There seems to be quite a divide on this in the sewing community in recent years. Fabric stashes were the subject of one of the first episodes of the Love To Sew podcast (and Sewcialists was the topic of Episode 11, back when we had just relaunched in 2017)!
Some people track their stashes online, set goals to buy less, and try to have very little fabric on hand. Others, like me, can never have enough on hand — after all, you never know when you’ll find that great print or bargain price again!
We’d love to hear from you in the comments! Are you a fabric collector who loves having every type of fabric on hand, or does unused fabric make you feel stressed and guilty?
Gillian cofounded the Sewcialists in 2013. She lives in Canada and loves cats, bright colours and sewing! She blogs at www.craftingarainbow.wordpress.com .
Hi Gillian! How’s the double vision after the accident? I just read your by-line at the bottom of the post, “lives in Canada, likes bright colours and cats”, that could be me, too! A fabric stash. OMG, do I have a fabric stash. I’ve been buying fabrics for more than 45 years, from the time I started to earn money. I know I have at least 1 piece here still from those early days. I am inspired by those fabrics, the colours, the textures, and sometimes the thought, “what was I thinking?”. And I still buy. When I see a piece that attracts me, I buy it. Now that I pattern test for a few companies, my stash comes in really handy. When you’re pattern testing, you’re never really sure how it’s going to work out, so I “shop from my stash” for those projects. I LOVE my fabric stash!
We are so alike! I feel the same about pattern testing – i want to use something cheap I got on sale, not have to go out and pay full prie for something that may not fit! 😉
My stash is very small and that’s how I like it. I really don’t like collecting things (but I’m not a minimalist, either!) so I also don’t like collecting fabrics. I only buy fabrics when I know what I want to make from them. When ideas and fabrics start to pile up nevertheless I make to do lists and have myself finish them before I allow myself to buy new fabrics and patterns. The idea of having a huge stash and no idea what to make from it almost frightens me!
Sounds like a stash is definitely not for you! 😉
I never expected to become one of those “fabric stashers” but I did – now I feel like a member of the chorus chiming intermittently, yet regularly, the refrain in the background of storytellers who tell the stories of the beautiful, never to be seen again fabric, “I’m not buying any more fabric this year. I’m shopping from my “stash”. I have too much gorgeous fabric languishing in bins EVERYWHERE” 🙂 I do have too much fabric honestly for the speed and volume of sewing I actually do or even need to do. I think it’s an unexpected consequence of online shopping that stashes have become so unwieldy! I’d certainly describe that as the culprit responsible for much of my hoard.
Hehehe – am i right that much of your stash can be “blamed” on Caroline from Blackbird Fabrics? She does have such beautiful taste!
I’m definitely a stasher, but I have been working towards curating it more. I ended up giving away something like 50 yards early last year, and am strongly considering pulling a few more things out so that everything is colors I love. My problem isn’t so much shopping, since I’ve barely done that this year, or even my usual Christmas gifts of fabric (my mom knows my taste very well, so I pretty much love every piece I get from her!) But I also have been the recipient of several pieces that other people were getting rid of so they dump it on me, and those are the ones that usually aren’t me. But I’m ok with having things around for awhile when I or my mom choose them, because sometimes it takes awhile for a piece to tell me what it wants to be.
Here’s an evil daughter plan – could you sneak those less-loved fabrics into your mom’s stash when she isn’t looking? (Or, you know, gift them to her so she can’t say no?)
I don’t think it would work with my mom, since she’s primarily a quilter and I get given more apparel things. Honestly, most of those are things other quilter friends gave her when they were trying clothes, that then got passed to me! But since I don’t know anyone else around here who sews, I just sent the last batch to Salvation Army. If I do another stash purge, I’ll probably have to do that again.
