Tuesday, March 18, 2014

{How To} - Fabric Storage

I have been wanting to share this post with you for so long now and I finally got the chance to take pictures of what I've got going on in my craft room.  Now I will admit that I don't have the best system BY FAR!  But it is a system none the less and it works for me.  Hope you enjoy!

Today I am going to share with you all how I store my fabric!  And I hope you won't judge me by the amount of fabric that I have... you won't right? :)


I love love LOVE fabric remnants.  You'll see below that I am not kidding.  I should probably be in the Guinness Book of World Records for most fabric remnants.  Please let me know if you have a ton too so I don't feel like a crazy woman!  (Though this feeling apparently doesn't stop me from buying more fabric remnants...)  I think what attracts me to them is that I can get really pretty fabrics for a cheap price since you usually get less than a yard in there.  Many of the things I make are small items (check out my Etsy shop!) that don't need much fabric, so remnants allow for a lot of variety for me.  Plus you can buy like 10 of them and not feel guilty for spending a ton of money on fabric you don't need.

Ok fine, on to the picture.  Here you go:

{So pretty!  How could I have resisted any of these?!}

Welcome to FHA (fabric hoarders anonymous)  Hi, I'm Katie and I am a fabric hoarder.  I seriously need this shirt:


 Like I said before... please tell me someone else shares the remnant obsession!!

Onto the actual point of this post...

As you can see I use one of those hanging shoe storage things for my remnants!  I picked this one out because it has clear pockets for ultimate visibility!  It is absolutely perfect because I can easily see what I have when I want to and at all other times it is behind the door so no one else can see!  Plus this method of storage easily keeps me in check: no more remnants for me until there is an open spot!  And I can justify having all these because they aren't in the way AT ALL!


My next storage area is not as easy to hide... it is a mini bookshelf.  I have all my other fabric stacked up over here.  Not quite as easy to get to but I can still see what I have relatively easily and since it isn't super organized I can just throw a piece back on top of a pile when I'm done.


On to another tangent - can we just all agree that those uber-organized things you see on Pinterest are not realistic?  I mean initially they are great and pretty but once you have to actually use them it is way to much effort to keep them that way!  Maybe thats just me... let me know what you think in the comments.

Finally I will admit that I have yet another area I keep fabric.  I forgot to take a picture - in fact I forgot about it completely until just now.  But under the bed in my craft room is one of those long plastic boxes that are meant for under the bed storage.  This box is filled with random fabrics, a kind of project graveyard that I will hopefully get to someday.  So I never really use anything out of there day to day, but alas, it is there.

So how do you store your fabric?  I am hoping to revamp the bookshelf portion of my storage someday... so give me ideas!!

Check out the buttons over there for more Kraftie Katie ----->
Have a great week!


Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Fabric Hair Bow Tutorial

I opened up a shop on Storenvy!  I still have my Etsy shop of course but the Storenvy shop is all about hair bows!!  Bows range from $3-$5 and you can add-on to any bow with a monogram, greek letters, school letters, and/or an anchor charm!


Onto the important stuff - the tutorial!

Step 1:
Cut a piece of fabric 5" by 8".  I like to pick small p


rint fabrics for bows but larger prints can work too. A plain bow never fails either!
Also cut a small piece of fabric for the center of your bow.  I don't have exact measurements for this... you know me and how I love to keep things simple!  I would guess about an inch by 2 inches, cut more to be safe!

Step 2:
Fold the large piece of fabric in half, right sides together.  So you should have a piece 5" by 4" now.  Sew along the 3 edges, leaving a turning hole in the center of the bottom.

Step 3:
Clip corners and turn

Step 4:
Fold the fabric accordion style and sew right in the middle to help it keep its shape.

Step 5:
Take the small piece of fabric and fold in each long edge then fold it in half and sew along the open side.

Step 6:
Measure around the sewn center of the bow and cut, leaving a small seam allowance.

Step 7:
Sew the center strip's ends together, turn and slide onto bow

Step 8:
Attach a hair clip and make a bunch!

Don't forget to stop by my new store!

xoxo,
Katie
Find these on Etsy!