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organizing embroidery floss without bobbins

Complete DMC Floss Set in Cases

I love embroidery floss. I love making color palettes, I love taking pictures of it, and I love playing with the pretty skeins. I don't love putting floss on bobbins. Don't get me wrong, I love floss on bobbins and I'm jealous of the folks I know who have all of their threads organized that way. It's just not for me.

Especially because I love having skeins of floss to photograph (these were taken with an iPad, so forgive the quality, please!). In fact, sometimes people ask me how I manage to have such perfect skeins in my pictures. The secret is that I have duplicate skeins that I never use (or at least I try really hard not to).

Having all these skeins of floss everywhere rarely looks organized, but after seeing someone use photo boxes to store their floss, I thought I'd give it a try.

Complete DMC Floss Set in Cases

So, this is a complete set of DMC colors, minus their most recent addition of colors, which doesn't have an official location yet. There are 17 boxes in all. And this set is going to remain intact so I always have the colors available for photos and color reference.

The colors in the boxes sort of correspond with the color of the box, but not quite as closely as I would have liked.

Each box contains 20-26 skeins, except for the larger clear box that's labeled 17-19. That one has neutrals, and contains closer to 60 skeins. I might be pushing it on capacity for that, but we'll see.

Complete DMC Floss Set in Cases

For the main method of organization, I looked to the DMC color card. See, I like seeing things grouped by color, rather than number. But sometimes that makes it tricky to find things. Since the color card is set up more by color than number, I knew it would help me out big time.

Each box, therefore, represents a column on the card.

Complete DMC Floss Set in Cases

If I look at the colors on the card, I can see the column and box where I'll find that skein. If I know the number I'm looking for, I can also use the index, which tells me the column/box.

Within the boxes, the skeins are in loose order (I laid them out in order then carefully scooped them up to place them in the box). But even if they are way out of order, I'm only looking through about 2 dozen skeins to find what I'm looking for.

Complete DMC Floss Set in Cases

For now, each box has a numbered sticky note on top. This way, if I want to change my system, it's easy to do that.

Complete DMC Floss Set in Cases

16 colorful cases, plus one extra case makes a complete set with easy to find skeins!

Complete DMC Floss Set in Cases

And because these are intended for photo storage, they even came with an outer case that holds all of the 16 smaller boxes. I found this at Michaels, by the way. And I already went back to get a second set so that I can now set up another one with all of the floss that I actually use. Hopefully everything fits!

Technically, this isn't a sponsored post, but I want to send mega thanks to DMC for generously sending me embroidery floss from time to time.

18 comments:

  1. Thank you for the wonderful idea! I have been looking for a way to organize my floss and anything that requires winding the floss is out of the question!

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    1. Anonymous1:12 AM

      Check out Floss-a-way bags. I love this system the best.

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  2. I really love your way of floss organization!!! I can understand that you have a total set of new threads - the look is just wonderful!

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  3. This is so wonderful. Another thing to add to my organizing list (after I move). Thank you

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  4. OMG a system I could really use..unfortunately my skeins are on bobbins and in their custom case I wish I'd seen this sooner.

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  5. I have my floss on bobbins - my late father wound them for me, but I love this! I have never noticed these boxes at my Michaels's but I will check it out. Also, between Michael's and JoAnns, neither one restocks their DMC floss and it is so frustrating. I may need to look for an online source. Thanks for sharing this idea.
    Thank you for sharing this idea!

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    Replies
    1. Nordic Needle has the full range of DMC colors and so does Common Thread, which is DMC's store.

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  6. This is how I organize my floss - in these photo boxes. I use the cardboard type photo storage boxes to house the plastic boxes. The cardboard boxes are so pretty. 😉

    I put 50 colors in each box but I'm finding it's too many per box. I need to break it down further for easy searching.

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  7. Way to go for tidy photo/reference/collection floss!

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  8. Anonymous6:37 PM

    There is a list that indicates which color family the new colors belong to, which would indicate where they would be on the card and in your boxes.

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  9. I would have never thought of doing it this way. This method is the answer to how I am going to organize my hand dyed threads. I can set up the boxes by brand and alphabetically within each brand. My DMC theads are already on bobbins. Thanks.

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  10. What size are the boxes, you mentioned they have them at Michaels? Thank you - your system is neat and I like the colored boxes. I have all DMC colors stored in order of the color chart, in one of those multi drawer cases that are usually found in the tool departments of hardware store. I have 7 skein colors in each drawer, with label on drawer of the color range enclosed.

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    1. The boxes are designed to hold 4x6 photos, so they are just a tiny bit bigger than that. The clear box that I have my neutrals in is for 5x7 photos.

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  11. I used this system to organize all my buttons and embellishments. I have colors together and have each holiday type separate. I have one case with all my antique buttons only and another with my everyday ones. At my Michaels they are with all the plastic storage items and I use the 40% Sunday coupon!

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  12. Your system is lovely to look at with the floss & box colors coordinated! I have my DMC on bobbins (done long ago) but my Anchor flosses are still in skeins.... sigh, I fear another trip to the store is in my future.

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  13. Excellent storage idea! It makes no sense to store them in other than colors, though I am one of those who has it wound on bobbins in # order, simply because that is how they are charted. This is a great system!

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  14. I know some embroidery aficionados may roll your eyes at this but I do something similar... except I use Ziploc bags. Very portable. No need to buy anything extra and I was able to do it in the blink of an eye without having to go to the store. You can write on the Ziploc bag with a sharpie if you need to

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  15. Anonymous4:13 AM

    I have been using the DMC colour chart for years and NEVER KNEW about the chart that told you which column to find a thread number in. Thank you so much, this literally changes my life

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