Quick Tip Saturday #3: Create A Fabric Journal

My tip for today has to do with my love of two things: fabric and journals!  I cannot explain what it is about a beautiful piece of fabric (like the orange and pink one in the picture) or a brand new blank journal, that makes my heart beat a little faster.  It just does!  

When I saw this fabric, I just had to have it.  It was on sale, plus it was going away!  Tragic!!  I have no idea what bag I will use it on, but it just screamed Spring so I just had to have it.

The journal is actually a sketch book.  Not all that beautiful, but I do love gray and I love the snaps.  It looked very utilitarian and seemed like a perfect book to sketch out my future runway bags (DREAMING!).  Anyway, there are a few sketches in the back of the book, which I cannot disclose as they are so top secret that even I do not know how to make them.  (hehe)

 Then, I suddenly had the perfect idea-A Fabric Swatch Book.  I just made that name up.  Whatever this book is, I'm loving it.  I have just started to go through my fabric and have SO many more to include.

Why do I need this book?  Well, I often have a piece of fabric that I want to reorder and I can't for the life of me remember where I got it.  I do have receipts, but that sometimes take a while to go through and the receipt may not have printed with a picture.

I jot down the facts that are important to me...

• Name
• Size
• Where I purchased it
• Type of Fabric
• Cleaning directions
• Any notes on how the fabric sews (For example, the cute Waverly Tres Chic fabric in the above picture is SO cute, but it unravels like crazy.  I used it on my Leopard Concealed Carry Sugar and Spice Bag as the lining.  I'll think twice about reusing it b/c of this note.

I also take this book with me when I am getting ready to make a new bag.  As soon as I get a new piece of fabric for a project, I tape it in my book.  I then head to the fabric store and use my swatches to match thread, or an accent fabric that I could not match on line.  

Do any of you have a fabric journal??  I'd LOVE to see it if you do!! 

I hope this quick tip for today was helpful.  Have a WONDERFUL weekend and I hope you all are having beautiful weather like we have been having here in Missouri the past few days.

  Click HERE to see where I will be linking up this week!

Blessings,