Stashoholism Confessional

Going into 2007, my fabric buying was pretty out of control. Though I had barely touched my sewing machine in the two years I was in private practice, I dutifully continued to acquire fabric as that was the only connection I had with sewing. When I switched to my current job, I started doing a lot more sewing but my buying was certainly outpacing my sewing.

So last year was the year of Curbing My Fabric-Buying Enthusiasm, and I set periods of 2-3 months during which I was not allowed to buy fabric. This worked well. I was good about not breaking my periodic fasts, and the open-season periods were short enough that I didn't do too much harm.

In reorganizing my sewing room, I found that my stash is not as out of control as it felt when it was a huge mess (not surprising when you think about it). So I don't have to be on a complete fast, but my buying needs to be very modest and scaled down. I am still working on the parameters. Maybe it will be every other month? Or maybe it will be based on yards sewn? I still haven't quite worked it out, but I have decided that I will have to confess all purchases here. Hopefully this will prevent me from buying cheap, yucky fabric I will eventually discard just to get a fix.

At any rate, I hadn't bought any fabric yet in 2008 when I went to Fashion Sewing Club at G Street Fabrics last Saturday. Fashion Sewing Club is fun--there's a core group of about six of us (out of whom I am the youngest by around 20 years) and Ms. Marzella from the notions department puts together a little presentation and we talk about buttons or dresses or belts or bags or whatever the topic of the day is for half an hour and then do show and tell for half an hour. It's really fun to see people in person to talk about sewing.

Fashion Sewing Club is free to attend, and if that's not enough there are added incentives. Everyone gets a coupon for 15% off your entire purchase for the day, and there is a drawing for a gift certificate. I never win the drawing. In the two years I've been going to Fashion Sewing Club I've won once. I decided this time that if I won it was a sign I could get some fabric for a red, white, and blue wardrobe I've been planning.

Amazingly, I won! In the past, the gift certificate has been $15, but I guess times are tough and it was only $10 this time (I'm not complaining). So I ended up paying $5 for my six yards of fabric from the $2.97 bargain table but I think that's OK. I'm going to call it two yards purchased, since that was my cash outlay--my restraint was always more about not investing jaw-dropping sums of money in long-delayed sewing than not having enough space, so free stuff doesn't go in the tally.

So here's what I got:



The dark is one is actually a deep navy, not black, and I believe it is a rayon/poly/lycra with a subtle self-striping. It will be used for a sailor-dress version of Vogue 8408. The print knit will be Vogue 8379, the DVF-like wrap dress. Of course, *when* these projects will actually occur is always a big question, but I have no compunction in sharing these purchases with the world.