I have written about this earlier this year. My dear younger sister died of cancer in January. She was a quilter, sewer, knitter, artist and gardener. I inherited her gigantic stash of fabrics, yarn, patterns and notions. I also have a modest stash of my own, as our hobbies were similar. I have spent most of this year hauling huge bins from her house to mine , tidying and purging as I go. It has been an emotional and exhausting year, but I am starting to feel very different about having so much stuff. I have been donating to family, friends, the local schools and quilt groups, as well as the local theatre (for costumes and for their summer sewing classes) . I have given to the women’s shelter, charity groups and women who have lost their own homes and crafting stashes in BC’s forest fires. As I am in my early 60’s there is no way I will use this in my lifetime, and I don’t really want my daughter to have to deal with all this. I am all for having a stash, but not in such enormous amounts…for me it can actually become a hinderance, almost like writer’s block. Our ability as sewers and makers to see the finished garment in a stack of fabric can be a blessing or a step to becoming a hoarder. I realize what you buy with you own money is your business and this is only my opinion, but I am hoping you will give some thought to this. Barb
Barb, I’m so sorry for your loss! It’s lovely that you’ve found so many ways to give away her fabric to people who will enjoy and use it!
In the stressed and guilty camp here. I would like to get my stash down to just some nice basic solids and fabric for muslins.
Maybe there are some local sewists who would take the prints and other fabrics off your hands? I’m always happy when I can pass my fabric to someone else!
I, too, have a fairly large fabric stash. I live a two hour drive from the nearest fabric store and do not shop online. I only get to the city once or twice a year so tend to stock up on fabrics I like or have a lack of in my stash that I know I will need in the next year or so to replace worn items in my wardrobe. A few items are pieces given to me by neighbours and family who were moving to small condos or who could no longer sew. During the year I tend to shop from my stash when I sew. I do not feel guilty or stressed about the fabric on hand and often wish I had bought more of quality denims or bottom weights that are hard to find at the one fabric store in my nearby city (how I envy you Gillian with so many fabric stores close by). This last year I have shopped almost exclusively from the stash.
My husband, who has every tool imaginable, does not mind that there is a large collection of fabric in house and always makes sure there is a stop at the fabric store when we do get to the city–he visits the hardware store in the same mall and turns me loose in Fabricland for an hour or more. My young friend who lives nearby on a farm has and even larger stash and often gives me gift cards to enable my fabric shopping. We have also been known to add to each other’s stashes or trade pieces. The stash also comes in handy when friends and neighbours need a small bit of a certain colour to finish or mend something they are working on. No longer loved pieces become muslins when testing a new to me pattern.
I love that your friend and you husband both support your passion for sewing! One of the things I like so much about sewists is that they by nature, value their own time and happiness, and invest in their own happiness through sewing. When you are surrounded by people who value your happiness too, life is good! 🙂
I have a sign on my sewing room door that says, “She who dies with the most fabric wins” and that’s my motto. When I was 20 I worked in a fabric store chain. That employee discount was like a gateway drug. I’m 41 now and I have 85 of those boxes that printer paper comes delivered in plus eight 20-gallon bins full of fabric. Now that shopping for fabric online is a thing, I REALLY have to work hard to control myself because it’s so easy to accumulate fabric that way. Still, I regret nothing. I love being able to shop for fabric in my own house.
Why did I waste my early years working in fast food when I could have been working at a fabric store? You clever person! I’m glad that you enjoy your own personal fabric “store”!
My mom wouldn’t let me work in our fabric shop because I needed to save for college expenses.
At this point (40+ years later) I’ve started sewing garments after a long hiatus. At some point I’d donated all my fashion fabrics so I had to start over. I have a small stash, a mix of ones I love and ones that I’ll use for muslins that I buy at the chain fabric/craft store. It’s hard to buy good fabrics there so I buy when I travel. If I could buy as needed locally, I think I’d have less stash. As it is, I’m trying to keep it small.
NOTE: I’m planning to keep my fabric stash small because my yarn stash is so big. I knit daily and I’m positive I could knit for 10 years and still have a decent sized stash. I don’t have room for It AND a large fabric stash.
Having a deep stash makes me feel stressed for sure, except in one case: true scarcity, by which I mean Cone Mills denim. Every other time, I know I’ll find something I like just as much when I actually have time to sew that yardage or garment. If I buy without a plan I get stuck on that fabric until I use it for something, which is a lot less fun for me than accomplishing a plan! As Barb said earlier in these comments, it really does feel like writer’s block.
I save all my scraps though! That’s my true stash!
