Some handy hints for storing fabrics.

Like many shops we are holding a January sale. We've reduced all sorts of fabrics, from light weight silks to festive craft cotton. I particular I like a ruffly fabric that's now only £10.00 per metre.

 Many customers have been picking up fabrics for up and coming projects, we even have some Easter fabrics in the sale so they don't need to wait long before they can get sewing. However some people felt they couldn't take full advantage of the sale as they were concerned about storing fabrics until they were needed.

 

Hence this little post about how I personally store some of my fabrics. Here is a very heavy cotton which one day I may finally get around into turning into a waistcoat. (most fabric, if left near me  for long enough will turn into a waistcoat).  This is 112cm wide and there's about 3 metres in the photo.

By carefully folding the fabric I can fit it into a sturdy A4 ziplock bag. Gently squeezing all the air out before zipping the back shut helps reduce the amount of space the fabric takes up. In the bag it is protected from most pests that can try to get into the fabric as well as pet hair.  You can buy A4 ziplock bags from many stationary  shops, although I got mine on E-bay.

You can also group together smaller pieces of fabric, like this collection of remnants.

Here we have around seven metres or soof fabric in varies shapes and sizes. I group mine by colour or fabric type. I then write on the bag with a sharpie, listing the contents and if the fabric has a particular use, in my case this will be for "Belly Dance Costumes" or "Steam Punk creations".  This way if I need my fabrics for a project, but haven't decided which one to use I only have to rummage through one small bag instead of my entire fabric collection  The same is true for if I need a certain colour of fabric.

I then take these bags and file them away in a box. This box is designed for under bed storage. It costs less than the savings on one meter of some fabrics in the sale making it a fantastic investment. When ever I need to lay my hands on a fabric quickly I can just flick through the bags thus making no extra mess. Before I organised my fabrics like this I'd end up having to re-fold and re-stack all my fabrics to find the fabric I wanted.

Simple little steps like this can make a huge difference to the pleasure you get from sewing, as well as helping you spend your time more efficiently.

By the way, if you wish you could shop in our sale but live too far away from a Fabric8 shop then check out our clearance section on our  website at http://www.fabric8online.co.uk/