I like mine visible but not creased/carded. Clear sewing bobbins (or bobbins stored on edge so that colors would show) or some other small spools might work for me, too. But could get expensive!
Hey! Just had a thought. I have used bubble tea straws for a lot of unexpected uses. You could cut them into tiny “spools”, and could also cut a slit in the end to hold the tail, so the spool wouldn’t unwind. Maybe there would be a way to stack the spools on dowels (sorted by color) and plug the ends so the spools wouldn’t fall off. Might look pretty stored in a tall vase or jar. Hmmmmm… I may just have to try this!!!
I’ve done a similar thing on one of my embroidery projects. I used the card board straw/length holder thingies that they sometimes put in shoes. I got the idea from yarn nostepinnes. We also have a lot of random extra straws from things like camelback bottles that might work for this
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AIMR
(Linda -2024 Choose Projects that You Want to Do :us:)
23
What I do is take the whole skein and loop it over in the hole…sort of like starting a macrame project? When you need a piece, you pull from the “knot”…
I use these baggies and put them in photo boxes from a craft store. Somewhere I had labels for each floss number, and it goes on the bag. When I need to pull floss for a project, I pull the whole bag, and connect all the bags with loose leaf binder rings.
It works well for the smaller pieces, but not so well for the whole or almost-whole skeins. Maybe I’ll have to try a combination method: @AIMR’s for the whole skeins and the boba-straw-sticks-in-a-jar method for the smaller pieces.
I filled it with crewel yarn; the pieces were only 18" long, so I had to fuss with it a lot.
Considering the time it took to print the spool and the amount of space a bunch of them would take up, it’s a fail for floss storage, but might work for something else.
Maybe create a boba tea straw adapter…
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AIMR
(Linda -2024 Choose Projects that You Want to Do :us:)
28
Clever idea for those small pieces! Sure would keep me from wasting so much thread when I just need a small piece…I am so good with yarn scraps but not with embroidery threads…I have some plastic tubing that I use for bobbin holders…bet that would work as well…off to find it in the garage!
This system came to me from my gran and I’ve just kept it up. One year @Pigeon and I sorted it all into rainbow sequence after it had gotten a bit jumbled. I needed to add a box or 2 at that point. It’s stayed pretty organized since then.
If the thread is creased, I iron it quickly. I really like this system, easy to store & find colours.
AIMR
(Linda -2024 Choose Projects that You Want to Do :us:)
32
I am trying hard not to buy another organizer box…I do have a limited palette of colors, but I have at least one in every family…plus, I dropped my box yesterday and little floss holders went everywhere…I was tempted to just throw them in a bag…once I work through all of my little pieces, I will reconsider…@magpie, I am impressed that you kept so many so neat and tidy! GOALS!
Glad I found this thread about floss! I was looking at storage systems online and one of the sites was saying that you should store your floss in a sunless space otherwise they might become discolored. Mine has been in a photo box because I haven’t needed specific colors until I started cross stitch with patterns. And now… yeah. I think I’m going to put mine in bags according to color group, similar to what I do with scraps of cardstock that are still a useful size, but would get lost with bigger pieces.
I saw a download for a DMC floss page where you can check off what you have, however I won’t always keep that with me unless I put it in my Google drive. So, that’s what is going to happen. I’m pretty sure I have duplicate colors at this point.
I’ve only encountered discoloured floss one time and that was some floss that was kept on display near a window in a shop for possibly many years - the labels were the old black DMC labels and I think we’ve had the lighter coloured labels for at least 20 years now. That was in a local shop, the owner was a kind man but he developed Korksakoff’s Syndrome and he was very forgetful about things like this. My floss is organized like @Magpie’s. I find little bobbins of floss in thrift stores quite often and this way they are easily added to the collection. I definitely have duplicates but I’ll use all of them up eventually.
Good to know. I do think the bobbin storage is neat, but the idea of winding all of that…
I do have some on bobbins, but not all. I think short run it will be easier if I stick all the blues together, etc, and then keep a log of what I have in my stash. For projects, I just keep that specific floss with me in a little fabric pouch along with needles and scissors. The scissors I use collapse into a cap so no worries about poking the pouch.
My husband and I went and bought every (normal solid) color of DMC and wound them around the little floss bobbins. We have 5 of those divided plastic boxes full and they are organized numerically. It was a pain to set up but completely worth it.
I used this method from the start, so I never really have to wind more than 5 or 10 new skeins at a time. 75% of the floss I buy in the thrift shop also comes on bobbins, so there are bobbin cards in many different handwritings in my stash.
I have them organized by number but I also have a DMC floss colour card (the one with real thread samples) so I can pick a nice colour on the card and then find it in my stash.
I went through my stash and found that most of it does not have the color sleeve on it. It was great for embroidery when I was making up colors as I went along, but not so great for cross-stitch where I want to follow the pattern without much deviation. I had seven of a certain color because I just kept buying it for each project, which was the Prairie Schooler Halloween patterns.
I was able to create a list in Google Drive that I can access from my phone when I go shopping. Nifty!
In that case I really recommend a floss card, so you can identify the colours you already own or find a suitable replacement for a colour you don’t own.
Just had a thought. I have used bubble tea straws for a lot of unexpected uses. You could cut them into tiny “spools”, and could also cut a slit in the end to hold the tail, so the spool wouldn’t unwind. Maybe there would be a way to stack the spools on dowels (sorted by color) and plug the ends so the spools wouldn’t fall off. Might look pretty stored in a tall vase or jar. Hmmmmm… I may just have to try this!!!