I have a stash of Cone Mills too! I’m slowly adjusting to the fact that there are several online stores that stock it year round now, and I could, you know, actually sew it instead of hoarding it? 😉
If you like owning it, you’ll love wearing it! 🙂
My fabric stash is getting a little bigger than I’d like. I usually only buy when I have an idea in mind but I have bought fabric just because it was on sale-the store near my house sometimes has buy one remnant get 1 free (and they actually sell big remnants-usually at least 1 m). But I do feel guilty about how much fabric I have because of how much ends up in landfills and how long it takes to decompose. Plus, if it sits around forever and I dont know what to do with it, I feel like I wanted money.
Hmmm… maybe you could have a destash sale online and get your stash back to where you like it? I can understand the temptation of cheap remnants! 😉
good idea!
I inherited a large fabric stash a couple of years ago, and have been oh-so-slowly trying to sew it down. When it comes to buying fabric I don’t often purchase anything unless I have something specific in mind.
That being said… as my stash diminishes, I wish I had more to draw from, so that I can just get to sewing when inspiration strikes instead of having to plan a trip to the fabric store and delay that inspiration.
So, just like the sewing community, I’m feeling split on the matter; less fabric means less “stuff” and therefore a calmer mind for me. But more fabric means I feel a bit more free to try new things because I don’t have to go out and purchase fabric especially for each project I want to have a go at.
Luckily (or unfortunately?) there’s no right answer! Maybe as your stash deminishes, you’ll be able to keep your favourite types of fabric on hand for last-minute projects?
I’ve been sewing for many decades and have accumulated quite a stash. Some of it is very old, my tastes have changed and I know I’ll never use it so I’ve slowly been culling. However if I can think of a use (whether or not I’ll ever make it) I tend to let it stay. The key for me is to have an inventory or I forget what I already have! I find it so satisfying to have a project idea and just start it right away instead of having to wait until I’ve managed to shop first. Luckily I have a good deal of storage space so it’s not a problem. It’s the OTHER stashes for crafts I’m no longer interested in that are giving me guilt issues! Must do something about that but it’s it easy. Some things have too much invested in them to just give away.
Oops, I meant it’s NOT easy! Stupid autocorrect.
I agree! My fabric stash is joy, but the random yarn, beads, wire, and whatever else i’ve collected over the years takes up a lot of room, but it’s so hard to let it go because one day I’ll need it! 😉
1. I think it’s funny that with-stash-people were only participating in the IG vote until you said something… lol. I get non-stash people commenting because they often have well-thought-out systems and reasons.
2. I’m a stash person. I sew a lot of muslins and samples/testers, so I dunno. I don’t feel guilty AT ALL. Even the pieces I won’t wear will get sewn. I also quilt, albeit not as often anymore, but that is useful for scraps. I re-stuff my pillows/cushions with scraps. Yeah – no guilt. I do get clutter-anxiety, although I’m a clean-freak, not a neat-freak, there’s a difference between the two IMO. I don’t like dirt/dust/grime, but “stuff” doesn’t bother me. My anxiety is more over keeping my mental list in my head instead of on paper, and when it gets to be too much, and I need to put it on paper, I must clear out my visual space as well – so I will shove things in a walk in closet if I’m too busy to deal with it – then I organize it later when my list is pared down.
I was hoping that would bring the stash-ers out to play! 😉
Oh, this is one of those “there are no right answer’ topics!
I’m pretty firmly in the non-stash or very small stash camp. I have about 30 yards of fabric now, and that’s so overwhelming to me. As a couple of other commenters noted, it becomes the sewists form of writer’s block (stitcher’s block?)
I’m not really a minimalist, but I don’t like clutter or stuff sitting unused. I hang most of my fabric in my sewing room closet because if it’s out of sight in bins or boxes, it’s out of mind and then it never gets made up. And when I buy fabric I want to use it right away – but if there are stacks of uncut fabric NAGGING ME, I won’t use the new/perfect-for-this-season fabric. It’s a vicious circle. This year I made a vow to donate to my ASG chapter any fabric that has been sitting uncut for more than a year, but when I culled the herd in August I held out two really nice pieces that I’d purchased a couple of years ago. It’s now December and I still have no plans for those pieces of fabric so they’ve got to go. I can hear them yelling at me from the closet …
Yes, I’m very lucky to live in a city where I have a selection of fabric stores, and because I generally only sew on weekends I can afford to wait a few days for a piece of fabric to arrive in the mail. But more of it comes down to me not dealing well psychologically with clutter.
