Sewing Room Tip #1 - managing new fabrics

I've made a resolution to reorganize the shop so that I use the space better. Like most, I have a limited amount of space and like to have all of my fabrics within site, so that I can quickly see all the possibilities while I'm working. Normally, when I get new fabrics, I wash them, fold them up, and organize them by color on a series of bookshelves. Lately, I've been looking at the piles of fabrics and wondering how to condense them so that I have more space. The answer, scarily enough, is ironing all this fabric!!

Believe me, I was not really keen on ironing everything, so I did a test to see if all the effort would pay off. While cutting out turquoise fabrics for another ocean themed quilt, I ironed each piece of fabric as I went along and then carefully stored them back on the shelf. I buy a lot of fabrics two yards at a time, but I do have a lot of fabrics that I've purchased the whole bolt....this takes up LOTS of room. After going through the turquoises, what was once three shelves of fabric now took up only one and a half shelves! Yay! It really worked!

For example, here is a photo of my green fabrics, you can see how much space it takes up, and how messy it is.


Now, here is a photo of the turquoise...all ironed and beautiful! I'm hooked :)
And so the lesson here is: time saved by not ironing = loss of much needed space in the workroom. I haven't gotten through my entire fabric collection, but I'm working on it :)