a bag that came with a garage sale) - which is a nightmare when it comes to finding fabrics I want to use. Thanks for your post, it has given me many ideas.

[Jessy Roos]

This is impressive! Right now all I have is a couple of cubbies in our tiny dining room that hold my little stash. I hope to one day be able to have a beautiful sewing room like yours! Thanks for sharing with us.

[Missy]

What a beautiful fabric closet! I am so envious! I actually heard "Ahhhhh!" being sung!

[wendy]

I'm not as envious of your fabric closet as I am of your fabric! I want Amy Butler's wallflower in six colors too (pout).

Hey, I need help identifying a mystery fabric that I got in a swap. I love it and i'm hoping someone can indentify it so I can buy more. Would you take a look? ilovebabyquilts.blogspot.com

Love your blog!

[Lara]

Oh my goodness! You are super organised. You've actually done what I've always dreamed about doing. I could drool over your fabric closet for hours.

[staci]

What an amazing collection of fabric - and so well organized! Thanks for sharing.

[closet organizers]

What a wonderful assortment of fabric! I love how you have it organized. :)

[Janis]

Wow -- and here I am needing to work on my room. I've been thinking about that for a while, but sewing is more fun. You're inspiring me to dig in and get back to a fresh start. Your space is great!

[Margaret]

You are so organised. I just can't imagine being so well disciplined. Well done. Your work area is really inspiring, Margaret

[Charlie]

Makes me want to clean the rest of my room. My fabric needs weeding out and an overhaul. I just have it thrown on the shelf.

[Jennifer]

Very amazing picture of your fabric storage! I, like many others, just have it thrown on a shelf. But be honest here, how long will it really look this way?? :)

[amanda]

oh elizabeth, it's super organized. I'm in awe here...

[Carolyn]

I'm so in awe of your organization. Thanks for sharing that! I like the clear bins and labels. You're so clever!

[Jackie Sue Davis]

Oh WOW ! It's beautiful and I think I am drooling! heehee WOW!!! I have a 2 kitchen trash bags with gallon ziploc bags as my stash organizers. heehee Very cool!
*HUGS*
Jackie