The accessibility of fabric stores is an interesting topic – I was chatting on IG with a lady who lives 130km from her nearest shop, so obviously a stash of some sort is necessary for her! The US/Canada exchange rates and increase in border tarifs over the last 2 years means I almost never buy American anymore… but I can imagine that if it was that fast, cheap and easy to get fabric, I’d have way more than I do now!
I don’t stash. I prefer to buy fabric and yarn for a specific project–I just have to be careful to make sure that I accurately estimate how quickly I can finish projects so that I don’t end up with a bunch of unused stuff laying around. Clutter and unused items stress me out. When I have unused fabric and yarn sitting around in my stash, I find that my creative energy just gets channeled into trying to find the right project to use them for, even if I don’t really want to work with those materials at the time, so I feel closed off from other possibilities. And I don’t want to invest the energy in organizing a stash, so I just try to keep it as small as possible.
Sounds like you’ve found the right strategy for yourself! <3
This is one of those topics that keep getting discussed in the sewing community and I’m starting to wonder why? You either like having a lot of fabric in your home/sewing area/storage or you don’t. We should just respect each other’s needs/wishes/desires for either having very little/none at all or as much as we can store. Either way it works for the individual sewist and I think we should celebrate our differences because we all love this artform!
As always, you make great points! 🙂 I think I find it fascinating because this discussion seemed to come out of nowhere a few years ago. I don’t remember people talking about stash-guilt even 5 years ago, do you? A little part of me wonders if it’s something that has been accidentally socially constructed in the trend of minimalism and Kon Mari-ing. What do you think?
Actually this has been a subject for quite some time. I have a blog post about in 2008 – 10 years ago. This became a thing right after the scissors vs. rotary cutter debate died down. I think it’s reared its head again as the newer sewists have started to acquire fabric and pattern collections. Before social media you didn’t really know what someone had stashed in their house unless you visited them. Also the people I sewed with at the time didn’t talk about sustainability or how fabrics were made (cause for us in the US a lot of it was made right here) or having too much. Then again most of us had at least one fabric store in our towns, sometimes more and they weren’t all chain fabric stores.
Originally I wrote a different response and then I deleted it and wrote that one. I think we should embrace our differences…not stash shame sewists…or shame them for their lack of stash. We are a diverse global community with different living and working environments but we all love to create. I just feel like that should be celebrated. Hope that wasn’t too deep of an answer for you!
Thank you for always getting me thinking! To be honest, I chose this topic because I wanted a nice chatty post that would get lots of people chiming in in the comments… but I see your point that it could be interpreted as adding to the guilt/shame over wherever we fall on the spectrum! I didn’t mean it that way, of course! <3
I know that. Believe me I know that! And never thought differently. I guess I just think there are more things we can talk about…didn’t mean to hijack your convo either, so I’m sorry if I have.
That was a wonderful answer! With changing times and generations come a revisiting of the same topic. But in the end we all enjoy the same thing: to sew.
I enjoy fabric and like to have some of it around. I look at it and touch it regularly. Do I have a lot? I am guessing 10 pieces. Could probably get rid of some?…yup. Do I want more? Probably not. This is a comfortable level for me. I look at fabric online everyday. I do feel the need to replenish if the stash gets close to 5 or 6 pieces. I think it is awesome that people enjoy their fabric and they should be able to enjoy it without any guilt! I will be retiring soon with more time to sew. I wonder if my fabric stash will get bigger or stay the same?
I wonder too! You’ll have to check back and let us know. I hope you enjoy the transition to retirement and all that sewing time!
Not a stasher. I am fortunate that I live very near great fabric shops, but I avoid buying fabric on spec for four reasons: 1. Tastes change, 2. Fabric gets damaged in storage, 3. I seem to have either too much or not enough fabric for my project, 4. Storage is a hassle
I’m an accidental stasher. I would buy with a pattern and plan, it wouldn’t get done and both end up languishing in a wardrobe. Multiply this by 25 years and, well, I have more fabric than clothes and no time to make it all. Then I took up quilting as well…
I used to be a stasher but now, I’m trying to get down to the smallest stash possible for me. When I had a lot of fabric, I tended to forget what I had and go out and buy more when I wanted to start a project. Or I wanted to sew up some fabric but didn’t have enough yardage. Or I had way too much and would get sick of it after 2-3 projects (I sew for my kids and that requires much less fabric). I somehow never had what I needed and the fabric would just sit there and stare at me accusingly. And then, we moved to a 1000 square foot apartment. There is absolutely no space for a huge stash. So I’ve gotten rid of fabric I just won’t use and I really want to sew what I have as much as possible before buying more. I think having less will actually be good for my creativity. I think I need some blank space to have room for my thoughts if that makes sense.
