Monday, May 14, 2012

Fabric Organizing, Logging & Storage


Organize-A-Long:
Week #1 at a glance...
Category 1: * Cotton / Organic Cotton *
Cotton is the most popular fiber used worldwide. It can be smooth or textured, soft or durable, sheer or
satiny. The world of cotton fabrics is versatile and abundant.
Calico
Denim
Diaper Cloth
Dimity
Drill
Duck
Lighter duck
Eyelet
Flannel cotton
Flannelette
Gauze
Gingham
Lawn
Muslin
Organdy
Outing flannel
Oxford
Percale
Pima Cotton, from Egyptian
cotton,
Polished Cotton
Poplin
Sailcloth
Sateen
Seersucker
Swiss
Terry Cloth
Velveteen
Velour
Whipcord Cotton Fabric
Knit: Solids / Printed / Ribbed
Medium Weight Quilting Cotton
Waffle weave
Birdseye
Quilt Batting


Category #2: * Polyester *
Polyester is a strong and durable synthetic fabric. Polyester dries quickly and can be washable or
dry clean only, so check your tags. Polyester is often used as a blend with other fabrics to lend
wrinkle resistance. It is not the easiest fabric to remove stains from, and doesn't breathe as well as
other fabrics may.
BLazer Poplin
Charmeuse
Chiffon
Georgette
Lame’
Microfiber Fabrics
Minkie (Minky)
Moleskin
Organza
Peachskin
Poplin
Satin
Stretch Velvet
Taffeta
Velour

Category #3: * Wool *
Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and certain other animals,[1] including cashmere from
goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel
family, and angora from rabbits

Category #4: * Specialty Fabrics *
Diaper Making Fabs:

Cotton/Organic Cotton:
Fleece
Terry
Velour

Hemp:
Fleece
Terry
Velour

Bamboo
Fleece
Terry
Velour

PUL / DIY
SSM
CDMF
Zorb 1
Zorb 2

Hemp:
Corduroy
Muslin
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Hempcel:
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IKAT:
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Soy:
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Insul-Bright

Week #1 Break Down: Fabrics
For the swatch pages: you do NOT have to cut a piece of the fabric! You can choose to
either take a picture of it or find a pic off of the designers website and print it out!
Don’t forget to make multiple copies of your Fabric Swatch Inventory Page before you
get started!
Don’t be embarrassed, take a ‘BEFORE’ picture. Also, take pics throughout your organizing
journey, it will give you a sense of accomplishment when you are ready to give up.
Remember.. it feels like it gets worse before it gets better! Don’t give up! Stay focused and
look at the big picture.. Your Organized Fabric!
Before you can start taking inventory or logging your fabric I suggest seperating it into
categories. That way, when you return it to where you store it, it will already be broken down
into categories. ie: all quilting wovens in one section, all knits in another, specialty fabs,
etc. etc. If you store in bins/tubes/totes: mark the totes.
If you store your fabric in totes, tape a piece of paper of the type of fabric on the outside- on
the lid and the side out that you see once stored. I also recommend that if you store your
fabrics in totes, get clear/see through ones.. that is also a huge help!
Monday - Friday Week #1:
For Tube/Tote/ Bin Mamas: Locate all bins/tubes/totes of your fabric. If room permits,
begin to sort through them. If there are multiple styles of fabric stashed, divide them in piles
of type. Ie. woven, knit, poly, etc. etc. * If room does not permit for you to keep the piles of
seperated fabric out.. you can inventory your fabric via the swatch page and return fabric
back in bins divided in types. Take notes on which bins hold which types of fabrics that are
inside so you can refer back to them in the future to pull out for large divide and organize.
You can either # the totes or tape the information to it. There is also a NOTES section on the
swatch page you can enter the Tote # and location.
Fabric at Hand Mamas: If your fabrics are easily accessible: you can begin by seperating
your fabrics by types: cottons/ polys/ specialty etc. This is also a great time to decide
storage solutions. If your current storage works, then don’t change. Some may need new
storage solutions. I bought a wire cube shelving unit for the closet and it works great!
* ONCE all your fabrics are divided into categorized piles, start logging your inventory
then putting it away in their storage location. I began taking inventory of fabrics I had the
less of. -Specialty fabs: Hemps, Diaper & Pad Making fabrics etc).
* While organizing my quilting fabs I did 2 things: I divided them into Designer, then
broke it down into design lines and then color categories. It made finding the color
coodinates to that design a breeze. Of course you don’t have to do this, it’s just a thought.
OR you could just organize by color.
Continue the same process with the rest of the Fabrics via Category and Types until ALL of
your fabrics are swatched, logged and stored.
This may take you longer than a week and that’s okay! Just keep truckin at it!

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