The Great Untouchable Stash (and my plans to touch it)

So I am moving cross country in a matter of months to an entirely new and exciting place! I couldn't be happier as I count the days - BUT - every move I have made in the past has been in-state and each time I have had to go up a size in Uhaul to make it happen. This time I simply can't afford to take everything and some tough choices are going to have to be made to make it happen. 

You see, I have  two rather large (and annoying to move) collections. My books and my sewing stash.  In an effort to move lighter this time around, I am going to need to cut down a little on both. They have taken over one bedroom that serves as my sewing room/office/sanctuary - BUT - because I can't seem to let anything go from either collection........I decided that I could do a selfish destash. 

 I have been building my stash for over a decade and I have a nasty habit of holding onto the things I love the most and not putting them to use. I tend to save them for a special occasion.......and then no occasion seems special enough to use them. 

An example of this horrible hording behavior is the patterns in these pictures. I managed to score them at a thrift store a few years ago. They were half off of 70 cents! I paid .35 cents a piece for them. I KNOW! I was so excited. I was so nervous! I remember feeling like someone was going to steal them out of my cart as I walked quickly to the register. Maybe there was a mistake.........maybe they meant 70 dollars......(Which wouldn't have been unreasonable since I have seen these same patterns for sale for around a hundred each online and these were factory folded, uncut, and even have the vogue sew-in tag that came original in them!) I was in no dream.......they were three for a dollar and they were MINE!

Back to reality.....I have now had them for years. They have their own drawer in my sewing desk. They are kept separate from the other patterns I own. It's not that they are too stuck up to mingle, it's that the other patterns aren't cool enough to hang out with them. I occasionally pull them out and run my hands over them. I dream of the places I would go in them if they were already made. I think of the colors I would make them in and the joy I would feel at their completion. Yet, I haven't ever unfolded a single one. I live in fear of messing them up. I couldn't cut them..I'd have to trace them and carefully refold them. I tell myself that I really don't have anywhere to wear them anyway. In reality, this is totally foolish behavior. I only personally invested .35 cents in them. (Far less then I have in other patterns I own and cut into without guilt) So what is my problem? No really, what is my problem? I am really asking.........

BUT - that was yesterday.......and today I have made up my mind that it's time to use them. I am moving to a whole new climate, a new start in life and a new me. I will be returning to work and school after years of being a stay at home mom and will need a new wardrobe that is appropriate for both the new city and the new job. 

So here is my selfish destash plan. I am planning on working through as many of my patterns as I can in an effort to use up as much of my fabric stash as I can prior to the move. The catch is that I am going to replace an old existing store-bought item in my wardrobe with a new one as I go. That way I am cutting down by getting rid of older less appropriate wardrobe items, building a me-made wardrobe, and using up otherwise dormant items in my stash. 

I will admit that I am having anxiety over using these particular patterns and I am sure that I will start with some of my other patterns and work my nerve up to touch these. .........Do any of you ever feel this way about certain things? Do you hold onto the really special fabric, pattern, stationary, beads, lace, etc.....for some special project and then it never seems to be the right time to let it go?

Tutu Times Two

Well I was able to finish the second of three tutus last week. I wanted a much more wild look for this one. So I used a no-sew method  that I have seen on a few different blogs before. (I can't remember which ones right at the moment....sorry)

I used four colors of tulle cut into three inch strips. I took a length of elastic measured to fit snug on my own two-year-old’s waist and then sewn into a circle with a simple zigzag stitch. (This could be done by hand or someone could use ribbon instead for a true no-sew tutu) I started at one spot and slipped the tulle over the elastic until it was equal lengths on both sides and then double knotted it just below the waist band. I continued around alternating colors to achieve a striped effect. For this 18 inch waist I used approx 6 yards of tulle.

I really loved how the waist band turned out………right up until I put it on an actual  two year old and the elastic immediately started rolling inside the tulle. I had to go back and hand work it back into laying straight which was a pain. Maybe I knotted the tulle too tightly or not tight enough…….I don’t know. I knew that I couldn’t leave it the way it was or it would just become a nightmare. The tulle needed the tension of the elastic to maintain a shape. So I decided to go around the top of the waist band and do a decorative stitch to hold everything in place. But then I got to thinking that she is a growing girl and that a solid line of stitching would take away the elasticity that I wanted in the first place…….so I got the brilliant idea (total sarcasm) to embroidery her name every couple of inches around the top of the waist with this really pretty multi colored thread I have. I figured that there would be stretch in between letters and in between each name but it would hold everything together. It was all going great until I realized that the feed dogs had gotten hung up in a couple of critical places and some of the letters were either missing or on top of each other. Seriously, WTF?!?  I knew that I didn’t have the time or patience to undo the mess (it had to go in the mail ASAP and I was afraid that I would destroy the tulle trying to unpick the stitching.) so it went as is. ( BTW, I know I should have lowered the feed dogs………but it was something like 7am and I hadn’t had my coffee and I suck. Leave me alone.) Thankfully this particular tutu was heading to a friend……..hopefully a very forgiving friend after the way I massacred her poor daughter’s name…So even though it was sad to send it that way, I at least got to try something new…..and hopefully her daughter will like it anyway.

 These pics were taken after it was knotted but before it was trimmed down to a nice even length. I didn't manage to get pics of it after it was cut down but I took about 8 inches off the length all around and it really helped it look a little less wild. I didn't take pics of the horrible name snafu. It was just too shameful to document.

So next on the agenda is Halloween costumes. I have both of my boys to do - plus mine. It's going to be a busy week. After Halloween I plan on finishing the third tutu and then not sew another tutu for a very long time.

Tutu Tuesday

Except it's Wednesday isn't it? Wow my days are running together....it's fall vacation for my middle nugget which means less schedule/structure around here and more pajama wearing/sewing time. It's been nice to not have to be up and out the door in time for school and I have loved getting to sew while he hangs out with my littlest fish boy....

Speaking of fish.......I happened upon this...um....."interesting" mystery mermaid fabric a couple months ago and have been trying to figure out what to do with it ever since. I have almost two yards of pure shiny mystery to solve.

I'm not sure what the actual "fabric" is made out of......perhaps recycled tin cans.....anyway, I came up with the brilliant idea (if I do say so myself) to make a few ocean themed tutus for a few little girls I know and incorporate the fabric into them - somehow - to make them into mermaid tutus.

So far, I have one and a half done. The first one is made for a two year old and is an eight tiered - four colored tutu with an elastic waist band with ribbon overlaying it.....

Maybe you have noticed that there isn't any of the mermaid fabric in this tutu. Well, yeah.......I noticed that too. I really don't know what happened. I had good intentions of incorporating the mystery mermaid fabric. I mean the mystery mermaid fabric is why I bought 16 yards of tulle......and started this whole tutu project in the first place. Ughhh!

(A little decorative stitch.........because two year olds care about such detail....

Did I mention that I have a new sewing machine and so for awhile everything is 

going to have to have some form of decorative stitch until I get over myself? LOL!) 

 

Well I am onto tutu two and I still haven't added any mystery mermaid fabric to it either. I wonder if I could convince one of my boys to be a mermaid for Halloween so I can use it up.