Picking up from @diaryofasewingfanatic – for me this isn’t a dilemma so much as a practical consideration of what works for me. I buy fabric that I like when I see it, because it often won’t be there when I go back and the fabric supply and accessibility in Australia is variable. I have sooo little time to sew that if the inspiration or opportunity strikes, I want to be able to go for it right then and there!
However, from a practical standpoint, I have loads of stuff in my stash that I bought when I first started sewing and hadn’t really worked out what I liked. There are loads of 1-2 yard pieces that I can’t make anything from except for the kids and I am not sewing that much for them / their tastes have grown up a bit. That really really annoys me.
VERY long winded way of saying that I want to purge my stash – not because I have guilt about it’s size, but because there is a lot of stuff in there that I won’t use and that bugs me. I want to get to a point where all the fabric I have makes me excited about sewing it, and I can see it all. Just writing this comment makes me want to go upstairs and reorganise it just to see all the fabric and get inspired by what I might make out of it!!!
I understand you goal! When I went to redo my sewing room with nice furniture, I first had to take a hard look at my fabric stash of only 10 years. When I started I did not have a local fabric store and purchasing a lot at one time seemed to be the only way to SAVE money. But it was overwhelming. I never seemed to get to all the projects. Even when shopping online became my go to for fabric, I was sometimes disappointed. So, I made an honest assessment of what I imagined I would use and sorted the rest into two categories. One for giving to friends who sew and one to donate to Goodwill. I didn’t factor price into any of my decisions. I let my heart be completely non judgemental. It worked. I got everything down to a beautiful and manageable size. I also spent quality time sharing lovely fabric with friends who may never been able to afford fabrics I was willing to part with. And finally I knew the rest would also make a great find for someone else in need of cheaper fabric.
My sewing has also changed. I now have 3 grandchildren. They take up much of my sewing time and energy. Being flexible, balanced and willing to trust your instincts can lead to much joy when looking at your sewing stash. I call my sewing room my happy place and BLISS now! <3
My collection of fabric is vast and varied, but it gets a yearly purge. I am lucky to live near Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada where a local Grandmothers to Grandmothers group has an annual sale of donated fabric, yarn, notions etc. It’s a great opportunity to thin out my stash. Now if only I didn’t come home from the sale with just as much as I donated.
For those who haven’t heard of them the Grandmothers in Canada raise funds to assist Grandmothers in Africa who are raising grandchildren orphaned due to the AIDS epidemic.
I believe there are other cities in Canada where they have this fabric sale fundraiser.
I’m all good about having a stash but when I have more than will fit on my shelves the disorganization and cluttered look stresses me out.
I don’t really have space to store more than 10 pieces of fabric right now as my 2 small fabric bins have been taken over by scraps which aren’t really usable – I really need to bin or recycle them and not hang on to them just in case..on one hand, having more fabric stresses me out because I buy pieces for a reason and I want to get them sewn! I don’t really like having lots of ‘stuff’ either. But I’ve also found in the past 2 years I’ve been making most of my clothes, that I can’t always find what I want in the shops when I need it, so am starting to buy a few select pieces of fabric for the next season and put them in a drawer, out of sight, so I don’t have a huge outlay of cash at the beginning of the next season. This is especially important to me right now because of the political uncertainty in the U.K. right now – I don’t know what the situation will be regarding customs and imports and the cost of sewing a year from now!
I’m a natural collector, since childhood, so I lean towards having a stash. But I am also a grad student and so can’t actually afford to have a stash. The fabrics I do stock up on are cotton lawns on sale (my favourite fabric) and good basic knits. As for the rest of my tiny collection, each one has a pattern assigned to it and I’ll slooooowly work my way down the list. Now if only Megan Nielsen would stop designing such great queue jumpers!! My little stash is currently my saving grace. I’m staying with my mum in a tiny village, online fabric shopping is not an option in South Africa (the shipping charges are terrifying) and the nearest fabric shop is two hours away on a very dodgy bit of road (and goodness knows if they’ll have anything other than quilting cotton and upholstery fabric). I paid for a second suitcase on the flight here so that I could bring a selection of fabrics and patterns to keep me sane here in the middle of nowhere. My Elna went in my hand luggage!
