How to: Instagram Fabric Destash ~ Fresh Lemons Quilts

Over the last few months, I've started to feel a bit suffocated by the amount of fabric I've accumulated. I love it all, and it's awesome to have options on hand when I'm working on a projects, but let's be honest - there is no way I am going to use all the fabric in my sewing room. On Monday I decided to lighten my load a bit and send some fabric to new homes.

In some cases, the decisions were hard. I love so many of these prints.

I thought I would share a bit about how I ran my destash in case anyone was interested in doing the same. I got a lot of great tips from my friend Katie. (Hi Katie!)

I decided to run my destash on Instagram. Instagram is a App on smartphones where you can take pictures and share them with others. There is a huge quilting community there, it's a lot of fun!

First, I spent some time going through all my fabric. I store my fabric in tubs (you can see a picture on my FAQ page). I sorted through one color at a time and pulled anything I thought I could destash. My criteria were:

1. Fabric I had already used in several projects (I was ready to move on). or 2. Fabric that was same shade of color as several other fabrics I planned on keeping. or 3. Fabric that had been in my stash for 1+ years and I had never used.

Once I had pulled everything, I made bundles. Some were sets of matching designs (Sketch or Mono Pez for example). Others were based on color. And a few were based on type of fabric, like linen. I tried to size the stacks to fit in a USPS Flat Rate Envelope. I ended up with over 40(!!) stacks.

I went through and weighed all my stacks with a postal scale. I placed a notecard on top of each stack with a unique stack number, the weight, the approximate yardage based on weight (I used 6 ounces per yard), and a price that I thought was fair (and most importantly, would sell).

Then I took a photo of each stack and posted the information on Instagram. I included the hashtag #thegreatfabricdestash on each post. The first person to leave a comment with their email address (or "ME!") got the stack.

Katie suggested I make a spreadsheet to track everything and that was the best advice. I opened Excel and had a column for: Stack Number, Price, Description, Winner Email, Winner Instagram Id, Invoice Number, Paid Flag, and Shipped Flag. This made it so much easier to track 40+ sales and packages.

Once the sale was over, I used PayPal's invoicing tool to send invoices to all my winners. It's very easy to use, just keep in mind you do have to pay PayPal fees. I also used PayPal to print shipping labels. I shipped everything USPS Priority Mail.

I'm not going to lie. It was tough. (Mentally and physically - this process took me an entire day). But it was also surprisingly therapeutic and freeing. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. And don't worry, I still have a ton of fabric. But less than I did a week ago.

Instagram Destash

Let’s be Friends! Follow me on Instagram

Disclosures