Do You Need to Sort Your Stash?
When you have been busy making, your supplies can get jumbled. Sometimes, it can be a good idea to pause and take stock of the fabrics you have and make plans for your future projects.
We are already almost halfway through 2025, and it has been a busy 6 months! If you are anything like me, no matter how many beautiful fabrics you have, it is never going to stop you from buying more. But often, as the new purchases get added to the pile, fabrics at the bottom can get forgotten about, even though at the time they were bought, they were destined for something wonderful.
I have decided to pull out all the fabric I have and give it a proper sort out. How you choose to organise your fabrics is a personal choice and will depend on what you like to make as well as the available storage space you have. Although I admire those beautiful images on social media of immaculate sewing rooms with perfectly folded fabrics arranged by colour, that, for me, is simply not real life. I can’t work like that, and I am certainly not tidy enough to keep it so pristine!
That being said, I do like to keep track of what fabrics I have. This is useful for many reasons, but mainly so that I have the right fabric available when I decide to start a new project, and so that I do not waste money duplicating purchases I have already made.
I find it useful to make a note of any fabric I buy. Taking a small swatch of each fabric before I put it away means that I have a reference for the future. I attach the fabric swatch to a tag and make notes on the back of all the information I need; the name and manufacturer, the colour reference, where I bought it and the cost per metre. This system is SO much more reliable than my memory!
Free subscribers can download our fabric swatch tags from the Albero Subscribers Pattern Folder. For durability, print them out on card, and attach your fabric to one side. Record all the information on the other and thread the tags onto a ribbon or keyring for easy reference later.
If you would like to download our tags but have not yet subscribed, click on the button below. You will also have access to our archive of free resources!
If you have any tips on how you store your fabrics and sewing supplies, please share them in the comments. An organised sewing space is a happy sewing space!
Happy sewing!
Suzanne, Charlotte and Rebecca