I get a lot of questions about how to store embroidery thread in an organized way.
I recently decluttered my craft room so now I have multiple posts about storing and organizing craft supplies!
See my new super-tidy studio here.
See how I store my sewing tools here.
Today it’s all about storing embroidery thread.
I struggled with organizing my embroidery floss for a long time. A couple of years ago a reader suggested storing each color in a ziplock bag and IT TOTALLY WORKED. I love it, and I posted about it here.
I still use the same basic system to organize my thread, but I’ve made a couple of changes in the last year. Most of the thread I use is matched to one of my wool felt colors, so I bagged those up with the wool color AND the DMC thread # written on the label, like this. . .
Then I put all of those baggies on one binder ring, so all my felt colors are together in one place.
The rest of my thread is bundled by color and kept in a shoebox – just like I described in the other post.
So that’s my embroidery thread! Tomorrow – fabric!
Here are links to all my posts about embroidery tools and supplies.
For Beginners
Specialty Fabrics
Threads
- 12 wt. Sulky Petites
- How I Store and Organize My Embroidery Thread
- Working with Glow in the Dark Thread
Stabilizers and Pattern Transfer Tools
- Why the Right Stabilizer Is Like a Good Bra
- Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy
- What Product to Use When (Freezer Paper, Fusible Adhesive, and Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy)
Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.
Move on to the posts about working with patterns.
Great idea. Maybe it could be organized using a color wheel. I think I’ll try this; and for my beads. Thank you for the great idea,
One of the things I like best about the method is that it’s easy to organize them in whatever way works best for you. When I made the switch to mostly felt embroidery, it took about five minutes to reorganize my stash in a new way.
I love, love, love this idea. I do have one question, what kind of bag did you use? Was it just a snack bag? Again I love your idea.
I started out just using snack bags, but once I knew I loved the system and was going to stick with it I bought the Floss-A-Way bags. That little writing surface they have on them is really nice.
I’am so happy that I started this traning here with your site, I have learned something new already and so glald I saw this,Thank you for showing me something I have missed and should have taken years ago. thank you I will a better sewer because of you. Jeanne Marie
How do I get more of these bags
I don’t carry them, but I’m sure you can still find them. Just try a Google search.
Great idea, I used a rod to hang my ringed plastic bags per color while working. I had the floss handy beside my work. I just used a stool to hang the rod end to end.
I was doing counted cross stitch back in the 80s, and this is how I have been storing my threads since then. I also got the cardboard boxes that were sold with the bags. They are a little like the size of shoe boxes with a red gingham design on them. I have 4 of them, and have included specialty threads as well as embroidery floss in my boxes. Because I did cross stitch, I most often searched my threads by number, so keeping them organized that way was the most logical for me. I would gather the ones I needed for a project and slip them on a ring (or more.) Very convenient. They also hold the unused portion of a strand.
I have Floss Away bags sorted by numbers (100s, 600s, Sampler, etc.), and I store them on the pole of an upright paper towe holder; takes up much less room that other storage options. When viewed from above, this looks kind of like a flower; I call it my “floss blossom!”