Stash Stories – October 2017

Back in June I catalogued my ridiculous stash, and then discussed how it was actively blocking my sewing mojo. This isn’t a new topic on the blog.  Back in 2015 I chatted about why a fabric stash doesn’t work for me.

But, as you know, thanks to the generosity of friends, and fabric shopping but not sewing, my stash had grown again.  And, I’ll be honest, it was making me uncomfortable.  I know that having a fabric stash is a bit of a contentious issue, and that many people would feel bereft without theirs, but I find it, quite frankly, oppressive.

When I started sewing, back in the days before the internet, I didn’t stash fabric or patterns, but simply decided what I wanted to sew, and then bought the fabric and pattern needed for that garment.

My goal at the moment is to pretty much get back to that state of affairs.  There are a couple of pieces of beautiful wool coating that will be the last things I sew, and some summer weight dress lengths that I’m not sewing till spring.  But everything else is going to be sewn as quickly as possible, just to get them out of a crate and into the wardrobe.

I even have a list!

So, October has been a bit of a crunch month for me, stash wise.  Not only have I been tweaking Newlook 6217 to perfection, I also decided to bite the bullet and go through the fabric book with a more critical eye.

I revisited each and every single piece of fabric, in a Marie Kondo fashion, and anything that didn’t “spark joy” was put to one side.  I filled two of the large blue Ikea sacks with fabric that I couldn’t see what I would make, or how it would fit into my wardrobe.  The friends who originally gifted it to me were happy for me to pass it on to a good home…so I did.  Another friend, who is learning to sew, was the overjoyed recipient of 71.9 metres of fabric that was weighing me down, but which has buoyed her up.  The gifting of this fabric sparked much more joy than the stashing of it ever did.  I highly recommend it.

I used another 5.4 metres for toiles, wearable or otherwise, and binned 2.5 more when I completely ruined version 3 of the Newlook top by completely not paying attention to cutting out!

So at the end of October I had 99.7 metres left in the stash, and I’ve pulled out about 8 or 9 pieces that have been pre-washed and pressed and are ready to go.  If you follow me on Instagram you’ll already have seen that November is shaping up to be a productive sewing month.

Stash Stories, then, is a monthly roundup of all things stash, where I’ll tally how much fabric I’ve used, what, if any I’ve purchased, and how much is left.  Hopefully, I’ll get to the bottom of the crates sooner rather than later.

By the way, if you’ve not already listened to the Love To Sew podcast “How big is your stash” then I highly recommend that you do.  In fact, I highly recommend you listen to all episodes…they are great!