I have a stash of woven fabrics that increased a great deal during the stressful moments of a research masters. They came from a variety of sources, but mostly ends of bolts sales and fabric swaps. The knits increased too, but they also were used very quickly after the masters was done. This was enabled by my husband’s gifts of a new overlocker and then a coverstitch machine.
Now I buy fabric only if I will use it immediately (mostly knits). I find I am using woven fabrics less and less, although I do need more tailored trousers. My aim is to use up stash wherever possible and not replace the fabrics. Some of the older woven fabrics are no longer appealing. I will take them to an op shop or the next fabric swap. Eventually I want to return to a position where I have a very small stash and buy only as needed.
I am firmly in the stash camp for myself. I like having fabric on hand, I like taking advantage of a good bargain, and to be honest, I love the fabric. I like looking at and feeling it, and owning it gives me pleasure, even if it ends up never being used by me. The fabric itself makes me happy. I have over 400 different fabrics in lengths of 1 yard or more, certainly in excess of 1500 yards of fabric, acquired over the last 15 years, most in the last 5 years or so. I also have a remnant/scrap stash, but I try hard to be ruthless with that and keep it under control, because I know that I just don’t use scraps much. Sometimes, I just like a fabric so much, I just can’t bear to part with the scraps. I keep a physical catalog of my fabric. I cut a small square of each fabric, staple it to an index card and note length and width, fabric content, if it has been washed and the storage location box number. When I shop my stash, I am able to look at, feel and determine suitability by flipping through about 20 index cards. Once chosen, I go straight to the box number listed and pull the fabric. Easy-peasy. When I use the fabric, I move the swatch into my project journal, keeping the catalog updated. I frequently look through the catalog for no reason other than enjoyment. I bought most of my fabric on sale/clearance/going out of business and almost all of it was less than $5 a yard. $5 a yard is sort of my personal cut-off point. It is rare that I will pay more than that for fabric. Some was bought with a specific project in mind; others because I liked the fabric. Sometimes, fabric is a travel souvenir, like a batik bought in the Caribbean. I don’t buy fabric online very often because feel is a critical factor for me, and you can’t touch fabric through a computer screen. Most of my stash is natural fiber, linen being a particular favorite, but I have lots of cottons and silks as well. I got several large acquisitions that influenced the size of my stash – a local Joann’s moved and sold fabric for 80-90% off, Hancock had a $3 or less per yard on their clearance table fabrics, Hancock went out of business, Craftsy has a crazy good sale when they used to have garment fabric, and my husband treated me to a trip to the NYC garment district. Don’t know if it is still there, but at the time, there was a fabric store that sold only linen fabric, and they had a sale section. That was heavenly. I haven’t bought much fabric in the last year or two – no real need or desire. I have a few pieces that are special, that I did pay full price for. Those are the hardest to use – mess up a project using fabric that cost $6 or $7 total, and the pain is not so bad. The same with fabric that is $30 a yard – that hurts. Writing about this has made me feel a bit of sewing inspiration. I’ve been mostly paper crafting recently (you probably don’t want to know about my Graphic 45 stash!), but I think I will tackle a few sewing projects this month. And yes, I have stashes for other hobbies, too. I also bead, papercraft, embroider, cross-stitch, upcycle, make models, weave, and dabble in miscellaneous other crafts that interest me. No, I don’t work, I retired 6 years ago.
I have a fairly large stash and sometimes it bothers me, sometimes it doesn’t. Some acquisitions were accidental, some were deliberate. When I buy now, the fabric must really speak to me or it must have an immediate use. Yesterday I went shopping for coordinating fabric for a jacket fabric (a gorgeous linen/cotton bought at the Quilt Show) and found an Alexander Henry print of flute playing cats dressed as geishas perched on koi fish. A very unusual fabric and not something you would wear outside the house but perfect for a nightgown to replace the one wearing out. Of course it came home with me as well as a remnant in the coordinating blue I was searching for. It goes on the cutting table this weekend. The deep stash often coughs up the ideal fabric for something I did not know I needed to make. Just recently we found moths had infested my husband’s closet and chewed up a Pendleton shirt. Out came some khaki twill purchased at a JoAnn’s moving sale and a zipper roll to make garment bags to store the woolens after they are cleaned and debugged. And I may have some wool in the very deep stash that can be unraveled to darn the chewed up shirt. At the Quilt Show one of the vendors was selling “second time around” fabric so there is an aftermarket for unused stash. That said, I do try to limit what I buy to what I know can be sewn.
