Cross-Stitch

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Easy Ways to Store Embroidery Floss

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floss storage ideas

I feel like this is something we have talked about before, but since I just bought my daughter a bunch of embroidery floss to go in her new sewing kit of Christmas, I need all the help I can get in keeping it (and mine, for that matter) well-organized.

30 Handmade Days uses one of those plastic organizer boxes with the little bobbins for thread, but she has a great hack for winding them all, using a power drill. So cool.

Wild Olive’s Alison slips her skeins onto craft sticks with holes punched in the end so they can be stored on binder rings. Easy, inexpensive and you can take the colors you need for a project while traveling with ease.

Make your own bobbins out of paper – and add some cat lady flair – with this tutorial from Little White Whale. My kitty-loving daughter would certainly appreciate those.

If you like your floss visible, use clothespins, nails and a frame for a stylish solution via Ameroonie Designs.

I’ve also seen the clothespins on a pegboard, or stored in Mason jars, which would be cute if you have surface space to store them in.

How do you store your embroidery floss? I’d love to hear your ideas.

[Photo: Wild Olive.]

Looking for more Christmas Cross Stitch patterns? Check these out on Etsy.

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Comments

  1. Lucky for me, my son loves pickles, so I get the ginormous pickle jars from the grocery store. I have an old antique weaving loom, and my embroidery floss & ribbon are wrapped on dollar store clothespins and stored in the big pickle jars, sorted by colors. It’s now art and storage. Storing by color for me stops me from buying more because I don’t want to dig through the jars for the color I want. Ribbons and trims are wrapped around old peg clothespins, secured with tiny hairbands and in big cheeseball snack containers. With this system, I can see what I have.

Have you read?

All About Stitching on Perforated Paper

I recently wrote a post on my blog about using a stitchable journal cover and I mentioned that you can make your own stitched cover for a journal by using perforated paper instead of buying a stitchable notebook.

I have to admit, though, that I’ve never used perforated paper for cross stitch myself. I definitely want to because I think it would be great to use for bookmarks that don’t fray and have a little more stability, for example.

Sirious Stitches has us covered, though, because they did a deep dive into all things perforated cross stitch pattern that is worth the time to read through.

The post mentions that a lot of people use perforated paper for cross stitch because they buy an ornament kit that uses it. I’ve never seen these (or at least never noticed that that is what they were) but it’s a great idea to make small projects like ornaments in this way. It also talks about the pros and cons of using cross stitch paper, where to buy it and how to make your own. 

Making it yourself is an awesome idea because if you already have a pattern in mind you can just make holes in your paper where you need stitches to be and leave the rest solid. This would be ideal for making greeting cards, for example.

In addition to kits and sheets you can often find the paper pre-cut into different shapes you can use to make your own designs, no real pattern required.

The post also includes tips and advice for how to stitch on perforated paper that you’ll want to check out before you try your first project.

I’m super intrigued by the idea of using perforated paper for cross stitch and will probably be trying it out soon. Have you used it before? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Check out the post over at Sirious Stitches for more information.

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]