Floss Organizing System ??

On Jan 29, 8:39*pm, "Lucille" lzoltynospam@now at comcast..net
wrote:
"Karen C in California" wrote in ...





Lucille wrote:

So what's the consensus on the best, easiest way to organize thread?

Depends on how well you know the numbers and/or if you have a DMC color
card.

Since I have DMC and Anchor and MEZ Sticktwist and even some old Susan
Bates, I file by color. *A hardware parts cabinet will hold a skein laid
flat. *If I don't instantly recognize the number, I consult the DMC color
card to know what drawer to look in.

I start with the general ROYGBIV system, and in colors where I have more
than will fit neatly in a single drawer, I subdivide, e.g., red is split
into violet-reds, red-reds, orange-reds, and pinks. *Then drawers for
browns, rusts (which I suppose could be filed under orange), black, grey,
and white/ecru.

The cabinet I bought has a large drawer on the bottom, which I use for my
variegated flosses.

If all I had was DMC, I might file by number, but my conglomeration of
brands makes that too unwieldly.

Using the hardware parts cabinet eliminates all those hours of
bobbin-winding.

--
Karen C - California
Editor/Proofreaderwww.IntlProofingConsortium.com

Finished 1/19/08 - Sesame Street group picture

WIP: MLI The Teacher (gift to the library),
Bethany Angel, Flowers of Hawaii (Jeanette Crews) for ME!!!
Retrieved from UFO pile: Marbek's Snow Angel

www.CFSfacts.org-- where we give you the facts and dispel the myths
Myths, with research cites:http://www.aacfs.org/images/pdfs/myths.pdf

My problem is that I have very limited space and the cabinets are just too
big.

I'm not wild about winding bobbins but I just may have to do that.

Does anyone use the File-A-Floss system? *It looks a bit more compact then
some of the others.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well Lucille, I wasn't wild about winding bobbins either but when I
looked at my friend's nice neat stash of floss, I got busy and did
it. Just bought plastic boxes at Michael's (over by the floss
section) - each box holds approx. 60 bobbins. I just have them
sitting on my bookcase and they look sooo pretty and neat .. and I can
find what I want at a second's notice. Definitely would recommend
this system. Each box comes with some bobbins in it, but they're
kinda wimpy so I bought a bunch of the DMC ones. Go for it Girl.

Sharon (N.B.)

There simply IS no great system. I've tried them all.

I have every DMC color. I don't mind winding them on bobbins. I have that
little bobbin winder thingie. I stored them by number in the plastic bins.

But like someone else said, what do you do with the leftover lengths that
you've cut off?

I really like the bags, because you've got some where to put the leftover
pieces, but they slide around something terrible and you simply can't keep
them in order. A hole in each bottom corner and 2 rods running the length
of the box would work. Those boxes that pictures fit in would be nice.
You'd need a lot of them, but that might work.

I bought plastic business card pages. 10 pockets on a page. They fit in a 3
ring binder. I cut index cards to fit so I could use front and back, I
could get 20 colors in one page. I labeled them with DMC numbers. You
could slide in the plastic bobbin or you could stuff in a whole skein. You
could also easily replace the leftover bits.

I filled 2-3" binders. The plastic pages started to split from use. That's
the best system I've come up with in 30 years and it ain't perfect.

There just is no good way to do it.

Cindy

"Lucille" lzoltynospam@now at comcast..net wrote in message
. ..
I know this has been asked and answered a gazillion times, but I'm dense
and I never really paid attention.

I got extremely frustrated this afternoon looking for a certain color of
DMC thread (I never did find it) and I decided it's time to do something
about my messy system.

So what's the consensus on the best, easiest way to organize thread?

This time I promise to be good and listen.

Lucille

Consider buying one or more of those 3-4 drawer plastic file cabinets.
They're really cheap, especially with coupons, smallish, and can be
rolled to wherever you want 'em. I've got mine next to my stitching
chair and happily open and close drawers when I need fibers or tools.

--
another anne, add ingers to reply

Sharon wrote:
On Jan 29, 8:39 pm, "Lucille" lzoltynospam@now at comcast..net
wrote:

"Karen C in California" wrote in ...






