A bit more de-stashing (finally!)

Something I've made for me this time, as part of my ongoing sewing-from-stash - a project which I started with enthusiasm at the start of the year but got a little bit side-tracked from in March and April!

Even though it's quite a simple pattern and was reasonably quick to make up (cut & sewn in a day) this dress is quite a big step as it's:
a) a pattern I made about 3 years ago,
b) fabric I've had in my stash for about the same length of time, bought for this pattern, complete with zip and thread which had been kept together.
c) a summer dress, that I've managed to make in time for our (theoretical) summer.

And, voila! One sleeveless summer dress...

It's made from cotton shirting and lined with polycotton poplin. There's a hip-length back zip (invisible of course) so it can just be stepped in to & done up (none of this 'over your head' malarkey) and the bottom of the lining is trimmed with cream lace edging that just peeks out to give it the look of a petticoat underneath.

Now I just have to hope for enough sunshine this year to get some wear out of it!!

You don't have to sew it to de-stash it

Ok so I know the plan for this weekend was to spend more time sewing through my stash, but I decided instead to take some time to dig it all out (yes, this took up most of the surfaces in my workroom to do!) and have a good look at it and work out what I wanted to keep and what had been added at some point in the past but no longer fits with what I wear at the moment / projects I'm likely to be doing.

In the end I decided to get rid of 10 lengths of fabric. You'd think this would make a big dent in my stash but the drawers are still groaning under the weight of their contents! The fabric is up for sale on my eBay shop and there are some absolute bargains to be had, including 4m of lightweight cotton, 2m striped crepe and 1m of loose-weave fuschia fabric which is perfect for a bright spring skirt! 

Very nearly three!

I think I did fairly well on the stash-sewing this weekend. My third item was a top made from some fun fleece I bought a while back. It's not quite finished, as I haven't yet decided what fastening I'm going to put on it (invisible popper, button or just close with a brooch...it's sitting on the dressmaker's dummy while I decide!). The sleeves on this top/jacket are quite fun - they flare out from the elbow and come to a point over the hand.

Total stash-busting tally for the weekend - 3 different metre lengths of fabric that have been sat around for a while.

I've got some exciting commissions in to be working on this week, and then I'm looking forward to working through more stash-fabric next weekend!

Start as you mean to go on...

It won't surprise anyone if I say that I've got a lot of fabric. You could say that this is part of being a dressmaker, to have fabric in that you can make garments for customers from, but when your personal stash starts to expand out of the drawers it's supposed to be stored in and become piles of fabric that never get worked through, you have to admit that you might have a bit too much fabric. An awful lot of this fabric was bought with a particular project in mind, but I haven't been very good at getting round to making up the projects I planned.

So, for the first part of 2012 at least, I will be dedicating my Saturdays to sewing for myself and working my way through that enormous stash. As an added incentive, this will mean I get some nice new clothes to wear!

Last weekend saw the trousers I'd been meaning to make for ages finally getting done, but strictly speaking they weren't from stash as I'd 'accidentally' used the black cord for something else and had to buy some more. 

This weekend has been a bit better on the stash reduction front. First up was some green patterned jersey I bought last September, with the plan of making a wrapover top. I stuck to this plan, and drafted up a pattern that made a very nice top:

In fact, I like the top so much that I decided this was a good pattern to use for the black jersey with grey spots that had been loitering in a drawer for a couple of years. I tweaked the pattern slightly, shortening the body by a few centimetres gave me just enough fabric to lengthen the sleeves a little:

It is nice to have new clothes, it has to be said, so shortly I'll be heading back to my workroom to dig out another piece of fabric and start work on the next project. And yes, I know it's Sunday and I only mentioned Saturdays, but why stop when you're on a roll!