I’m still educating myself on fabrics. It’s one thing to read the back of a pattern and see a list of patterns, but it’s another to go to the fabric store and actually buy one of the suggested fabrics that you like without knowing what they are. You could encounter five different fabrics made of cotton, but they could all have a different weight, different drape, and a different feel. Then you have to determine how it’s going behave with the pattern you want to use it for: will it hang nicely? Will it flow? Will it hold a pleat? Will it become charged with static electricity that it causes skirts to cling to your legs? 
The best way I’ve found to educate myself is by collecting swatches, even from the scraps I’ve already used so I can remember NOT to use quilt weight Kona cotton for a shirt (too stiff for my taste). But buying swatches from online fabric stores also lets you get to experience a fabric before you commit to buying two-and-a-half yards for a garment, and then realizing it’s not what you were expecting.
So I’ve been collecting swatches, and finally realized that I need to organize them so I don’t have to dig through my stash of fabric each time I need to re-educate myself. Here’s what I did:
Swatch stash
Most swatches are the size of a notecard, which makes it easy to staple it to a notecard. Online retailers will post a bunch of information about the fabrics they sell, so I wrote them on the notecards. Any information I can find about it, even suggested usages, suggested needles, washing instructions, et cetera.
My notecard holder is pretty stuffed right now, so I think I”ll have to go get another one soon!
(And I’m totally going to make a dress out of that blue eyelet in the picture)
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