Looking for a way to inventory my fabric

[Judy M.]

I need help. I have so much fabric that I want to inventory it and log how many yards I have of each. Is there software out on the market to do this? Or do people use a card file system like the libraries used many years ago? I need idea's please. I want to put information that will include what I paid for it a yard and what cabinet or shelf it is on too (location of each)

Please tell me any other information I should log. Yes I run a very small quilting studio out of my house. Almost more as a hobby since it is hard to find time to do this job.

Thanks
Shirley

[Hannelore N.]

Putting on my teaching hat: 'It's easy, Dear! Just set up a Microsoft Office Excel Spreadsheet (or whatever spreadsheet is on your computer). You can add as many categories as you want, and adjust everything whenever necessary.' My head of deaprtment is totally obsessed by figures and statistics, so I score points by doing almost everything for her in the form of spread sheets. And, believe me, mine are very basic. I keep my fingers crossed that she never asks me to do anything complicated.

If you are like me, you could get your local 12-year-old computer geek to help you. How to set up a spreadsheet is part of Year 7 IT classes in the UK.

Good luck! Lorchen

[Robin G.]

Microsoft Excel is an excellent suggestion. If you are familiar with using Microsoft Access, that would be a good alternative - it is more a database manager than a spreadsheet and you can write all kinds of reports and sort on any field. Not a lot of people have MS Access, though.
I started doing something like this a couple of years ago. I printed out my information so I could attach a little snippet of the fabric alongside all of the info. My problem was that I worked really hard at creating the database, but then found it even more difficult to keep it current, when I used fabric or swapped some or donated anything. Same with my wine database - I'm a numbers and data person and love the process of organizing things but haqve much less motivation to KEEP things organized.
Good luck.

[Betty J.]

I've tried both excel and access for such databases. My current one is in access, and you can download some basic databases from Microsoft that you can modify or you can build your own from scratch. I think after using access a while that excel is much easier and if you are just trying to keep up with what you have and how much, etc. it works great.

[Betty J.]

I want to either scan the fabric to know what fabric looks like (then I can print it on my color printer) or cut a piece and attach to the print out. So I can look through the files or papers and can locate what drawer the fabric is located without go through every drawer. I have 15 drawers or more under my long arm table. If anyone has any other idea on how to organize that much fabric tell me how you have yours organized. I need real help here. All this fabric is driving me crazy. You see I lived overseas for a while and when I came to the states or could get to the military base that was 4 hours away I would buy lots of fabric because it was so much cheaper or I had a lady that would shop for me and send it to me in the mail. Somehow I ended up with lots of stash. Too much stash now.

[Paula D.]

Fifteen drawers? That is just my yellows! ops:

[Paula D.]

Oh, to have that problem. My stash is so small it is laughable. I like the excel solution. But knowing me I would use excel, then make a hard copy to store in a 3 ring binder with a color swatch/or color photo of the fabric attached. Bobbi

[Paula D.]

I would use Access because you would have the option of saving a scan of the fabric right into the database.
If you are going to make hardcopies of your data, I would think about printing it out onto cardstock, for ease of handling and storage.
Have the basic info on the card and the scan of the fabric. I would probably also include whether there are any coordinating fabrics from the same collection, or fabrics you thought would work well with it, or even jot down on the card any ideas you has for the use of it.

Jean in hot and humid, Windsor, ON

[Diane O.]

I keep thinking I would like to have a database of all my fabric purchases, so I know how much it cost, how much I purchased, and what I intended to use it for. Along with any other information I might decide I want to go with it.

However, I doubt that I would be able to keep it up to date, when I purchase 5 yds of something (it was on sale, or end of bolt), but only used 1/2 yd, or so, I wouldn't get that information into my database in a timely manner. When I'm quilting, I don't want to spend any time on the comptuer, unless it is looking up how to do something I'm not familiar with.

I have started taking a little sticky note, and writing down the cost, and yardage and pinning it to my fabric, and then sorting my fabric by color for my yardages. If I did purchase it for a specific project, then I will write that down as well, so I don't use it for something else, before I get around to making that project. When I use some of it, since the note is right there, it will be easy to write down how much I used, or what is left. If I'm using the fabric to make something that I intend to sell, then I have the cost per yard right there on the fabric as well, and can keep notes on how much it cost for the amount of fabric I used.

My FQ collection, I don't worry about how much I paid for it, and just sort those by color in clear shoebox size boxes. But I don't buy many FQ any more... did that when I first started quilting, but don't seem to use them, so stopped buying them, unless I need it for something specific.

I think the way someone organizes their fabric stash depends a great deal on how they use their fabric. I think sorting by color is probably the easiest way, because if you know what color family you want, you can just go to that section of your stash and look for the shades you want. If you purchase fabric for particular projects, then keeping the fabric together for each project would be better than sorting it by color. What works great for one person may not work at all for some one else... so find a way that works for you, and stick with that.

Diane in Colorado Springs

[Donna N.]

Diane, I like your idea of the note pinned to the fabric pieces. I doubt I would be very successful with keeping even that nifty method up-to-date, though. I tend to "shop" in my stash which is color-sorted and just find pieces that are big enough for the project or a collection of fabrics that will work in the piece in case individual pieces aren't large enough.

I DO shop for more fabric whenever I feel the need, so my stash keeps growing faster than I can deplete it. But I say "Who cares??"

[Donna N.]

I sort by colour and themes, however I do organize the piles with the large print fabrics at the bottom of the pile and work my way up the pile towards smaller prints
cheers
Jeanine in very hot Nova Scotia