Lucille wrote:

So what's the consensus on the best, easiest way to organize thread?

Depends on how well you know the numbers and/or if you have a DMC color
card.

Since I have DMC and Anchor and MEZ Sticktwist and even some old Susan
Bates, I file by color. A hardware parts cabinet will hold a skein laid
flat. If I don't instantly recognize the number, I consult the DMC color
card to know what drawer to look in.

I start with the general ROYGBIV system, and in colors where I have more
than will fit neatly in a single drawer, I subdivide, e.g., red is split
into violet-reds, red-reds, orange-reds, and pinks. Then drawers for
browns, rusts (which I suppose could be filed under orange), black, grey,
and white/ecru.

The cabinet I bought has a large drawer on the bottom, which I use for my
variegated flosses.

If all I had was DMC, I might file by number, but my conglomeration of
brands makes that too unwieldly.

Using the hardware parts cabinet eliminates all those hours of
bobbin-winding.

--
Karen C - California
Editor/Proofreaderwww.IntlProofingConsortium.com

Finished 1/19/08 - Sesame Street group picture

WIP: MLI The Teacher (gift to the library),
Bethany Angel, Flowers of Hawaii (Jeanette Crews) for ME!!!
Retrieved from UFO pile: Marbek's Snow Angel

www.CFSfacts.org-- where we give you the facts and dispel the myths
Myths, with research cites:http://www.aacfs.org/images/pdfs/myths.pdf

My problem is that I have very limited space and the cabinets are just too
big.

I'm not wild about winding bobbins but I just may have to do that.

Does anyone use the File-A-Floss system? It looks a bit more compact then
some of the others.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


Well Lucille, I wasn't wild about winding bobbins either but when I
looked at my friend's nice neat stash of floss, I got busy and did
it. Just bought plastic boxes at Michael's (over by the floss
section) - each box holds approx. 60 bobbins. I just have them
sitting on my bookcase and they look sooo pretty and neat .. and I can
find what I want at a second's notice. Definitely would recommend
this system. Each box comes with some bobbins in it, but they're
kinda wimpy so I bought a bunch of the DMC ones. Go for it Girl.

Sharon (N.B.)
Use the plastic bobbins, not the cardboard ones; they stand up to time a
whole lot better! I save the cardboard ones and use them for floss if I
am using a kit ( rare) or for bits of a specialty thread.

Gill

On Jan 30, 5:10 pm, Karen C in California wrote:
Donna wrote:
disadvantages: takes up a lot of room, sometimes have to hunt for the
correct ring (it's always on the bottom)

Couldn't you hang the rings? Put them in order across the bar of a
sturdy clothes hanger. If you have lots of bags, buy one of those
multi-level hangers, designed to hold half a dozen skirts/slacks.

--
Karen C - California
Editor/Proofreaderwww.IntlProofingConsortium.com



If I had room I could maybe hang them. But I don't. I just try to keep
everything stitching related corralled to one corner of what is now
being referred to as the man cave. I'm waiting for one of the two
children to become a college graduate and move out of the house
permanently, then I can have my own room!

Donna in Virginia

"anne" wrote in message
news
Consider buying one or more of those 3-4 drawer plastic file cabinets.
They're really cheap, especially with coupons, smallish, and can be
rolled to wherever you want 'em. I've got mine next to my stitching
chair and happily open and close drawers when I need fibers or tools.

--
another anne, add ingers to reply

Oh how I wish I could do that but there simply isn't any room and I MUST
finally get those bobbin boxes. I've been resisting forever because I was
concerned with winding the bobbins and having kinks in the floss but I think
that would take up the least amount of space.


Then, of course, just on the slim possibility that I might have an extra
inch or two I can think of 100 ways to fill those inches.

Gill Murray wrote:


Lucille wrote:
"Donna" wrote in message
...

On Jan 29, 5:12 pm, "Lucille" lzoltynospam@now at comcast..net
wrote:

I know this has been asked and answered a gazillion times, but I'm
dense and
I never really paid attention.

