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?

D&D Cross Stitch Patterns

My husband is a D&D player from way back and still does role playing with his friends most weekends. There are lots of great D&D cross stitch patterns, but somehow the ones that caught my eye this time have a theme of being about the D&D classes or involving dice (or both). 

I love this collection of the D&D classes done as tarot cards. These would be so fun to stitch up for all the people in your party, or make the full set as one big wall hanging for the game room. There are 16 patterns total (just a few are shown here) and each one just uses three colors. The designs are from GlitchStitchAU.

This set kind of reminds me of astrological signs, though I can’t really say why. This set of 16 designs from White Raven Patterns is color coordinated so it sort of makes a rainbow if you stitch all of them. The dungeon master one is more colorful. Each one uses five or six colors and fits in a 10-inch hoop. 

Combining character classes and dice we get this set of 14 designs from Stitch it Picasso. Each one includes the class name and a die with a number on it, as well as some images that make sense for that class (the bard has a lute and music notes, for example). Each design is around 90 by 90 stitches and they use 13 to 19 colors each, depending on the design. 

Or you can make patches that look like dice with this D20 dice bundle from Non Player Creation. The patches are inspired by the four seasons, but you could change up the colors to suit your campaign setting if you like. They are 31 by 35 stitches and use between nine and 12 colors depending on the season. 

And speaking of D20s, this little dragon might be protecting your dice or cursing them, it’s hard to tell. It’s kind of cute, though! The design is from Cross Stitch Wow and measures 80 by 95 stitches. It fits in an 8-inch hoop and uses 16 colors.