Episode Details

Do you have a system for organising your fabric stash? I didn’t until recently. In this episode I’m sharing my own method of organisation that I’m calling the ‘seasonal stash’. This system is allowing me to unlock the potential in what I already own, whilst stopping it from feeling overwhelming. Could the ‘seasonal stash’ system help YOU?!

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(image source: Mel Poole via Unsplash)

**CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE FREE DOWNLOADABLE PDF VERSION OF THIS GUIDE**

The Seasonal Stash Guide

This is a simple step-by-step guide for implementing the Seasonal Stash system for sorting and organising a fabric collection. It won’t take you long to implement, and once set up, requires little maintenance. 

This will help you to:

• unlock the potential in the resources you already own
• shift any negative feelings you may have about your collection
• plan projects and ACTUALLY SEW THEM. 

Sounds good? OK let’s do this!

The first three steps I’d recommend for whatever system of stash organisation you want to implement. 

Step 1) Gather your fabric. 

Gather it all in one place to sort and organise. Ideally, we also want to be storing it in the same spot as well going forwards. If at all possible, keep all your fabric lengths together in the same room, if not the same cupboard / set of shelves / collection of storage tubs.

This will prevent you from:

• forgetting what you own
• losing items you’ve already bought/acquired
• being unable to compare suitable fabrics for a project plan
• annoying those you live with with random smaller stashes of fabric dotted around your home

Step 2) Edit.

To paraphrase William Morris: have nothing in your stash that you do not believe to be beautiful or know to be useful. Just hold each item and answer, honestly: Do I think this is lovely and / or  is it useful? If so, am I actually going to sew with it?

Tips to help the editing process:

• Keep this step running smoothly and quickly: just react to each piece, place it in the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ pile, and move on
• Work out what you’ll do with the NO fabric another day. That concern will slow you down. Today we sort and organise only

After the editing step you should be looking at only the pieces that:

• you genuinely like
• aren’t particularly exciting but you can see yourself using, like lining or toiling / muslin-making fabric