Since I got my sewing machine last September, I’ve been looking for good deals on fabric. I’ve you’ve priced fabric at the crafts stores, like Joann’s or Hobby Lobby, you’ll discover that fabric isn’t cheap. Nice decorative prints can cost anywhere from $8 to $20 a yard. This means if you plan on making a dress, which is usually no less than 2 yards, your fabric alone will cost about $20 bucks. At these prices it’s cheaper to by a pre-made dress on clearance for as low as $6, sometimes.
Of course the off the rack dress will never be as nice as your made to fit sewn dress, but I don’t have cash just lying around to spend on fabric. I leave on a teacher’s salary after all. Thus, I’ve been keeping an eye out for good fabric deals and I’ve found them at the antique stores. My first fabric purchases were at an antique store in Jenks, Oklahoma; just outside of Tulsa. The name of the store I can’t recall, but they had quite a bit of fabric at one of the booth, and they were charging only about a $1 a yard. Needless to say I purchased a couple of nice prints.
I would later discover that some closer antique shops, in Joplin also had some booth full of fabrics, and charging between 50 cents to a $1 a yard. Since this discovery, searching for new fabric finds at these hot spots is a must anytime we are in Joplin.
Because of this fabric obsession I’ve developed quite a collection, that I needed to store someplace.
In my “Happy Room” (what I call my home office) I had two closets, one of which was small and didn’t really have anything in it. I decided it would be prefect to use as my fabric storage.
My hubby, always eager to meet my needs, got to work on measuring the closet, while I painted the inside of it with a fresh coat of paint. The measurements were used to by some wood and cut out shelves. The wooden shelves would have been enough but my hubby insisted they be stained to give it a nice finished look. I choose a golden oak color for the stain with a high gloss. It was my hubby’s first time staining wood, but he had no problems and it came out beautifully.
Once I started laying my fabric down in the closet, it became evident that I couldn’t quite see in there. My hubby came to the rescue again by mounting under the cabinet lighting vertically to the sides of the door frame on the inside. With the flip of a switch the closet is lit.
I decided to store my fabric kind of like they do at the fabric stores. I recycled some old boxes I still had, from the move, by cutting out strips of cardboard, big enough for the fabric to fold over. Then since I’m organization crazy I sorted the fabric by color (as much as possible).
I love the way it came out. The only problem I have is that it is already full of fabric. So, I need to keep at it with my sewing projects, in order to thin out my closet. Of course once I have the room in the closet I’ll probably by more fabric and so starts a vicious cycle.
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