Organizing my Stash

I finally heard of an idea that looks like it's going to work for folding my stash.  I have about 12" deep shelves where I keep my fabric.  The other ideas I've heard just didn't sound like they'd work as well for my narrow shelves.  This method makes each fabric piece about 12" deep and narrow enough to fit 5 stacks of fabric per shelf.  I thought this idea might be helpful to others who may be struggling to organize their stash and also have narrow shelves like I do.  Here's a picture of the shelf of fabric I folded this morning. 

Can you see the pretty organized shelf amidst the shelves of chaos?

I've decided to make it a priority to work on organizing my stash for a few minutes each day (week days).  My husband still works so while he's getting ready in the morning and I'm still getting awake, I don't want do anything too challenging anyway.  Since this is so easy, I thought I'd do the folding.  When he leaves for work, it'll be my signal that I can stop and go back to other projects I want to work on.  I figure it won't feel so overwhelming this way.  It will get done bit by bit and before I know it, my whole stash will be organized.  I've put a tutorial below of the fabric folding technique I'm using.

Fabric Folding Tutorial

Here’s a way to organize your stash by using a fabric folding technique.  It looks neat, is easier to see what you have, takes up less room, and the real bonus is that as you unroll your fabric it’s set-up ready to cut.

Here are the steps:

Fold fabric in half selvedge to selvedge.

Fold in half again in the same direction by bringing the selvedges up to almost meet the main fold (this is how it is folded coming off the bolt at a quilt shop). 

With the main fold at the top and selvedge nearly up to meet it, you lay a paper lunch sack on the right edge and start folding your fabric toward the left.

           

When you're finished, you have a neat package and it's oriented in such a way that you can unfold it a little, and it’s ready to cut.  The edge you need to start the cut is what unrolls first. 

Remove the paper sack.

A paper sack measures 5" x 10 3/4".  You want to make a cardboard template to use instead - or you may wish to use a 4 ½” ruler to get a similar effect.