the great wall of fabric

Thursday 28 May 2009
Dear blog readers feast your eyes on this:

I'm pretty confident that this is my entire stash and I don't have any other bags stored at my parents house or on under a bed somewhere. So a few obversations:
1. I have a lot of fabric, but I sew regularly and it makes me happy so I'm not buying into the whole guilt trip thing.
2. I have lots of great fabric and fondling the fabric whilst folding it has given me so many ideas that I have about a millenium worth of projects lined up in my head.
3. I have heaps of grey fabric, which is ok because I make a lot of grey clothes. But weirdly I also have lots of orange and brown fabrics which I rarely wear.
4. I have a real hoarding tendency - I was going to get rid of some fabrics that I know I'll never use, but since I had enough space I couldn't bring myself to do it!
5. There is still some space there on the shelves, so I can't say I will completely stop buying more, but I will try to shop the stash first.

It has taken me the best part of two weeks to get my stash into this beautifully neat and ordered vision, not only because of the amount of fabric, or the fact that I had to do another trip to Ikea to get another shelf unit but also because I had to deal with constant interruptions from these two:

Anna would only play in her portable cot for a while before getting cranky, so I propped her up in the washing basket with some lovely soft microfleece and she seemed a bit happier for a little bit longer (it's not child abuse, she's doing some early bonding with fabric!). She still needs to be held most of the time and be given lots of attention though, so my window of getting things done with two hands is still limited. One of the mums in my mother's group is thinking about going back to work because she is bored: she sits around waiting for her daughter to wake up from her 2 hour naps three times a day. I am so jealous to say the least, but I have too many ideas in my head to ever be bored.

Thanks everyone for your feedback on the finer details of cloth nappies. I love having such an interactive blog getting advice on all these things because none of my real life friends cloth nappy or sew. Anyway I managed to salvage some of the bamboo fleece that I stupidly made into nappy liners and made some absorbent soakers four layers thick. This, combined with another soaker pad of four microfibre layers seems to give a really good amount of absorbency without too much bulk. In fact last night Anna slept through from 8pm to 5am (yay for small miracles) and her nappy lasted that entire time without any leakage.

Well I have so much more tidying up to in the sewing room before I can get any sewing done - that photo above doesn't show the great mountain of stuff that is in the rest of the room.....

29 comments:

  1. Gee Kristy your spare room looks like Lindcraf/Spotlight with those fabrics on shelves and in boxes.

    Anna is so beautiful and growing fast.

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  2. Lovely stash wall! But aren't you worried the fabric will get lines of fading when exposed so much to sunlight? Or do you actually sew up your stash on a regular basis? :-)

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  3. So beautiful!!!! And there is still a good amount of place on those shelves ;-) I don't have much space to put my hobby supplies, but if I did I'm afraid I would be a shameless hoarder.

    I love the picture of your dog peeking through the door. He always seems so sweet (and Leda, my English pointer, agrees) :-)

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  4. Wow .. that is quite a stash, and so beautifully categorised and colour coded. You must feel great having your own sewing room and all your fabric home again!

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  5. Wow, it looks like a shop (in a good way), everything neat and colour co-ordinated!! Anna is sooo cute, though it's hard when they want you allll the time. Nope, don't understand people who get bored on maternity leave either. Even when waiting for the first child to arrive, there was plenty to do. Don't know how I find time to go to work :P. Speaking of which...

    TG33

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  6. Great stash wall. Very motivating having it all neat, colour matched and on display like that.

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  7. I. Am. So. JEALOUS! My stash is currently spread between 5 large plastic tubs and 5 boxes in our roof space (to get to which I need a ladder and a fine day because I don't want a dripping wet ladder in the house!), two TV boxes in our hall cupboard, and numerous plastic bags cluttering the corner of our dining room next to my sewing desk. To have all that lovely space just makes me drool!

