Floss sorting

I'm floss away bag "girl" all the way. Every thread I own, save balls of pearl cotton are in bags. The bags are all in flossaway boxes. I have 3 boxes for DMC, 1 for Watercolours, Wildflowers, and Impressions, 1 for all silks, 1 for Needle Necessities, GAST and WDW, and 1 for all the other misc. threads. I need another box for my growing collection of Anchor. My metallics are in a clear rubbermaid box on rings sorted by color family. It works for me, but just about everyone has his/her own system.

Sara

I have all my overdyes etc on large-sized rings, sorted by number. The rings hang on plastic hooks inside my bedside cupboard;( cuphooks would be better, but I didn't want the holes). I MAY put up a piece of that perforated board ( can't think of the name for it) and hang the Rings on there.. Especially since the MIL's old room is partly for me and my projects!

Oh. and the set of Eterna silks are all in one of thoswe plastic cabinets with drawers from the tool department. Beads are in the metal tins for watchmaking supplies that I bought from Lee Valley. The wound DMCs are in five Darice boxes, and all the extra unused skeins are filed in plastic sandwich bags, labelled and in a Christmas decorations box from Joanns, and kept under the bed.

All items are catalogued in Excel. Wow, I do sound sort of anal, don't I??

Gillian

I do the same -- ALL of my stitching fibers are in their own floss-away bags. Everything that has a number on it is then put in numerical order

-- silks, overdyes, perle cotton, etc. I group the bags by number families and put them on hinged rings (all the 100's are on one ring, all the 200's on one ring, etc.). I then hang these rings -- in numerical order, of course -- from belt/scarf rings -- the ones that have a hanger hook on them and the ends of the ring have little plastic thingies on them. All of *these* hang in my sewing room closet. I have four of the belt/scarf rings now and they are ALL full! My spools of Kreinik metallics are kept in Darice boxes and other metallics that are skeins are in baggies. AS I buy new or replacement fibers, I put them on a shelf in my closet; several times a year I sort them and put them in baggies and put them away :-). CiaoMeow >^;;^<

I have my DMC flosses on bobbins in four Darice boxes(must be missing some colors), though the idea of hanging them on a pegboard is interesting. I usually just take the bobbins I am using and have them in a work box that will hold the pattern, extra glasses, scissors, etc., in case I want to take it with me somewhere. Stitching is usually attached to a sit-on-it frame. Work box and frame are in plastic tote bag. Grab and go; great for doctor's appointments. Had started a box for metallics; reminds me, I need to finish getting all those colors. Argh!!

-- Carey

I've been working at a "master system" for my flosses! All the DMC is bagged in Floss Away bags ( I really like them the best) and on binder rings in numeric order. Each century (ie 100, 200....) has a key tag. Those are hung on belt hangers - I have two of them.

Every thing else is in old cookie tins - metallic, WDW, GAST, perles, silks, etc.

Cheryl

You are one organized woman! I DID have a database with all of my fibers, then I went and changed operating systems - having forgotten that I even had this file, and well.... I don't have it any more.

Currently I am taking a break from floss-away bags and working with old-fashioned floss cards. I will probably get bored with that, or maybe not, I do prefer the plastic cards.

Regarding overdyes and all of the wonderful fibers other than plain floss, I use floss-away bags - it seems the neatest way to do it.

The reason I have found that I prefer the floss cards (even with all of the winding) is that it is easier for me to tell at a glance what I have. Open the plastic holder and there they all are. Floss-away bags are a little more problematical...

Catherine K

Nope. Just went and fleshed out the entire DMC cotton collection and they all fit in four boxes.

Probably so, but I have three or four "partial" bobbins of the same color. Sometimes I have kitted something out, or it is with a WIP, so I get a new skein out!

Gillian

Well, if I put *every* skein of DMC on a bobbin, I'd probably need another 3 boxes: those floss sales acquisitions, or when I suddenly see a color that's unusually difficult to get, or when I think I had better just get the floss for "this one project so I'll have it when I get to it," and the floss bought and misplaced/forgotten. You get the picture. ;-)

-- Carey