photos, sewing

tangled textures = broken filing system

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Bro”ken, a. [From Break, v. t.]1… divided into fragments… 2. Disconnected… 3. … disunited…

trying to sort from large box to floor back to large box
recognize any of these fabrics?

Not having much space, I had resorted to keeping fabrics in large plastic tubs, sorted by seasons. That didn’t do too well. Fabrics kept getting mixed, and I never knew how much of something I had. Which meant measuring it every time I wanted to know how much I had.

I tried stapling or pinning little tags on each piece, but they’d shift around, and I could never find those tags once the fabric had shuffled about for a bit.

Then I got smaller drawers, but still had the same problems. Everything seemed to always be in such a tangle.

And that made it impossible to any those unimagined colour combinations. Talk about creativity needing to be unleashed – geesh!

Then some plastic bags went on sale. And you could write on the bags. I started thinking about straightening up my fabric stash. Again. (Thank you, Lubbygirl, for inspiration!)

For the last several weeks I’ve been slowly washing, measuring, bagging, and gradually getting fabrics sorted. Am finally feeling order emerging from the fragmented, disconnected & broken collection of colour and texture.

It’s inspiring!

sorted & set out for use
out for immediate cutting – more pj bottoms!
one drawer, sorted by colour!
next group to be washed, measured & filed

For Ailsa’s travel theme

For WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge

14 thoughts on “tangled textures = broken filing system”

  1. Good for you! Cleaning up is such a tough job. I have all my fabric in a couple of large bins. Of course I have a photo of each fabric with a note as to what it’s made of and how much there is, saved on my IPad. If I ever loose my IPad I will cry!

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  2. I’ve had a rummage in my stash today and wished it looked like yours! It’s spurred me on to sort it out. Rome wasn’t built in day, so may be a long job! 😃

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      1. At least you’ve started, I need to invest in those bags. When I used to sew and my stash was more manageable I used to have a small piece cut off and stapled to a sheet of paper with how much of it I had. And then I put them in a folder and could browse my small stash. Wish I could be bothered to do that again!

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        1. That sounds so nice! I used to do something similar, but… 😉
          I use 1 gallon bags. Don’t know your equivalent. I know larger ones are available, but can never find them. These handle most pieces… except thick wool or fleece.
          They have what’s called a zip lock closure: a moveable plastic thingey that slides from “Locked” across to “Open.”
          Over here they’re in markets along side aluminium foils, wax & parchment papers.
          Hope you can locate easy equivalents there! Good luck!

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    1. Thank you! By all means, give it a go. You’ll be surprised. I hadn’t realized I had so much brown fabric. And finally found the other piece of orange knit I’d wanted to use for re-cutting some of that renfrew… oops!

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