Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Post #2036: Let’s get this party started……
Besides visiting with family and friends, drinking too much in my backyard, and going to the zendo – I spent my long weekend on Project Sewing Room Closet.
Without going into too much detail on what is evident in the photos – my project goal was to create fabric storage that was organized, specific, and not overflowing. This meant doing a major fabric destash as well as painting and installing an Ikea Algot organizer in the available space. In the end I got rid of four bags of fabric to donation, and two bags of garbage/recycling. There is still much more organizing to be done and I have started on organizing all the bits and pieces that will find their home on my large shelving unit. As that shelving is the only current piece of furniture I am keeping in my recongif, I am confident that however I organize it now will work for the changing space come fall.
I’m feeling really great about this weekend’s project for a few reasons – but most important is the destashing of fabric. I now only possess fabrics that are either those I love or practical (like quilt batting and plain jerseys). And as I went through the two culling passes, I noted that the fabric that I kept was for the most part stuff that I had very intentionally bought, whereas much of that going out the door is stuff that I thrifted, was given, or got through community fabric sales. In short, material that I bought with a purpose is still in the collection, and pretty much everything else is going back into the donation pile. I hope this recognition of a pattern is helpful in keeping down future acquisitions – as my closet is currently full – and I’m not allowing anything else into it until some of the material makes it into garments and quilts this fall.
My closet is no longer an overwhelming hoard that I refuse to look at! Fabrics are organized by garment/project type – skirts, dresses, tops, specialty, jersey, quilt scraps, quilt yardage, and interfacing/batting. On the top shelf that can’t be seen here is a stash of neutral cottons. And so I can easily look and see whether I do have any summer-weight dress fabric or winter-weight skirt material before I make another purchase that will eventually get lost at the bottom of things. This seems elementary on one level, and this is a project I could certainly have tackled long before now, but it seems that I needed the inspiration of an overall room redo to get me thinking about how I actually work, and what organization would be best for me. Some people need to have lots of variety in materials around to feel inspired. For me, too much choice makes me claustrophobic which brings me to a grinding halt rather than encouraging productivity.
At the end of this sewing room project, my aim really is to get to “a place for everything, and everything in its place” – giving me much more room in which to actually make things.
Post 2035: A new skirt for the wardrobe
Following on my post about fall sewing and unfinished objects – I took a sick day on Tuesday because I was wiped out from insomnia, family, and a sore throat – which gave me time to Invisible-hem this skirt that I found at the bottom of my UFO basket last week. I don’t know why I abandoned it in the first place because the fabric is a decent weight for a skirt, the elastic band isn’t turned, and it fits me well (though I have lost weight, so perhaps it was too tight when I made it?) I think I started this more than two years ago, so I’m glad to have it on the hanger in my closet as opposed to wadded up in a ball somewhere.
I wore it to work yesterday and there was no wardrobe malfunction:
Post 2034: Neuroplasticity Advice from 1889
It’s always pleasing when you stumble across early hunches or philosophies that match up with modern science. The excerpt above appears in What A Young Woman Ought to Know (first published in 1889, my copy is from 1905).
Post #2033: A feature every house should have
Months after starting this project, Brian and I finally got this done over the weekend. Behold the life-changing spice cupboard!
What started as a poorly placed ironing board in the kitchen (by the back door, it was a cramped place to iron out anything larger than a small shirt) has now become one of the most useful organizing spots I’ve ever had in a living space. Not only are the spices visible and easy to grab, but the use of small canning jars means that I can always stick a tea/tablespoon in rather than trying to pour it out of a bag or small jar.
No more drawers stuffed full, no more unlabelled jars – this spice rack has got it all. And here’s the before and after just for comparison:
Post #2032: Autumn sewing and fabric destashing.
(Drawing above is of the layout of my sewing room to be as discussed in the last post)
I’m pretty sure that with the redo of the sewing room, this fall will not see much in the way of actual sewing – and yet I find myself planning out an autumn wardrobe anyway. This is something I find myself doing every year – a habit leftover from back-to-school shopping – though I rarely make more than one or two of my planned items. My goal in making a list this year, however, is to help me in the quest to whittle down my fabric stash to something manageable going forward. I am ashamed to admit it, but this is what my fabric stash currently looks like:
Plus I have another shelf full of items that intend to use sooner rather than later, plus I have a few pieces of fabric sitting on top of my printer for “imminent” projects, plus of course I also have three jackets, two skirts and a couple other items in various stages of construction. I know that I am not the only sewist with much fabric and many unfinished objects, but I would like to use my upcoming room-reno to put an end to this habit of collecting fabrics “just in case” and then cramming them into a tiny closet never to be seen again. One part of my redo will involve putting proper storage shelves into this closet, but another part will focus on halving my fabric collection so that it all fits tidily into this closet. To do this means letting go of all sorts of odds and sods collected from thrift stores and “our social fabric” sales and keeping only the materials for which I have *enough* to make something out of. I will also get rid of all “mystery” fabrics and stick with the jerseys, cotton wovens, silks, wool, and higher-quality materials that I have purchased (rather than found) over the years. And while I will allow myself lots of quilting cotton, it will get organized and sorted into sections that are likely to get used (versus those that aren’t).
And so my autumn wardrobe list is useful because for each thing I write down I think about what fabric I currently have and could use. As much as I have collected all sorts of fanciful material – the truth is, at the moment I am a very practical sewist. This is true for crochet and knitting also. I don’t have as much time as I would like for making, and so I limit myself to things that I will actually wear (darker colours, plainer designs, simple cuts). Collecting fabric for some other kind of garment sewing really doesn’t make much sense! Limiting the amount of fabric that I have at my ready also means that when I am inspired to make something new, I can allow myself the luxury of picking the right fabric for that project rather than trying shoehorn a textile into a pattern unsuited for it.
It also means putting an end to the lie that I am somehow spontaneously creating non-stop. I’m lucky if I can create ten garments in a year – which at most would mean having fifteen different garment-ready fabrics on hand at any given time to choose from – rather than the bizarre collection that is currently growing every time I attend another sale or take apart an old piece of clothing so as not to waste the material.
My autumn sewing list includes a couple of dresses for meditation retreats (a Moneta and a Cappuccino), a couple of knit-fabric tops, a couple of skirts (perhaps one of my ufos will count), a kimono-style top, a cape (for which I have a beautiful vintage wool), and a new tote bag. I will be lucky if I make two of these items – but choosing out fabric from my collection for each of these will be a starting place for what I will keep (I can envision the fabric for each). From there I will stick with the basics, throwing in some of the fancier dress and skirt fabrics because they cost some serious money, and paring out anything that I don’t love. The quilting fabrics will be more difficult, but I’m willing to live with some uncertainty as I go through and divide the scraps into colour piles for later use or discarding. I am thinking of attaching small baskets to the back of the closet door into which the fat quarters and bits can go in their colour families. It feels naive to think they will all fit.
Fortunately, my yarn collection isn’t nearly so advanced – and for that I am grateful! My intention for yarn is to fit into under-bed storage which is entirely possible given that I only own two smallish-boxes worth (one is wools, the other is cottons). And speaking of that, I’ve got a lot of dishcloth knitting to catch up on! Apparently I went crazy a few years ago and bought a lot of supplies for dish cloths which have been languishing as I moved onto other things.
I’m taking a big breath as I contemplate this – but I’m committed! Both to the de-stash and some autumn sewing – even if I have to decamp my sewing machine from the clutter in order to do so.
Red Cedar 