If you have been following the Felt Workshop from scratch and have been encouraged to do some work, surely you will have already gathered a few sheets of felt, what to do with all of them? How to save them? Read on to learn how to organize felt sheets and scraps.
When we have a few sheets of felt it is easy to know their composition as well as the place where we bought them, but as the “family” grows things get complicated (unless you have a prodigious memory). My system for organizing the felt pieces is not the only one that exists, but it works quite well for me personally, for that reason I share it with those who follow the Workshop.
Previously, I had all the sheets of felt inside a box until a moment came when it was a real disaster, to find a color I practically had to empty the entire box. Also sometimes I would forget where I bought a certain sheet of felt, which is important when looking for the same color or texture.
To have all your felt pieces organized in principle only you will need a few sheets of paper and one or more ring binders of size A4 or larger. The number of folders will depend on the number of sheets of felt you have.
Once we have the materials, we must follow a criterion to order the sheets, personally I use an organization by colors, which does not necessarily have to be the same as the one I show you as an example. The most important thing is that we group the colors by shades (yellow range, green range, blue range, etc.), since in this way all of them can be quickly located.
The sheets of patterned felt can be placed all together following a chromatic order and taking the predominant color as a reference, or they can be included together with the sheets of solid colors (this last option is the one I use).
On the other hand, if our collection of felt sheets is large and we need several folders to store them, they can be classified, for example, by color types (warm, cold, neutral, etc.).
Once we have decided the order that we are going to follow, We will make the necessary holes with a hole punch or scissors to pass the felt sheet through the rings. My advice is that you use a folder with two or four rings at most, since in this way the part of the material that is wasted is minimal.
Trick: Take one pre-punched sheet of paper as a template, place the sheet of felt underneath and mark with a marker a central point that will serve as a reference to make the holes. This way you will get all the pieces aligned.
Usually the sheets of felt that I usually buy are A4 size or smaller but sometimes I also buy larger pieces. For save the sheets that exceed the size of the folder what I do is bend the part that protrudes from it and hold it with a clip, as you can see in the following image:
Another important point when organizing the sheets of felt is have a technical file with the data and specifications that may interest us the most and which in my case are:
– Store: place where I bought the felt to know where I have to go if I want to buy the same piece again.
– Denomination: the name with which it is cataloged in the store (patterned felt with leaves, canary colored felt, vintage colored felt, etc.), in this way if it is a physical store I can ask directly for it and if it is an online store I can locate it quickly in the browser.
– Measures: It is very interesting to write down the measurements of the felt sheet before starting to cut, so I know how much material I will need of the same color in each project.
– Composition: I indicate if the felt is wool, wool blend or synthetic.
– Price: Another very interesting fact to calculate the cost of the felt used and to compare prices between stores.
– Comments: I leave this section for personal comments and observations after having worked with the felt. I usually indicate if it is a suitable felt for pieces with or without padding, or for embroidery, etc.
I place each card in front of its corresponding sheet or sheets of felt if I have several of the same.
Finally at the time of save the remnants or leftover rest of a piece I usually distinguish between:
– large scraps: I store them in the same way as a whole sheet.
– small scraps: I place them inside a plastic folder sleeve and place it at the end of all the sheets.
In the following images you have an example of each case:
Trick: another way to take advantage of small remnants is create an index or color chart that we can place at the beginning of the folder or on the spine.
What did you think of my proposal? arrange felt sheets? How do you normally order them? Whether you have few or many sheets, I advise you to start organizing them to save time on your felt projects.
Finally, I wanted to show you a couple of photos that Maite has sent me in relation to last week’s practical exercise on how to make a bouquet of felt flowers (you can see the step by step in this link). Beautiful bouquets right?
You can find more ideas about felt and crafts at . Thank you very much for commenting and sharing!