My stash grows and shrinks, and it’s a case of truly size doesn’t matter – for me the stress factor comes from thinking of what I’m going to *do* with the pieces. If I know what each piece is for, even vaguely (“some kind of dress”) then I can keep it. When I start piling up “oh this might come in handy for… uh, maybe a muslin? ” pieces then it’s time for some purging!
Great dilemma Gillian, and another one with no right answer. I ran a whole Instagram sewing challenge called #makeyourstash earlier this year which you know about 😉 Whilst it was in the name of sustainability it was never meant to stash shame anyone (is that a term?) Rather to foster a “think before you buy” mentality and encourage people to pause and check in with themselves as to whether they were happy with what they were doing. I wasn’t happy with my stash that was continuing to grow pretty mindlessly – I just substituted buying fabric for buying clothes – and I figured there had to be others out there of with the same issue. But as other commenters have said, does it really matter in the end? I’m starting to think not!
Definitely a stasher. And I like it that way! 🙂
I’m too impulsive to stop and shop for fabric for each project and I hate getting a very specific idea and being unable to find the fabric. I am very often inspired by fabric first, then I find a pattern. Sometimes it’s the other way and a lot (not all) of the time, I have a fabric that is perfect for that item.
I DO reach points where I get overwhelmed but I think that’s less about the quantity and more worrying “hmmm, will I ever actually wear this print/color/etc on my body??” I HAVE stopped buying “because it’s a good deal” (and I’ve MOSTLY stopped stress buying but I’ll take stress fabric purchases over stress eating!). If I just love it or if it’s a staple item for me (ponte, shirting, wool knits, suiting), I don’t mind stashing.
I did cull a ton of fabric when I moved this summer, but it’s currently in a bin in my garage. I have more to go and will likely donate it to the textile garage sale this upcoming spring. I am a tiny bit nervous as I feel like my tastes are starting to shift a bit. Will definitely think long and hard this spring when it’s time to donate!!
Love these discussions to hear what everyone thinks. I am still fascinated by the sewers who primarily buy per-project. Fascinated!!!!
I have a ton – a lot of it I purchased when I started sewing earlier this year, but a TON of it was gifted by a friend. But my stash is getting out of hand. Fortunately, I have some time off work coming up, so I hope to tackle the pile, maybe make some Christmas gifts with it. (Maybe? Definitely!)
It’s not so much that I feel guilty about it, but my sewing room/bedroom is bursting at the seams!
Stressed and guilty every single time! Each time I look at my stash I see garments I want to make but haven’t started yet, and the sheer amount of money I’ve invested in an (as-yet) unwearable wardrobe. I’ve been on a stash-clearing mission for a while now, and I’m really enjoying seeing the stack go down. But it is *hard* when I wander past a fabric shop with a sale on. Really, really hard!
I definitely have extra fabric on hand, but I don’t overdo it! But I suppose that’s mainly because I can’t afford it. I like having extra on hand in case a pattern testing call comes up and I don’t have time to order fabric!
I live a long way from a good fabric store. It’s been years since I could buy local Before the internet, I bought in NYC, which is a 90 minute train ride not including driving to the station. So I stash or collect as Carolyn from Diary of a Sewing Fanatic prefers. to call it. The internet has been a big boost to my collection. As long as I can keep it organized I am happy. For me having a complete collection I can shop lets me sew so much more.than if I had to buy for every project.
When I got my sewing machine years ago, I went into a frenzy, and bought all kind of pretty fabric on sales thinking I’ll make this and then. Needless to say, I used very little of it so far… I always end up using only the fabric I buy for very specific projects. And now I only buy fabric if I have a specific project in mind, so my stash stopped growing. But I’m gonna try to use up a bit of the stash this year with the make nine challenge 🙂