Fabric stash recording.
While I was at CoCo, I made sure this year to take Diane Yoshitomi's class on Stash Taming. Now, I already had some ideas at taming my stash, and had started some time ago, but her class, with handouts, really helped to jell some other ideas, and gave me more tips to improve what I was doing.
So, I came home, and recently made up some new pages that I am using to record some of my stash. They are 4 pages (tho 2 pages are the exact same thing) that not only record the fabric, but also has plenty of space for design ideas on the front. The back side is where I can record lining fabrics, trims, closures, and other swatches for the complete garment.
So, I spent last night and this afternoon working on organizing my fabric stash. I've misplaced my three hole punch for the cardstock pages, but the measuring, and recording went well, and I will be doing more tonight (so long as my back holds out for me, as it is complaining and wants a rub.)
I already had some of my fabric recorded, and I've got to figure out how exactly I want to convert those over to the full size pages. I think I will just glue stick them onto cardstock, and insert those pages as is.
I am organizing by color now, instead of by fabric type as I did before. I think this will work nicely for my needs, although I do think along fabric types, too. But then some of my fabric are mysteries, or blends, and where would I put those? So, by color it will be.
And I am also using my old pages of 3 swatches per page, for those remnants or smaller pieces of fabric that is not going to be a major garment of its own. And I have a 1 page sheet just for trims, which will also be organized by color.
And the nice thing is... it is like Christmas, in a way. I am finding fabrics I had bought and forgotten about, pretty stuff, old stuff, really old stuff (I bought some in high school), basic stuff (now I know I don't need more white linen for awhile), and I am realizing that I've got a lot of fabric that I could be making outfits with, for me, and for my family. Once this record keeping is done, I will be able to enjoy using up my stash.
But it will be awhile before I get ALL of my stash recorded. I've also got lots of trim to work on, too. But I figure a day or two a week, which is basically a box or shelf of fabrics at a time, and in a few months I should, hopefully, have this stash finally tamed!
And while I have some swatch sheet pdfs already uploaded on my site, I will post the new ones up there soon, once I've got the bugs worked out a bit.
So, I came home, and recently made up some new pages that I am using to record some of my stash. They are 4 pages (tho 2 pages are the exact same thing) that not only record the fabric, but also has plenty of space for design ideas on the front. The back side is where I can record lining fabrics, trims, closures, and other swatches for the complete garment.
So, I spent last night and this afternoon working on organizing my fabric stash. I've misplaced my three hole punch for the cardstock pages, but the measuring, and recording went well, and I will be doing more tonight (so long as my back holds out for me, as it is complaining and wants a rub.)
I already had some of my fabric recorded, and I've got to figure out how exactly I want to convert those over to the full size pages. I think I will just glue stick them onto cardstock, and insert those pages as is.
I am organizing by color now, instead of by fabric type as I did before. I think this will work nicely for my needs, although I do think along fabric types, too. But then some of my fabric are mysteries, or blends, and where would I put those? So, by color it will be.
And I am also using my old pages of 3 swatches per page, for those remnants or smaller pieces of fabric that is not going to be a major garment of its own. And I have a 1 page sheet just for trims, which will also be organized by color.
And the nice thing is... it is like Christmas, in a way. I am finding fabrics I had bought and forgotten about, pretty stuff, old stuff, really old stuff (I bought some in high school), basic stuff (now I know I don't need more white linen for awhile), and I am realizing that I've got a lot of fabric that I could be making outfits with, for me, and for my family. Once this record keeping is done, I will be able to enjoy using up my stash.
But it will be awhile before I get ALL of my stash recorded. I've also got lots of trim to work on, too. But I figure a day or two a week, which is basically a box or shelf of fabrics at a time, and in a few months I should, hopefully, have this stash finally tamed!
And while I have some swatch sheet pdfs already uploaded on my site, I will post the new ones up there soon, once I've got the bugs worked out a bit.