Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Fabric Scrap Sorting Solution

Thank you for all of your wonderful suggestions as to how to organize the fabric-hazard that my living room turned into! All of your comments were not only helpful, but got me thinking about all of the many ways to organize scraps (or just about anything in your home). This is what I started with:

Argh!!!  Fabric mayhem!


Here are my faves, in case you're looking for suggestions on how to organize your scrap stash:


  • "Every once in awhile I pull some scraps from the basket and cut them into various sized squares, to be used in a project eventually." —Catskill Quilter
  • "I bought some clear plastic bins that are 16 quarts, I think, and I've separated them by color. " — Heather (Olive & Ollie)
  • "Go to firehouse subs for lunch, and then buy a few of their pickle buckets. Line them up under your cutting table and throw in the scraps into the correct bucket as you cut."— Jean (Jean Creates)
  • "I've been thinking about metal baskets to hang on the wall and hold scraps..."— Elizabeth (Inspire Me Grey)
I loved all of the suggestions, and ultimately settled on this solution, primarily due to the constraints of a smallish sewing room (and an even smallish-er budget)! This is what my storage solution is:

Organized! (whew)
 Scraps are sorted by color into large storage baskets (on sale at Michaels, thankyouverymuch), and out of the way on top of my bookcases. Not the most convenient, but hey, I don't need scraps all the time, right? I can pull the bin down when I need it and then it goes up and out of the way when I don't.


I tied fabric scraps to the ends of the baskets so I can easily tell which color is in which basket.


The issue I see becoming a reality is that, at some point, the scraps will no longer fit in the bins...and then what? But I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!  

In other news (as in "Stitchy Quilt Stuff", this being the STUFF portion), I was told today that being friends with me is like going into outer space: super scary but also pretty fun. 

I'm not sure what to do with that...  Take it as a compliment?  ;-)


Happy Stitching!

Kelly



5 comments:

______ said...

When you get too many scraps, make more quilts.
-Taylor

Kelly Biscopink said...

LOL! You make a good point, Taylor!

Elizabeth said...

Great idea to put the colored scraps on the handles.

Jean(ie) said...

love the color cues on the handles. I also keep an empty folgers can on the cutting table to catch the scraps before sorting...

Catskill Quilter said...

Love it - especially the colors on the handles!