Friday, September 18, 2009

Hiatus

I decided to take a week long break from creative projects as I return from vacation and get my boys settled into their fall schedules. It felt like a good time to do a little reorganizing and studio clean out.

One area that I hadn't tackled for over 5 years is my fabric stash mainly because I find it almost impossible to let go of any of it. You just never know what you might need in the future! But my cabinets were disorganized messes, I couldn't shut the doors, and I found I kept using the same fabrics from the top of the heap.

Before:


It took a while, but I finally started letting some pieces go. I really enjoyed revisiting long-forgotten fabric that was wadded up in the bottom of the stack. Basically I have two large cabinets with cubbies. I organize my fabric by color with separate bins for silks and velvets. Since I use bits and pieces more than lengths of fabric, I keep ziplock baggies in each cubbie for scraps in that color and a special tuna box full of ziplock bags of my precious torn pieces.

It's not going to appear in any fancy studio magazine, but it works for me.

After:






4 comments:

Chris said...

That was weird. I thought for a moment that my fabric piles had somehow ended up on someone else's blog!
Maybe I'll clean up my mess this weekend...

Cindy Woods said...

I see you've got the organizing bug too! Must be something in the air... Hope you've got some space reserved for a few extra remnants/treats--aren't I the tease?! :)

Dreamcicle Journeys said...

Robin, I'm impressed with your getting organized- something I think about but don't do. Your idea to bag little fabric pieces together by color is a good one. Now you're ready for new projects.

Robin Olsen said...

It's funny how many of us have similar fabric issues. I have no illusions that my fabric will stay organized once I start stitching again. An occasional clean up is all that I hope for. And yes, Cindy, one of the main purposes of cleaning out is to allow new things to flow my way. :)