What do people do for floss storage?

Personally I have the DMC stitchbows and folder, however, I've been researching floss storage ideas. I want an entire collection of DMC.


Bobbins would take a lot less space, but I just hate the way that the floss kinks when it comes off near the end. My criteria are dust-discouraging, if not dust-proof, sunlight-proof, and have enough containers/compartments to have the entire range of DMC thread. Also cost is very much a consideration.


I'm tossing up between making my own cabinet (there are plans available on etsy.) The trouble with this is that if I'm doing a pattern with, say, a massive amount of black and I decide to get a cone, they won't fit in there. An alternative would be to get a hardware store nuts-and-bolts storage, but they're generally not dustproof (the drawers are open at the top.) I could make them more or less light-proof by putting paper in the front of the drawer.

Or I could just cave and start winding my floss onto bobbins.

What are your storage solutions? Can you think of anything I've omitted?

Jane Doe

I use "Floss Away" bags and keep them organized by DMC number in gallon size plastic containers on a shelf. That way I can easily and quickly find the floss. I often kit my patterns ahead and keep the floss  for  them in Floss Away bags too that are labelled with the symbol and DMC number and color name. That way any remaining floss can be added back into inventory when I've finished the project. I will take some pics and share them here in the morning. Its just too dark to get decent photos this time of night.

I would like to note that when I started out cross stitching many years ago I decided NOT to bobbin the floss because I knew it would take a lot of time and energy that honestly I figured I could spend actually stitching!

Tinka

I wound my yarn on spools. I have them in plastic sorting boxes. The complete DMC range incl. of the new colors fits in 5 boxes.
The folds are gone after two or three embroidered crosses. There's nothing to be afraid of.

celiamerula

I  do "Floss Away" bags,  too.  I have D-ring clips to hold bags together - I clip them in colour number order, the  number of bags depends on the number in the sequence, eg DMC 700 - 729 works.  I used to keep them in plastic shoeboxes, but now I'm lucky enough to have a big drawer.  I store the skeins as they come, but I do wind them lengthwise round a 6 inch ruler when I cut - I do a lot of combined colours  and this means threads are usually the same length (the ruler length does mean an odd bit at the end, but not all colours are combined).

smarj

i made up plastic canvas boxes with dividers in them and use that