Tuesday, January 22, 2013

How do you store your floss?

Embroidery floss
We usually ask atleast one interviewee in the each issue of the zine this very important question: how do you store your floss/embroidery thread?

I think we ask it because we're secretly hoping to one day come across the Perfect Way of Storing Floss. At the moment, both Nicole and I use a very sophisticated system of Ziploc bags. It does work and it has the advantages of being fairly portable and the bags are see-through so you can see which colours are in each bag.

But, honestly, it's just not a very.. chic way of storing floss. ;-)

So I was wondering, how do you store your floss? Are you one of those super patient people who wind the floss on card bobbins? Put them in the plastic drawers? I'm definitely not! ;-)

What do you use? Do you have the Perfect Way of Storing Floss down?


31 comments:

  1. sadly finickity, all wound on bobbins, most are even labelled with their colour! In fact at the moment I am panicking because I have floss and no more bobbins!!!

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  2. Not finicky at all ~ the ones I'm using go in a little zip bag and the ones not in use are in a little drawer or a larger zip bag. They are all willy nilly. I'd rather spend the time embroidering than winding.

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    1. Oops I meant that I am sadly finickity not you!! but I do find the winding relaxing :)

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  3. yes, I'm afraid mine are all wound round bobbins with their shade number written on and stored (in numerical order) in plastic boxes!! Sorry!!

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  4. I'm a very untidy and disorganised person, but at some point I wound all mine on bobbins and put them in colour order in one of the clear plastic boxes, with the number written on the bobbin. Since then I mostly just put the floss in the box and promise myself I'll wind it one day. I also have a cigar box full of really old unlabelled floss.

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  5. That is such a good question--in my 25 years of cross-stitching and embroidery, I have seen everything I think. I still use the bag and ring system for individual projects. I have a book of c-s patterns that use the same colors of floss for everything in the book, so I filled up my Stitchbow to use with anything I make from that book. And then I have my original set of floss bags when I purchased all the DMC colors years ago--over 340 something--and that forms my main floss library! I blogged about it all back in August: http://eatwritedreamstitch.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-floss-aholic.html. I do love floss!

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  6. I'm a proud bobbin winder. And, everything is labeled and sorted (DMC, handspun, and Sublime Stitching flosses all get there own case and my random ones go in a fourth case). This isn't because I'm patient. Quite the opposite. I have no patience for trying to find the right thing or misplacing something, so I methodically put everything away where they belong to make it easier for later.

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  7. Wow, it sounds like you're all tidy winders of floss! :-)

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  8. Mine is all neatly wound on bobbins and stored in a couple of clear boxes. Not a single one is labeled with the color number...I totally wing it.

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  9. I am suuuper anal about my floss, and am indeed another one of "those" people who winds the color on a cardboard bobbin and stores in plastic boxes, arranged by color according to the DMC chart. I know, I know, this makes me especially crazy, but it's so pretty to see the gradients! I also have a "flosscheck" app on my phone that lets me indicate what colors I need when I'm running low or completely run out, that's a life-saver.

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    1. Woops, I realize my use of quotes around 'those' makes me look bitchy or offended, but I totally meant it with a wink-face! :)

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  10. I've been pretty haphazard in the past about storing my floss. But my brother gave me a bunch of new floss for Xmas (after a few nudges from me :)) and I took the time to go through my entire collection, wind it on bobbins, and number it all! It's all stored in my brother's old toy car box in color order (here's a photo from a few months ago: http://bit.ly/11PkBcS). I love looking at all of the colors and thinking of new projects to stitch!

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  11. Here's how I organized mine: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24732687@N00/8405618359/

    For a long time when I was mostly doing embroidery, I didn't worry about the colors as much, so would wind my floss w/out recording the numbers (shocking!) but when I started working on cross-stitch and larger projects, it became more important to make sure I had the right DMC number. I can see this growing to several boards over time.

