Sewing from my Stash and Refashioning

NOTE: long post, I made this mostly for myself, so I can keep track of what I have, but it might inspire someone.

Just a little more than a year ago, I joined a challenge of sewing from my stash. Actually I had started doing it before,  but by the time I blogged it, I shared some photos from the stash I had. I am pretty sure I forgot to take photos to some things I already had, but not much. 

Yesterday I thought I would take some photos of the fabric I have right now, after I've spent an entire year buying as little fabric as I could. The first thing I can tell from one year to another is how much more organized I got, and how much better my fabric piles look right now. I've been organizing it bit by bit and some of the fabric is still out of place, but I will get there.

To start, I have moved my fabric from one place to another over and over for the last year. In the photo above you can see my smaller pieces of fabric shelves. They are three of them, I was using the first one for my Burda, Patrones and Manequim pattern magazines. The pile grew and I moved them somewhere else. The two shelves below held my scraps. I can spot a few from there that I no longer have, they have been used already.

Right now, in the next photo, is the same three shelves. They still hold smaller pieces of fabric, but I have fold them properly (or at least much better) and have been trying to organize them by colours. White and black on the top one (and a bit messy right now) and the two below holding the other colours. I think this is the pile that looks much smaller than the one from the previous year. I was able to use a lot of them for my duvet cover.

The next 2 photos below are 1. refashioning clothes and 2. boxes of small scraps, and all the large pieces of fabric I had last time I photographed them. 

When looking at the refashioning pile I can spot at least 9 pieces that were already turned into something else. But they weren't that organized either. There was much more underneath. 

As for the bigger pieces of fabric, I was able to return some to that business partner I had, and I know I used some of them... not as much as I'd like though. Since they are big pieces, they were used, but I still have some left. 

Anyway, if you've missed it, by the end of 2013 I've put up a post with pictures of everything I made using my faric stash and everything I made that was refashioned. Find it HERE. 

 

I'm now determined to keep my fabric organized and visible at all times. Bigger, medium and smaller pieces of fabric, all have to be quickly found when it comes to start a new project. I have been saving card boxes of different sizes so I can store the different sizes of fabric in them. So far, here's what I got:

1. Bigger pieces of fabric - the ones on the vertical are the ones that are already wrapped in the card, the ones on the horizontal are waiting for card for their own. I am trying to keep them by colours. 

2. This used to be a CD case, but when destashing my cds, I threw the covers away, saved them in folders and saved myself A LOT of space. I was going to either give away or try to sell the case, but then I looked at it with different eyes and since it has do many small shelves, I thought it'd be perfect to keeo those very small pieces of fabric that I find hard to part with. It isn't organized yet. I just started there, but it will be in time. Right now you can see medium pieces of fabric in that bigger shelf on the side, refashioning items I bought this year already and are waiting to be put in the right place and if you look to the bottom shelf of the photo, you can spot a yellow fabric, already folded, together with a few others of blue tones. That is what I plan to do all over here. 

3. A box of refashioning potencial items. Most of it, is a fur jacket older than I am that belonged to my mother. 

4. The biggest pile. Underneath (lower shelf), there are clothes for refashion... I got a lot (donated) by the end of the year, so I have even more than I had before. On the top shelf, I have - for now - the very small scraps in the boxes and then there are left overs from previous refashions. Yes, it's a huge pile, but I have a problem of getting to attached to fabric... I always believe I will need them in the future. Eventually I did use some in other projects but most just stay there. 

I did manage to fill a fabric bag with lots of scraps and fabrics I didn't want anymore last year and donated too. And I've tried to put some away as I organized them this time, but not much was out. I am trying to work on this and see if it gets easier to part from those fabrics I don't need or won't use. 

Oh, and I realised as I organized my fabric stash, that most of my bigger pieces are of solid colours. Maybe that's something I should point when it is time to mention my signature style for Project Run and Play & Project Sewn sew alongs... right?!