How to Fold Fabric

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Are you a seamstress or crafter with a fabric stash? You know that it can be challenging to neatly organize all those different sizes of fabric. This simple tip on how to fold fabric makes it quick and easy to have a beautifully organized sewing room.  Let’s be honest, a stack of neatly folded fabric is simply gorgeous and makes my heart sing. 

Why would you want to fold fabric to a uniform size?

• It makes it easier to standardize fabric in a wide ranges of sizes and shapes
• Because each folded piece of fabric is standardized, it’s easier to organize your fabric, whether you have just a few pieces or many, many pieces of fabric
• Keeping your fabric neatly folded reduces damage to your fabric
• Uniformly folded fabric allows you to easily organize your fabric so that you can easily see and access all your fabric. No more lost or missing fabric

The neatly folded fabric looks so very lovely when it’s organized. You’ll be inspired to create.

How to Fold Fabric

You may be surprised how easy it to fold fabric neatly and uniformly when you know the simple steps.

Tools to Help Fold Fabric

You’ll need to use a template to make sure that your fabric folds are standardized. You can use anything that is the size you’d like. Three templates I’ve used are:

1. An acrylic quilt ruler – My ruler is 5 inches wide, but you can use any width you’d prefer.
2. A book you have that is the width you’d like – Yes, did you know that I have a book available? You can get it as a downloadable ebook and also either in printed form or digitally for your ereader.  
3. A comic book backer board – The comic book board is a a popular way to fold fabric because of its size.

You can also create your own template from cardboard. Simply make it as wide as you’d like.

The quilt ruler is my preferred choice to use since it is long and it makes it easier to keep the entire length of fabric folded the same size.

Steps to Uniformly Fold Fabric

• Step 1 – I usually leave the fabric folded as it came off the bolt, but if your fabric has been unfolded, simple fold it neatly in half with selvage edges together. 
• Step 2 – Starting at one of the cut edges of the fabric, wrap it around the template you chose. Take your time to wrap the fabric smoothly and tightly around your template.

• Step 3 – Keep rolling the template and wrapping the fabric until you reach the opposite end.

• Step 4 – When you reach the end, simply slide your template out of the folded fabric. If the edge of the fabric doesn’t hit near the middle of the width of your folded fabric, simply fold it back about 3 – 5 inches and have that folded end hit the middle of the other side of the fabric roll.

• Step 5 – Fold your fabric roll neatly in half so that the loose edge of the fabric is secure in the fold. For fabric that is longer or shorter than the majority of your folded in half fabrics, simply fold a bit more or a bit less so that the final folded piece is uniformly sized in length, too.

Once you’ve figured out how to fold your fabric into uniform sizes, you’ll want to organize it neatly. Check out my ideas on how to organize and store fabric in your sewing room or craft room.

And if you’ve got fabric to organize, I know you’ve got thread (and probably lots of it). I shared 55 tips for Clever Thread Storage Ideas that should answer all your questions.

You may be interested in my e-book with tips on how to fold most clothing items.

Now that you know how to fold fabric simply and uniformly, you have more options to organize your fabric in your craft or sewing room. And just think of all that beautiful fabric that you’ll be able to see and admire now. 

Be sure to check out all my tips on how to fold clothing and more.

For more craft ideas, see the table below. You can scroll though the table and look for ideas or search for specific ideas with the magnifying glass in the upper right-hand corner (on desktop). Click on the topic and then click through the specific article.