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  12. I am working (off and on) on a gigantic project. The floss for it is separated by color into small ziplocs, and all of those are in a big bag. The rest of my floss is in a clear plastic box. When I have a small bit of floss left, I wind it on a plastic bobbin on a ring.

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  13. I've got mine in colour groups in a makeup box, either on csrds or in the original packaging! Keeps it pretty neat :)

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  14. I wind them on the bobbins and "file" them by number in the DMC divided plastic boxes. I store the boxes on the corner of my craft table because I love seeing all the colors! The bobbins for whatever project I'm working on go in a Ziploc freezer bag, which I reuse until it falls apart. Fun thread, this is!

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  15. I have mine on bobbins and store them in boxes. However, I have just bought some hand dyed thread and have not thought how to store them, looks like I'll be getting some zip loc bags!

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  16. I am one of those people too. I have all my floss wand on the cardboard giggys, labeled and into 3 plastic boxes in number order. I need another box soon though. They are growing tight.

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  17. I use photo boxes - sort my DMC by hundreds, have a couple of boxes of overdyes, another for perles, then a few more for miscellaneous ....

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  18. I use snack size baggies for individual floss colours, and store them, number side up, in a box with labelled partitions to keep them all (mostly) in order. I kinda like organizing. :P

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  19. HAHAHA! I told you guys I wasn't crazy! For those who don't already know, I'm definitely one of 'those' people - here's my floss storage:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/100bean/8141520271/

    And I have been teased about this freakish organization by some of the other &Stitches team members before. ;) Glad to see I'm not alone in this - us organized types have to stick together!

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  20. I'm still working on getting mine on bobbins. One thing I found is the number labels DMC provides with their floss bobbins do not stick very well. I wrote about the start of my organizing here http://www.therosejournal.blogspot.com/2012/07/organizing-is-hard-word-for-me.html
    Now I have to go back though the bobbins and use a permanent marker to indicate the color number.

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  21. I have all of DMC colors and almost all of Sublime Stitching's all wound and marked on bobbins! All arranged by colors except Sublime's has their own box!

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  22. I am lazy and have all embroidery things tossed in a wooden box. So at least it looks neat on the outside.

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  23. I bought one of those plastic boxes with the cardboard bobbins as a treat & a promise that I would get organized, but, honestly, I find winding floss on bobbins to be a colossal waste of my precious embroidery time. I keep my floss in whatever project bag I happen to have. I have 4 or 5 in progress right now. The rest are in that one plastic bin, & in my sewing basket still in skeins.

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  24. Wound on bobbins, numbered and stored by colour in plastic boxes. Not bad for an otherwise disorganised stitcher! I put all my floss onto bobbins in one night while watching (sort of) a movie on tv. It didn't take very long and gazing at my neat and tidy boxes makes me think that one day perhaps the pantry might look like that... or my wardrobe... or the shoe cupboard....
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/thestitchsmith/8417023075/in/photostream

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  25. I wind much of my floss on bobbins and keep them in a DMC storage box. I simply like arranging the colours and winding is quite meditating. Some of the perl cotton and other vintage threads are still skeins and storaged in a basket.
    When I get my own atelier for embroidery and stuff I would totally do this (the hanging thing): http://annamariahorner.blogspot.de/2013/01/color-keeping-of-it.html

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  26. I wind my floss onto bobbins, label and then put into the plastic storage boxes by manufacturer.
    https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/150917_10151613615159838_1308032532_n.jpg

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  27. I wind it on the little bobbins and write the color number on the bobbin, though they're not very neat apart from that since they're all jumbled up in a plastic tub. I resisted using bobbins at first because of the extra work, but I always end up with a mess when I'm working straight from the skein, and then I lose the bit that had the number and don't know what color it was later, so there's a little less chaos this way.

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  28. I started with very good intentions of winding all my threads onto card bobbins and placing into plastic storage containers. Sad to say only managed half before I lost the will to live. The rest are in tiny sandwich bags waiting for their turn (should I ever be that bored that I feel the need to finish the job!) Sue x

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