Thursday, May 22, 2014

Does Your Stash Ever Overwhelm You?

So...I had the dress pseudo-fail.
Then the Lekala top fail.

Then I wore my M6519 top yesterday and remembered how much I love that top. I made that a few months after I started sewing and it's not perfect but the challis is so perfectly comfortable. I remembered I had a pretty teal jewel-toned rayon challis (Hancock) in the stash. I pulled it out, cut the pattern, sewed the seams (only shoulder seams and side seams) and tried it on.

Huge. Colossal. Tent like.

Huh?


The latest fits NOTHING like any of these. NOTHING. It's huge. And long. It's extra long(?).

AAAARRRGHHHHHHHHHH.

I just need to take it in a bit here and there but it frustrated me. So when I get frustrated with projects, I go clean and organize my room.

There's this
There a LOT of patterns on that cutting table. Way too many.

I had too many things out as "in progress". I can't have 15 patterns in progress. So I pulled them all out and I will put them away until it's their time to be made.

Today I picked up two cheap-o totes because I wanted to put my scraps in one and have a rule that once that bucket is full, they need to be weeded out. I really try not to have leftover fabric unless it's a basic, e.g. black ponte or suiting or white knit. So I don't generate a ton of scraps...but it's hard for me to get rid of big pieces.

Well, this started me down a path of organizing fabric bins.

Coating/jacket fabric 

Shirt/dress/skirt(?) weight fabric

"lighter" weight knits

Heavier knits

Bottom weight

Bottom weight

And there is a bin with fleece and flannel. And there is a box of lining fabrics. And there is a box of "I need to do something to make this wearable but I don't know what and I am not certain that I should even hang on to it but I can't get rid of it just yet"

I had a few, "OH! I forgot about that" moments while organizing. Now, I do not get the warm fuzzies when I find a piece of fabric I completely forgot about. It makes me feel  bad!!! So I am really going to try to not buy any fabric for awhile and to sew from stash. I have more summer sewing plans but know not to go haywire because it is MN after all...

So I'm going to regroup and try to be productive this long holiday weekend.

Soooo, do you stash? Do you get overwhelmed or giddy when you assess the stash?