    Re cloth nappies - I'm cloth nappy-ing my one year old twins, and find that while they don't last as long as disposables I'm still far from spending all day changing (or washing) nappies. I use disposables at night though so that I don't have to change them. I bought mine. I really admire your dedication making all the lovely ones for Anna. Twice :-)

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  8. *buys Qantas ticket just to fondle your stash*

    I think my heart skipped a beat.

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  9. What a beautiful stash! It must be very inspiring. At least, when I see it, I have plenty of ideas for sewing it :-)
    Those pictures of your two interruptors are so cute.
    Enjoy your time at home with them.

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  10. I did feast my eyes and it all looks pretty wonderful. My baby ikes the washing basket too!!

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  11. Your stash is gorgeously organized. There is something about an organized stash that makes me happy too. When I organized my fabrics I realized I had a lot of gray and black, which I wear but more browns and tan than I wear. Mostly because of lack of complementary shoes.
    Anna is just adorable.

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  12. Lovely stash and love the pictures of Anna and Oscar! Enjoy your beautiful new sewing space (when you can!!!)

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  13. Your washing basket pictures cracks me up! I used milk crates for my twins. I'll have to see if I can find the picture. It's so funny.

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  14. What a good mum, providing Anna with an early bonding of fabric. That is so important as we all know. I think I'll throw some fabric in the play pen with my 15 month old.

    I also love to unfold, look at, and refold my fabric and just dream of what could be.

    www.sewingwithtrudy.blogspot.com

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  15. Good for you! That looks soo nice! So, your breaking Anna in right! Pretty soon she will be playing with empty thread spools and the dog will be happy right there close as he/she can get! As for that "other" mom in the mommy group! If she's bored... she must not craft/sew etc... always seems to be something to do!
    Take care. Your room looks wonderful! And very cheery!

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  16. Okay when I moved into my apt 4 years ago, I set up the same shelving system in a closet. I had LOTS of extra space then too...now 4 years later I can barely get the doors open...heed this tale and beware that it doesn't happen to you! *LOL*

    Otherwise, the set-up is beautiful because I love color coded rows of fabric! :)

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  17. Love your stash. Just wondering about remnants. I have two bags of fabric remnants that I can't bear to chuck, but have no idea what to do with. Or do I just keep them for the day when inspiration strikes?

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  18. All of these organised sewing spaces I keep seeing are making me feel guilty. I think I need to do some sorting out this weekend!

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  19. I totally understand the importance of early bonding with fabrics :) !!! What an incredibly neat collection!

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  20. Just like a fabric store, only better!

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  21. Lol. I looked at the photo and thought "wow, all that space she can store more fabric...." :)

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  22. I'm definitely drooling over your stash... and so well-organized!!

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  23. Hey, I feel better about my stash now! (I'd like to think its smaller than yours. Grin.) Looks great, great job organizing. And the two visitors to the sewing room are adorable.

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  24. Oh you've made the ultimate mistake by putting her in the laundry basket! I did this with my youngest son because I couldn't carry him and the laundry at the same time. He thought that was his regular play seat from then on. I don't think I got my basket back until the was four or five years old:) The baby is growing beautifully.

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  25. your stash looks great. you must be well pleased!

    uber-nerdy question - how did you make sure all the pieces folded to the same sizes? this problem drives me potty!

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  26. That is beautiful, I love all the pretty colors. A stash like that is very impressive.I want one

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  27. Looks great! I am glad to read your last few posts and know that I am not the only one sometimes feeling frustrated at the lack of daytime sleeps and time to get anything done! I think it is so bizarre that someone in your group is bored. We were talking at my group the other day about how funny it is to think back to last year when we were preggo and thinking about all of the time we would have to get stuff done when we were on maternity leave!! Ha;) ps my nappies: double layer of bamboo fleece o/locked together then folded into 3 with a microfleece liner, add a double booster pad for going out... So 6-8 layers, but I change her quite frequently too. And disposeys at night...

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  28. Beautifully organized and what a handsome fabric collection.

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  29. W.O.W.! Awesome fabric collection. Oh to play in that room... :)

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