I got extremely frustrated this afternoon looking for a certain
color of
DMC thread (I never did find it) and I decided it's time to do
something
about my messy system.

So what's the consensus on the best, easiest way to organize thread?

This time I promise to be good and listen.

Lucille

Systems tried and discarded:

floss braided onto white plastic rings and rings placed on large metal
rings - advantage to this: you can pull out one thread at a time, it's
all precut
disadvantage: awkward once you have a lot of floss, time spent
braiding it onto the rings, no place for leftover useful bits

Lo-Ran - Advantage: hmmm, I can't think of any - wait, it's precut
disadvantages: time spent putting floss into system, I ended up with
four binder things so it was exactly fast to find what I was looking
for, no place for leftover useful bits, not a lot of room for multiple
skeins

bobbins - I admit I never had my entire collection on bobbins. I tried
to start to use this system. Used it with a large project. I hated the
time spent winding onto bobbins. Didn't like the kinks in the floss

What I use now - it's not perfect - but I'm a floss-away bag person -
I have all the DMC colors in bags on large metal rings and all rings
are stored in one Rubbermaid tote with a DMC color chart
Advantages: can store multiple skeins in one bag, place for leftover
useful bits
disadvantages: takes up a lot of room, sometimes have to hunt for the
correct ring (it's always on the bottom)

Good luck deciding!

Donna in Virginia


I kind of use a similar system now. Plastic Bags and rings or boxes
sorted by color. I'm running out of room and it's getting messy so I
decided that I need something neater. I think I'll try the bobbins
and see. It's not that big an investment so I'll give it a shot.
Winding the bobbins ought to be great fun. I imagine it's something
like watching paint dry, but maybe that's what I need to keep me out
of trouble.

I suppose I'll still have to use plastic baggies for the extra
skeins and I have a little cabinet with drawers that so far is big
enough for the specialty stuff. I don't have a lot of silks so for
now I have a very nice box that they fit in nicely.

Thanks to everyone for their good advice. It really gave me incite
and helped me to make a decision.

RCTNers always come through.

Lucille

BTW, I put all the specialty flosses on big rings. My bed has a tall
cupboard each side of it, by the headboard.( The lower part are
drawers). I put the adhesive hooks on the inner side of the door, and
hang the WDW, GAST etc all on those. The little cupboards also have
shelves, and five Darice boxes fit nicely on top of each other on a
shelf. For beads I bought the watchmaker boxes from Lee something (
brain fart). Each has a bunch of tiny circular tins with clear tops, so
you can see the beads. I stack these boxes too. In a yard sale I found
some lovely small square boxes, about 4 inches square, and the height of
kreinik spools. DH is now on some sort of cream, and the inserts in the
medicine box, when cut down, make wonderful dividers for the kreinik.

Gill

The watchmakers' boxes are from Lee Valley Tools. And you're right -
they are wonderful. They are also inexpensive. I nearly had a heart
attack when I was in a very chi-chi gift/gardening store and saw them
priced at almost three times what LV sells them for. sarcasm mode on
Oh, but they were tied with such a pretty ribbon! sarcasm mode off

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...48&cat=1,43326

And they do ship to the US.

MargW

Lucille wrote:
I know this has been asked and answered a gazillion times, but I'm dense and
I never really paid attention.

I got extremely frustrated this afternoon looking for a certain color of
DMC thread (I never did find it) and I decided it's time to do something
about my messy system.

So what's the consensus on the best, easiest way to organize thread?

This time I promise to be good and listen.

Lucille



It's an ongoing puzzle. I store most of my DMC on plastic bobbins in
the Darice boxes. However, I am slowly moving over to the larger tackle
boxes from Plano or Flambeau. For my non-DMC such as WDW, Needle
Necessities and GAST, I lay those length-wise sorted by name (or number
depending on the brand) in the Plano boxes. I am fortunate to have two
of the DMC wooden display boxes which I bought when a Ben Franklin's
Store was going out of business. They hold all my unbobbined extra
skeins of DMC, and small tools. Somewhere along the line I came into an
empty plastic box which (according to the label on the side) originally
held a retailer's starter set of Kreinick silks. It's taller than the
Darice boxes and it perfect for the balls of perle threads.

