Summer Stashbust 2014!

My fabric stash is growing along with my list of projects I’d like to make – and my husband occasionally gives my piles of fabric the evil eye, mostly because it’s taking up some space in the bedroom. But it can be a challenge finding the time to sew. So the patterns and fabric keep growing. When I saw the words “Summer Stashbust 2014” on Instagram in June, I thought “A-HA! That’s what I need!!”

I first saw it in @thenerdyseamstress‘s IG feed. She regrammed it from @thequirkypeach. I soon started looking through my fabric and patterns and trying to decide what to make. I don’t have a huge stash of fabric – but I do have a couple large plastic bins and some in a wood chest – no closet or room full of fabric. But if you don’t have a lot of space to begin with, it doesn’t really make sense to keep accumulating fabric.

Some fabric is relatively new to my stash, and some has been sitting around for a few years. For example, in the above photo, the fabric on the far left is from a fabric swap from a couple of months ago. The green print fabric next to that is a Joel Dewberry design that I got about four years ago.

The red print on the right with ying-yang circles on it has been in my stash for a long time. It’s a cotton/lycra blend. I really liked the colors but the circles are rather large and a bit overwhelming. I didn’t know what to do with it. But when I took it out over the weekend, I realized, hey, I could use the fabric on some of the skirt panels of a By Hand London Anna Dress! I could alternate between solid red and the print. (I made my first Anna Dress last month, which you can see here.)

So the next day, I went over to Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics to see if I could find a nice solid red to go with this stash fabric. I looked at several red cotton fabrics but they were a little too crisp. I needed the hand of the fabric to match the stash. One of the store’s staff showed me a Kaufman Radiance cotton/silk blend that was a really good match for the red. I didn’t like the shiniest so I’m actually going to use the other side, which is more matte but has a slight sheen to it that matches my stash fabric. It’s the solid red in the photo above.

Then I finally checked out The Quirky Peach’s post “Summer Stashbust 2014,” and saw that I’m not supposed to buy any fabric from June 21 to Sept. 21. Oops. I bought that red fabric on June 22.

I couldn’t use that stash fabric without buying the Radiance fabric so I guess that’s my excuse but I’ll try to stay on a fabric diet for the rest of that time period! Oh, but I will make an exception for the Bay Area Sewists fabric swap that’s happening on July 26. But I won’t get any more fabric unless I give some away – so technically I won’t be adding to my stash. 😉

Meanwhile I’ve already started used a couple of yards of my Joel Dewberry fabric to make “The Trench” – from Christine Haynes 2009 book Chic & Simple Sewing. I’ve already made two from this pattern and I’ve been meaning to make another one from this fabric for ages and ages. If you follow me on IG (@csews), you’ll already be familiar with it because I’ve been posting photos of it as I worked on it. Here’s one of my WIP (work-in-progress) photos.

I’d like to make more tops, skirts, and dresses. I’m looking forward to sewing up some of my stash fabric.

Do you have a fabric stash? How big is it and how long have you had some of that fabric?