Skeptically Optimistic

Sluggy would be proud of me.  A little disgusted at first, but proud eventually.  I have gleaned 5 bags of fabric from my stash!  They will go to the Goodwill, because if I put any of this on the free table at my sewing group, they'd say, "Really... who would want this??!"  The items probably came from there initially anyway...  Because no one wanted it.

Most of my pieces come from the free table, because either Meri or myself saw a potential project.

Within the last week, I've looked at each piece, so far, with skepticism.  Will I ever use this for ANYTHING??!  If I saw potential, I kept it.    

These are just SOME of the keepers...

I'm pretty optimistic about potential...  So I still have a lot left.  BUT my stash is several tons lighter now and I hope to not frighten people when they come to see it/me.  

Email me privately for an exclusive tour.  

Still haven't found the original pattern for Meri's dress.  It's probably in my upstairs stash.  

I'll go through that when I retire, I suppose...

The Vogue pattern came yesterday though, so we're good!  

I plan to cut out the correct size during lunch, unless something better comes up.

Changing MY mind? Nah...

The photos have nothing to do with my post today...  

I just downloaded them from my cell phone and decided I like them.

Changing minds... One at a time.

Starting with Meri because I'm pretty stubborn.  Flexible, but stubborn.  I get it from my parents.

I sewed together the sample dress and cannot show it to you because she's not home to model it.  During the fitting on Saturday, I saw that I need to make a couple adjustments and made notes on the pattern.

 

I had used some very dark, thin blue fabric and with the details on this dress, it looked beautiful and very striking with her coloring!  So much so, that she scrapped her idea of the peach dress and wanted to go with something dark!  

 

Since we'd already blown about $30 for fabric, I went through my stash to find something suitable and came up with a VERY dark navy fabric that has a little give to it, but is still flowy.  She loved it!  However we'll want to line it too and she wants a built in bra, just so she doesn't have to worry about straps showing.  Okey doke.

After church yesterday, we stopped by JoAnns for the lining and a new zipper and I forgot, yet again, to use a $10 gift card that I got for Christmas!  Oh well, I'm sure I'll be back!

Unless they ban me again...

Last night, I got the dress & lining cut out and worked on the pleats/darts that are everywhere on this thing!  I'm trying to do as careful a job as possible because I want her to be proud of it and I want to use it for the State Fair this summer.

As soon as this dress is complete, I'll be working on a wedding veil for a niece.  But that will be next week, most likely.

Oh, back tracking a little!  On Saturday morning, two other ladies and myself did the presentation for our ASG sewing group meeting.  I managed to talk and confuse people for more than 30-40 minutes!  I didn't time it exactly...  

AND I picked up a few choice pieces from the free table to add to my stash! 

Yeah yeah...  My mind hasn't been changed a bit regarding my stash!  I love having a variety of fabrics to fuel my creativity!!

I think it's working.

Trunk Stash

Went to my ASG (American Sewing Guild) meeting on Saturday with Meri.  It was a good one!  A lady that owns her own business as an artist did a presentation on paintings done with fabric sewn onto the canvas, then painted.  PRETTY cool!

She also makes oven mitts. 

Quite the combo, no?  Kind of like those truck stop/bait shops you see along highways.  Or the Tattoo parlor/ice cream shop.  Or the Bait shop/Candy store... 

Well maybe not JUST like that...

Meri has been inspired now to make something similar in her own style for 4H this summer!

Anyway, Meri and I were approached by a few women at the meeting.  One of which inherited about 20 huge boxes of fabric from a friend who had died.  Her husband didn't want them in the house any longer... So she was looking for someone to give them to.  She COULD have just brought them and put them on the free table, but she likes us!  She loves how Meri gets inspired just from looking at fabric, so she wanted us to go through it first and put anything we didn't want on the free table.

Since we didn't have any time to on Saturday morning, the load she had brought (it wasn't all of it) got put in the trunk of my car.  Actually Robb's car... It was really jammed in snug!  Due to a bad brake issue in an unnamed person's car, we've been doing the old "whose car am I going to drive today?" shuffle.  I can't WAIT until I can get my car back, have the space I need and incidentally get the radio buttons programmed back the way "I" want!  Darn kids...

Anyway.  The trunk was FULL to the brim with fabric.

Then we were approached by another couple ladies who had received roughly about 6 million crocheted and knitted squares.  I may be exaggerating slightly... I haven't counted them personally.  The woman who made them all had died in her early 40s and this was a passion of hers.  The squares are all in different bags based on colors.  And the bags and a few boxes of them filled the entire back seat up to the ceiling.

The squares will be sewn together by Maddy and her cohorts for the Ukraine Orphanage project that she's doing for T.A.G.. My ASG group has been wonderful to donate knitted items and supplies for this project!

So yeah.  My car was full of dead women's stashes...

I REALLY wish I'd had my car that day!  I ALMOST had to turn down another lady but she only had one bag with a baby blanket that she'd made for Maddy's Ukraine project.  I figured Meri could hold that on her lap if necessary... But no need, we found a tiny spot to stick it.  It was just nice to receive something from someone who was still living...

So when Robb saw his car later that day, (we hadn't cleaned it out yet) he asked.  What's all that junk in the back seat?!

Oh honey... Don't even LOOK in the trunk!

On The Topic Of Stashing

My stash is coming together and surprising me a little... The picture below is a cabinet from our garage (and it's packed...) and then a children's bookshelf that is no longer being used (and it's packed). I still have several boxes sitting around my office waiting, waiting to get sorted and put on a shelf for easy access.I need more shelves! and room...

This is about a third of my patterns... They fill an unused CD rack quite nicely. And WHEN I finally get time to sew again, I'll be able to browse through them easily. I think.
The rest of the room is a mess.

I don't know for sure, but I may have more sewing materials than New York's Mood.

Project Pel-Mel

Meri and Tiffany are switching bedrooms. Meri's current room is bigger than my old sewing room, which is currently Tiffs. I still had a lot of fabric on shelves and in boxes tucked away in that room...

So...

I told them to bring it out to my office and I'll eventually go through it and pack away whatever I want to keep. I think a lot is going to go to our sewing group free table next month!

Here is my office! Well... just the one wall. With most of my fabric stash, patterns and notions.

I may never get on Project Runway... (which started again last night btw!!)

But I MAY get on Hoarders.