For spooled fibres such as metallics and silks, I find that they
generally fit in one of the sections of a Darice box.

Accessories such as beads are stored in the Watchmakers' boxes from Lee
Valley Tools. I also some of the Just Nan plastic bead boxes, but I've
spilled beads from those so often, that I'm starting to move all my
beads over to the watchmakers' boxes. You can also store beads in the
small accessory tackle boxes that fit inside the larger tackle boxes.
The real advantage to these is that they close tightly, but are easy to
open, so that you have less chance of spilling beads.

All of this, plus my fabrics, patterns and books, is stored in a big
bedroom double closet which I've fitted with shelves.

Not sure, if this is really answering your question. G

MargW

Lucille wrote:


Oh how I wish I could do that but there simply isn't any room and I MUST
finally get those bobbin boxes. I've been resisting forever because I was
concerned with winding the bobbins and having kinks in the floss but I think
that would take up the least amount of space.

I use bobbins and I've never noticed that the kinks in the floss last
through the stitching. Since I really don't care what the floss looks
like *before* it's stitched, so long as it lies nice and flat *after*, I
don't mind the kinks.

Elizabeth
--
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~living well is the best revenge~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The most important thing one woman can do for another is to illuminate
and expand her sense of actual possibilities. --Adrienne Rich
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

On Jan 31, 9:47 am, MargW wrote:
Lucille wrote:
I know this has been asked and answered a gazillion times, but I'm dense and
I never really paid attention.

I got extremely frustrated this afternoon looking for a certain color of
DMC thread (I never did find it) and I decided it's time to do something
about my messy system.

So what's the consensus on the best, easiest way to organize thread?

This time I promise to be good and listen.

Lucille

It's an ongoing puzzle. I store most of my DMC on plastic bobbins in
the Darice boxes. However, I am slowly moving over to the larger tackle
boxes from Plano or Flambeau. For my non-DMC such as WDW, Needle
Necessities and GAST, I lay those length-wise sorted by name (or number
depending on the brand) in the Plano boxes. I am fortunate to have two
of the DMC wooden display boxes which I bought when a Ben Franklin's
Store was going out of business. They hold all my unbobbined extra
skeins of DMC, and small tools. Somewhere along the line I came into an
empty plastic box which (according to the label on the side) originally
held a retailer's starter set of Kreinick silks. It's taller than the
Darice boxes and it perfect for the balls of perle threads.

For spooled fibres such as metallics and silks, I find that they
generally fit in one of the sections of a Darice box.

Accessories such as beads are stored in the Watchmakers' boxes from Lee
Valley Tools. I also some of the Just Nan plastic bead boxes, but I've
spilled beads from those so often, that I'm starting to move all my
beads over to the watchmakers' boxes. You can also store beads in the
small accessory tackle boxes that fit inside the larger tackle boxes.
The real advantage to these is that they close tightly, but are easy to
open, so that you have less chance of spilling beads.

All of this, plus my fabrics, patterns and books, is stored in a big
bedroom double closet which I've fitted with shelves.

Not sure, if this is really answering your question. G

MargW


All my DMC is on bobbins, some plastic and some cardboard. I used to
file them in Darice boxes or similar.
It took about 6 and was not very portable.

Now I use clear 3 ring binders that zip closed. I use plastic bobbin
pages (they come 5 to a pk) that hold 20 bobbins each. The spare
skeins of DMC and my unused skeins of other flosses go in the pockets
intended for baseball cards and are only 9 to a page. All together it
uses 4 notebooks which I keep in a mesh shopping bag to grab and go if
I need to.

I also use these clear binders as project holders. I put the required
colors in a floss page and use a 3 ring zip pencil pouch to hold other
notions, the chart in front, and zip it all together in the binder. I
can tell at a glance which project it is I have kitted or in the
works. They will hold an 8 x 8 q snap with work on it or 11 x 11
halved and work folded. Great for traveling.

Naomah