Hi everyone,
My hubby got his post ultrasound on his leg and now we wait until Valentine’s Day for the doctor visit and the results. Oh, isn’t it romantic? :o) Not really!
We are back home and guess where I am? Up to my eyeballs in trying to finish up my sewing room. The other night I was scrolling through my archived blog posts looking for something and somehow ran across this post way back from May of 2016. As I read it again, I was reminded of how much “fabric” is a part of me! Instead of posting a link, I just copied and pasted that post here. It all started with a question from Linda. I think it’s pretty appropriate for what’s going on in my sewing room now… :o)
(Again, this is from May, 2016, just reposted…)
Yesterday I did a post where I showed how I was doing a little organizing in one of my cabinets filled with fabrics. (HERE) Linda, one of my readers, commented on a few things and then she had a paragraph that went like this…
“By the way, with all the material you have, why do you buy more? Well, what I mean, is when you buy some material, is it for a dress you have in mind, and then you make it pronto? Or do you buy it just because it’s on sale and you like it? How do you know if you are ever going to use it? I guess, it’s because I only would buy material if I am going to sew something, and then I would make it, and it is gone. How do you have so much still stored? I’m sure you are dying laughing at me, but it is kind of puzzling to me!”
I’ve been thinking about her questions all day long, even taking notes on why I buy fabric when I already have more than I’ll probably ever use. I’ve tried to put my thoughts together and I hope this makes sense… although if you aren’t a “die-hard” seamstress like I am, you might not get it even if I do explain it… and then, I might not even be able to explain it. It might be an “unexplainable phenomenon” that only heavy duty sewers like me can understand.
Okay, let’s start. I LOVE fabrics (notice the bold!)… plain and simple…I just love fabrics. I think I always have. I’m a touchy feely person when I’m in a fabric store, or even a clothing store. I like to touch the fabrics and see how they feel. I like soft fabrics and like to touch the really nice ones. I once visited a shop in Nashville TN that carried Liberty of London Lawn fabrics and they were the most wonderful fabrics I have ever touched…. just a bit too high priced ($34/yd) for me at the time. If you haven’t noticed, there is a difference between $3.97/yard fabric from Walmart and $18.99/yard fabric from a specialty fabric store… just like there is a difference between a tee shirt from Walmart and one from Eddie Bauer. So the touch gets me every time. I have a hard time buying fabrics online because I can’t touch them. (that’s probably a good thing for me though!)
Most of the fabrics in the cabinet I showed yesterday are fabrics that are too big for my dolls…they were the fabrics I used when I made little girls dresses and sold them. I love floral prints and the majority of them are just that. As I dwindle down the fabrics I have on my open bookshelf, I transfer fabrics out of the cabinet to the bookshelf.
I’ve studied my fabrics today and I think this may be the oldest one I have in my stash. I know I made a little girl a coat out of it with big red buttons many many many years ago. It’s still a nice fleece…and I may use it again! :o)
I love how the colors in some of the new fabrics look. Some colors just go together in a way that makes me want to buy them. I love blues and greens together and and mint greens and pinks and kelly green and navy. Sometimes you see a design that is just such a pretty combination and the way it’s been put together makes it irresistible. Sometimes I wonder how in the world do they keep coming up with color and design combinations that seem new… There is something to be said for buying something “NEW” too…not using something from your old stash, but something NEW! It’s just plain and simple… it’s more fun to use the new fabric than the old.
When I used to sell my little girls dresses at my local Farmer’s Market, this was a very popular print… so it’s been around since 1999 or so.
This group of fabrics is probably next in line of being in my stash the longest… years ago Hobby Lobby would have these terrific clearance sales and the fabrics would be $1.00 -$3.00 a yard. I stocked up then. I’ll have to tell you the story about why I bought so much of this sometime…
Whenever I go into a fabric store, I don’t necessarily think to myself, “I’m looking for such and such fabric.” I just like to look and if something strikes my fancy I’ll buy some of it. Sometimes I’ll buy more of it if it’s something I can make money on. This is how my mind works… I look at how much the fabric will cost me and then I try to guess how much I might sell it for. If it’s something I think I can make a profit on, I’ll buy more. Sometimes you can buy several yards and sell one dress and pay for the whole lot. I don’t buy too many big quantities any more. I used to when I was making little girls dresses. But I will buy several yards of things like tulle, or eyelet or a fabric I know I can use for pretty blouses or pantalettes. I can tell you too, I generally only buy fabrics that are on sale. I don’t need anything THAT BAD to pay full price for it!
This was the fabric I used for my very first doll dress back in 2006. I made a Colonial dress for Felicity out of it.
Buying fabric is not so different from people who like to buy shoes, or cosmetics, or cookbooks or even collect recipes or paint their bathroom a different color when what they have up is perfectly fine. They just want another “something” to add to their collection or another look to make their house different. Some people collect things like pigs, or those gooses, or black and white cows, or salt and pepper shakers or cookie jars or hot wheels cars or vintage Valentines…OR DOLLS! I started out with one American Girl doll back in 2006. I thought she was the only one I would ever need. But I soon found out people really wanted to see the dresses on the dolls they had, so I began buying a few more dolls. I know some ladies who have over a hundred Ellowyne dolls! I’m never going to have one hundred dolls, but I may have over a hundred pieces of fabric….and sometimes I make money off my collection! :o)
These fabrics were the next four dresses I made for Felicity…
I don’t buy fabric just to have it, I generally have something in mind for who will get a dress from it. She doesn’t always get it right away but I always have it in mind…I could give the excuse that I keep my fabrics because you never know when you might need that certain piece in your stash. I do use fabrics from my stash from time to time for a gift I need to make for someone or for a project. I like the freedom of having choices too…when I’m making something, it’s nice to be able to pick from several fabrics to make your dress perfect.
When I’m at the store and see something like tiny doll sized buttons on sale, I don’t just say, “oh, I think I’ll only get the pink ones because that’s what I need for the dress I’m working on now”…I will buy all the ones that are on sale, to save $ and also time for not having to run back to town to find the buttons I need for the next project. That’s how you grow a stash!
I have given lots of my fabric away and have a rule I made myself when we moved into this house… ALL my sewing stuff has to fit in my sewing room… it can’t be stored upstairs or in tubs under the bed or in the hall closet! If I get to the point where I’m overflowing across the threshold on the door, it’s time to weed out!
So, Linda, that’s a very long answer to your questions… and then again, maybe it really didn’t answer your questions at all…but that’s why I buy more fabrics even though I have plenty already.
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Well, that was my answer about why I have so much fabric, why I keep buying more and why I still love doing it. (Although I have put myself on a buying freeze for now… I realized it while I have been organizing my sewing room THIS time!) It’s going to be nice and hopefully organized so well you can ask me where my checked fabrics are or my corduroy prints or my tiny glass buttons and I’ll be able to go straight to them! Won’t that be nice?
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne