Comments on: Whiptips: starting a fabric stash

By: Miz Spike

Miz Spike — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 13:17:40 +0000

My stash began with bits trimmed from clothing: too-long pants, long sleeves made into shorter ones. I bought fabric for projects that never got off the ground, and often it stayed. I’ve bought fabric at giveaway prices at 2nd hand stores, and been given copy-paper boxes full of fabric by people trimming their own stashes. Sometimes it is just trimmings from their own projects, sometimes it is 2 and 3 yd pieces.

By: Emiliy

Emiliy — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:41:36 +0000

Buy what you love, but what love you buy!!!

If you don’t use it in a specified amount of time (my guideline is 2 years), put it back out in the crafter’s world, either at a swap or a sale… that way you don’t become too burdened with all the stuff you “should” be making with your existing supplies!!!

By: Marnie

Marnie — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 02:22:18 +0000

Hi Violet! I’ve posted a couple of tips over at girl number twenty. (sorry, just too much on this subject to fit in here) Oh, once you start you won’t be able to stop….but that’s the fun of it!

And my serious tip? Get to know your fabric. Handle it a lot. On pieces of unknown content do burn tests. Pay attention to what happens when you wash it, when you dry it. Experiment! Ask questions at the fabric stores - most of the people working there love fabric and will be more than happy to talk about it!

Good luck!

By: Leesa

Leesa — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:48:17 +0000

Hi, don’t forget to look for fabric trims on sale also. I put cuffs on my kindergarten grandbaby’s pants/jeans & let her choose fabric ribbons to cover any demarcation of the let-down hem-line, when she has grown taller during the school year to the original hem. Embellishments are your personal ‘artistic’ signatures on your sewing projects. I also buy fabrics on eBay, that have photos of the cuts for sale. I no-longer buy fabric at Wal-Mart, be very careful to look at the crease/folds on the bolts prior to cutting & buying your yardage, I have had problems there this year. I have never had any problems when I buy my fabrics at fabric shops & sewing machine shops. Sergers are also a blessing to sew with!

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:15:47 +0000

I use my fabric for a variety of things, collage, chin colle in print making, embroidery (I HEART Jenny Hart and Julie Jackson) and weaving. I have sometimes made clothing, bags, and I did just make a doll’s quilt (my first quilt!). For me, fiber content is the driving force behind my fabric choice. I collect a variety of fibers (all 100% one content) but my favorite is my collection of textures of silks, particularly tussah. Tussah and raw silks have particularly nice weight and hold up nicely in a rug, omigoodness they really can take a beating and still look great! Linen is sturdy and a wonderful fiber also; the more it is laundered the better the ‘hand’, so I watch for old table linens (the ones actually made of linen) and repurpose those! My preference, when restocking my stash, is to make sure whatever I buy is 100% cotton or linen or wool or silk, never a blend. These are my reasons: Cotton tears in a straight line, once a leader ’snip’ is cut, which is extremely handy. Silk and wool dye or re-dye with ease. Linen, especially in the case of stains, is impossible to over-abuse, although dyeing it is more of a challenge than the protein fibers (which is why stain removal is relatively easy-breezy with this fiber), and gets softer with each use. And when each fiber is on its own, I can be more assured of how it will ‘behave’, whereas when it’s a blend there can be no guarantee. After that, then I look for vintage prints. And I love searching thrift shops for interesting finds. Some of the thrifts near me have ‘half-off’ days, so I can really cash in! I don’t buy often, I just buy what I like, and I keep myself to my very strict guides of 100% one fiber content and I have to LOVE it.

My advice on however you choose your fabric, once it’s home wash it and fold it so it’s ready to go right when you want it, and not a moment later! Pre-washed fabric is essential.

I hope all of our submissions help you, not overwhelm you! You never said what you were making or how you generally work (softies, quilts, clothes, rag rugs, whatever). What do hope to do with your stash?

By: nowaks nähkästchen

nowaks nähkästchen — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 14:51:14 +0000

You don’t have do build a fabric stash, it builds itself by law of nature. :o)

You start a project and qhile youre still on it you see the pattern or the fabric for your next project and buy it. Then you find another thrilling thing you absolutly have to sew after the not-even-startet-project after the-project-your’re-on. Then there will be that fabulous fabric on sale you have to by for the colour, not to forget the unbelievable cheap end of season sale,… and so on.

After a certain time you will find your stash overgrowing your house/ appartment, you destash via ebay (most likly the really cheap things from the extremely lowe price sale, because it needs a certain experience to find the real bargain… ;-) ) promise never to buy more fabric than you can sew up… and will be going through the whole circle again. (Only that destashing will become more and more difficult, because you learn to buy smarter, avoinding colours/ patterns/ materials you do not really like and therefore it will be harder giving it away.)

Thats how stashes build. ;-)

By: Johanna

Johanna — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 03:54:48 +0000

I’m a quiltmaker and I’m in the “buy a fat quarter of what you like a lot” camp. If I like it a lot, I get a Fat Quarter. If I really really like it, a half yard or half metre. If I’m totally smitten and will hate myself forever if I don’t have a good chunk of it, I’ll get a whole metre or yard. But that’s not too often. I like a scrappy look with my quilts, so those small cuts are fine for the most part. Try to amass (scary word!) a good variety of colour, pattern and scale of print. And don’t forget some solids, too.

And small word of caution- if you are making quilts, don’t be to easily seduced by really cheap-o fabric. Often they turn out to be hateful and nasty to work with, and more headache than they’re worth. (I’m thinking of fabric I have purchased in the Fabric Department in a large chain store that rhymes with SmallCart…)

Happy collecting (and sewing)!!

By: Cherri House

Cherri House — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:04:00 +0000

For a good cohesive stash start with your color families reds/blues / yellows/browns/tan/blacks. If you have the tendency to purchase the same looking fabric in each color family, take along some friends, give everyone an assignment, and say “pick me out three blues”, next friend “pick me out three yellows”, etc. Whatever they pick, you keep. I started doing this with my daughters, because everything I purchased looked the same. Seeing something with different eyes will make your projects sing! Also, a 1/4 to 1/2 a yard is a good quantity, improvise if you run out of a particular color for something else in the same color family.

Have fun!

By: Maria Peagler

Maria Peagler — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 17:06:19 +0000

The most cost-effective way to start a fabric stash is to buy fabrics you can use for multiple projects. While you may love a busy novelty print for a child’s project, how many other times will you be able to use that piece of fabric? I have fabrics that I consider staples of my fabric stash:
- checks
- plaids
- dots
- gradations
- batiks
- toile
- marbled solids
You can use every single one of the above fabrics in a myriad of ways. They would all look good in almost any quilt you want to make, whether it be traditional, contemporary, or an art quilt (I make all three types!). They would also be appropriate for purses, aprons, or other fabric projects you’d want to make.

Another piece of advice: when you really like a fabric, buy long. Buy an entire yard of it. You won’t be able to go back and find it when you want more, and you’ll surely use it all up. Otherwise, I buy 1/3 yard pieces.

Good luck and have fun!

By: ellie

ellie — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:06:13 +0000

I think of what I might use it for. I like big flowing knee length circle skirts, so if I think it would be a cute skirt I buy 4 yards. If I think I’ll use it for something around the house I buy 1 yard.