Organizing Embroidery Floss
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Welcome to Day 6 of 31 Days of Getting Organized!
Yesterday I showed you my method of organizing spools of thread and bobbins. Today I’m sharing the way I organize my embroidery floss…. or thread, depending on how you want to call it!
Remember last year I went and bought a whole bunch of DMCÂ embroidery floss?. Well, it’s a year later, and I am still organizing them!!
The system I am using is probably what most of you use, these handy boxes…
(Do you like the little case that is sitting on top of them, from last year’s Mystery Retreat?)
I usually use the little paper cards to wind the floss on, but this time all I could find in Arabia were the plastic ones… so I had to use them. I always like to write the thread number on the card, and since these were plastic, I used a sticker to stick onto the cards first, and then wrote on them:
I also always write the brand of floss on the top left and the number on the top right… because sometimes I will use other brands – like “no-name” or Anchor. And I like to know which brand it is. Mostly though I stick to DMC.
At first I thought it wasn’t a big deal for me to track the numbers of the colors.. but then some patterns call for actual DMC numbers, so I like to just be sure that I know which number corresponds with which floss.
I am probably a third of the way through sorting the floss…. but I ran out of the little cards to wind them on, so a trip to the wholesaler is in order, perhaps later this month. This is what I still have left to organize:
Do you organize your embroidery floss this way or another? And do you call them floss, or threads, or cottons….or something else?
Yes, I do organize my embroidery thread that way and sometimes I call it thread and sometimes I call it floss. The ones that were plastic I did write on with black magic marker and in the beginning I made my own just out of cardboard. You still have a lot of work ahead of you organizing all those. Maybe multi-task someway? Nancy
Yes my embroidery thread is on the little cards. I put the bit with number off the skein against the card & wind the thread over it. That way i have the number & it doesn’t rub off the plastic. Hugs, xx
Yes I use the “bobbins” or cards to wind the thread onto – always call it thread..or just “DMC”…we all know what we are talking about….I keep my DMCs in 4 of those boxes and all the other threads go in their own boxes. I organise by colour – because although I do sometimes follow a cross stitch chart – more likely than not I am looking for a “pink” or “brown” etc and they are all together – and I can see how many shades of each type of pink I have. Then inside the lids I have charts (Excel spreadsheets) that list each colour in order. And then (the really compulsive bit) when I take a thread out for a project I put a piece of cardboard in that indicates the colour number and what project it is in….confused now??? LOL.
Because the charts are in an excel file – if I cnat find a particular number then I search the chart and that tells me what box and what row it should be in.
Super b organised isn’t it??? I am just waiting for “them” (the DMC people maybe) to update their charts to put the new colours (the ones that are numbered from 01 – 55 or similar) into the colour groups…..maybe I will just do it myself . . .Let me know if you want my charts . . .
Hi Joy,
Yes, bobbins, numbers in permanent marker. They stay cleaner, neater and easier to find when searching by number. I’ve tried by color, but found that most of my patterns ask for the numbers, so I decided that was the best way to store them. I have a little wooden chest made specifically for them and any overflow go into the plastic divided boxes.
Thanks for sharing your reorganizing goals with us.
Now my threads for embroidery are vastly fewer than yours! And they are (gasp!) all in a large plastic baggie!
I do the same as you, but I have an old cutlery box that I have converted to hold the threads… it’s very pretty but I don’t have as many as you…. my others (non DMC0 are less organised and it their own boxes…
Hugz
mmm I’ve seen a few cutlery boxes used like that . . .maybe one day I’ll get to that.
Mine are similarly arranged & labelled, but kept in a tiny set of timber drawers from the Innovations catalogue. My case from the retreat still gets used & is holding a series quiltalong I follow on Meadow Mist blog. Take care.
I organise them the same as you, though sorted by colour not number as i rarely go by number. Over here we call them embroidery threads or cottons. Floss is a US word. I’m really enjoying your series, sorry for not commenting much but i’m really busy.. Organising my own studio!
I have done a fair bit of cross stitch and inherited many threads besides, but I have never come across anyone who does this. Shove ’em in a biscuit tin seems to be the most common organising method around here! Clearly I missed this class… 🙂
OMGosh – I’m not really all that OCD but that would do my head in – I’d spend ages looking for the right colour!…but whatever works for you.
I use the cards and plastic boxes too, but haven’t gone so far as to label the colours. I’m primarily a crazy quilter and only use small amounts of any colour at a time so replacing them with the exact same shade isn’t so much of an issue. If I were a cross stitcher and doing larger patterns I would be using labels.
I used the little cards to organise my ‘scrap’ threads – less than a skein, left overs from projects – as this was the system my grandmother used, and I inherited her thread box. None of these are numbered , they are arranged by colour. I use these for my little embroidery projects and for crazy patchwork.
The bulk of my threads are on the DMC ‘stitch-bows’ in folders, arranged by number.
I’m late to the party, but this method always seemed like way too much work to me. Each of my colors goes into a ‘floss away’ zip lock bag, is labeled, and there’s a little hole in the top of the bag so they can be all put onto a large metal ring. I pull the necessary baggies out for a particular project, and put them onto a much smaller ring. THat way I can save all my leftover pieces of any size. https://smile.amazon.com/Action-Bag-FL100-Floss-Organizer-3/dp/B003W0OC5O/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_1405964225?_encoding=UTF8&hvadid=167126811567&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9008037&hvnetw=g&hvpone=&hvpos=1o3&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvrand=7580941013731690886&hvtargid=pla-306120701464&ie=UTF8&linkCode=df0&psc=1&tag=hyprod-20
I have a few friends who do that and group them into colours – but it takes a lot of space compared to the cards.
o.O You can’t see it, but I’m doing a mighty facepalm, right now. Have I seriously been putting the floss bobbins in the box wrong MY WHOLE LIFE??
Uuuuuugh. I put them horizontal, which means I can’t read the numbers, which I’ve always been a bit annoyed at. It honestly never occurred to me that they were meant to go in the other way.
Thanks for the lifechanging moment. 🙂
I can picture this!!! – I put mine in horizontally too – the box closes more easily! but then I write the numbers in a different spot!