Fabric & Floss Storage

Because, once again, a couple of people have asked, I’m going to share all the fabric/floss storage pictures and how I do it.

Fabric Storage:

The linen pieces and a bit of lugana, are kept in open containers in the sewing room closet with the doors closed.

It isn’t easy to see inside the closet but let’s start on the top shelf in the picture. See the tags hanging down? That’s one of the tubs with charts. To the right of that tub is the other tub with charts.

To the left of the tub with tags hanging down is lugana. To the left of that is 32 count linen. To the left of that is 28 count linen (thankfully, not much of that!)

On the shelf below that is the larger tub that’s overflowing – that’s 36 count linen. When I first started out, I ordered 40 count linen, then ordered 36 count linen. The XJu linen club this year was 36 count. I mainly ended up with more 36 count because it’s been easier to get than 40 count.

The tub to the left of that one is 40 count linen. To the left of that are a couple of tubs that have finishing materials – Lady Dot trim, ribbons, baker’s twine, etc.

Vikki Clayton Silks:

Most anything I order (or was ordering the last few months) was Vikki Clayton silks. For the most part, I order “packets” which is like a floss kit – the floss you need for a particular chart. I keep those floss bobbins in plastic bobbin cases and I’ve shown those before and written several posts about it.

I did order a few colors so that when I have a packet, if there’s a color that doesn’t work with my fabric, I’ll hopefully have a lighter or darker shade that will work. I keep these in the bobbin cases grouped together by color.

Overdyed Floss:

This is where I have a problem with taming the beast.

I can’t remember what brands are where but I think the top row has Classic Colorworks and Gentle Arts. The second row is all Victorian Motto and the bottom row is Weeks Dyeworks.

All except for Victorian Motto are grouped, by dyer, in alphabetical order. Victorian Motto flosses are grouped by color. I don’t think I have any charts that call for Victorian Motto so the color name is not important but say a chart calls for Licorice Red and, for my linen, I need a red that’s a little deeper, or a little more blue or whatever, I can go to the Victorian Motto red ring and find a color to sub.

DMC:

There is a problem with my DMC storage system but I hope I’m about to remedy that. I’ve made a huge mess of storing my DMC floss. The only good thing I’ve done with this is that I bought the entire set of DMC floss, along with the book that has all the real floss swatches in it. These skeins do not get used. I keep them for reference and probably would use them in an emergency. There has been a time or two when I needed a bit of floss for a project and I’d take a skein out, make a note, order a replacement with my next order and always put the replacement back in the box.

Other than that being really organized, here’s what I have done. Often when I ordered a chart, I would order the floss. Most of the time, I’d order one or two different charts (or more) and the floss for all of them. I’d say to myself . . I’ll put those in kits later and I never did. The charts would get put with the charts and the floss got stuck in the big floss box. There are hundreds of skeins of DMC floss and going through it all was too much trouble . . when I needed more floss, I’d just order it because that was easier than digging through the floss box. Wrong thing to do!

I’ve been thinking and thinking about what I can do to get the DMC under control. A couple of days ago, I went downstairs and looked around at containers. I have every size container imaginable down in the sewing room. I found the perfect size – just what I think will work for DMC storage. Of course, it’s an old Sterilite container and they don’t make it any more but I measured it and got the closest thing I could find, which is this:

They are the small clip case by Sterilite. They are 6.6″ x 11″ x 2.7″. DMC floss skeins are about 6″ long so I will place the floss across the short way. I will probably, put floss numbers 0 – 99 in one box; 100 – 199 in another box, and so on. Of course, I’ll label each box. Some of the colors I don’t use a lot, I may include 200 numbers in one box. This will make it so much easier to find needed DMC colors.

I should have enough room to be able to dig through and find the number I need without having to remove them all from the box. With the DMC book, I can check to see what color each number is, then just look for that color without having to look at browns, and greens and purples if the color I’m looking for is yellow. I’ll just pull the yellow skeins, check the number and be done.

The boxes should arrive today so I’ll spend some part of the day sorting and organizing floss. It will be so much easier once I get it all organized and there’s no more floss arriving for a while.