OSB: Obsessive Sewing Behavior

I finally bought the Ikea shelving I've been saving up for to help organize my fabric stash.  I like having all that fabric out and visible - all that beauty is inspiring to me and I've found fabric to be a great sales tool with clients.  And, since I'm now a bit embarrassed by the sheer amount of fabric I have, I think having it out will stop me ordering any new fabric anytime soon.



Home Dec & Quilting Cottons

Apparel Fabric - wovens on left, knit/jersey on right

Getting the shelves sparked a sewing room reorganization, specifically all my fabric scraps and bags of to-be-refashioned clothing.  Organizing my scraps seemed perfectly practical to me, but my husband thought I'd gone down a rabbit hole of OCD behavior.  It took about four episodes of Damages (crime shows are my trash TV of choice), but I managed to divide the scraps into five categories: jersey/woven scraps for scarves (which includes t-shirts that aren't good enough to be refashioned for wear), jersey scraps for flowers, woven scraps for facings, woven scraps for flowers and zippered pouches, and good-for-nothing scraps that needed to be thrown away.  And here's what I ended up with:

Jersey Scraps

Woven scraps

Everything all tucked away (don't ask about those other tubs)

Good-for-nothing scraps

I use the scraps in my own projects and also in camps/classes, so this all seemed perfectly normal to me.  But earlier in the week I got a call from my friend Nancy who had several large bags of cut out patterns that she needed to give away.  And not just the patterns, but fabric cut to go with the patterns.  Nancy had already pulled the ones that she wanted and there were still three large bags/boxes for me to go through.  Nancy's first job as a costume designer was with a one-woman shop in a small town in Illinois.  Nancy recently heard from the woman she worked for there, because she was clearing out her sewing room.  The woman is sick and doesn't want her husband to have to go through her sewing room after she's gone.

Nancy and I just didn't know what to make of the cut fabric/patterns.  Just to give you a sense of scale, here's what I brought home:

 

Oh yes, I also got some serger thread and a bag of odds n' ends.

That's 11 patterns with fabric already cut out all tucked into baggies (and some baggies had multiple sets of fabric in them).  And there were at least two large bags of these baggies left at Nancy's. 

Cutting out fabric is my least favorite part of the process, so I will sometimes spend a day cutting out a bunch of stuff so that I don't have to do it again for a while.  But the amount of work that went into cutting about all of these patterns just boggles my mind.  Nancy and I couldn't fathom why she did all of this work - there was at least a year's worth of sewing in the bags that Nancy brought home.  One of Nancy's friends suggested that maybe she wasn't well enough to do the actual sewing, but cutting out the fabric was comforting in some way.  Maybe.

So I have this new treasure, thanks to another woman's illness and obsessive cutting.  And I now feel responsible for finishing what she started.  It will make for some poignant sewing.

Found Treasure - The Exquisite Revisit Resale Shop

A few weeks ago I discovered a new resale shop.  I'm embarrassed to say that it's walking distance from my house AND has been there for a few years now, but I only just found out about it.  So it's only "new" to me.  I now have one more reason to be grateful for our Berwyn Facebook page since that's how I discovered this wonderful shop.

Exquisite Revisit is one of those dear places that is just full to the roof beams with various treasures.  You can find rocking horses and feather boas and salt & pepper shakers and hats and old games.  I found some vintage fabric:

Each piece is 3-4 yards long and 36" wide.  The fabric is a lovely apparel cotton - soft with nice weight and some drape.  I paid $15 for all three.  I particularly love the colors in the last one, and I think it might work with the pencil skirt I finished this past weekend (no pictures yet - I want to wait until I finish the top that goes with it). 

I'm thinking of using one or two of these pieces to make a peplum blouse.  I found this pattern in my mother-in-law's basement, and if I imagine the top without those horrendous sleeves and a different neckline, I think it would work:

I guess the sleeves aren't that bad, but they are all wrong for my body.  I'd look like a linebacker if I wore something that emphasized my shoulders in that way!  And there's something about the drawings that just looks so harsh.  I keep thinking that if the blonde turns her head, she'll chill me with a look of icy disdain ("So you think my sleeves are horrendous?  It's your shoulders that are the problem, missy"). I'll just have to turn the pattern envelope over when I'm working on the blouse.

I also found drawer after drawer of buttons in the shop.  How I love unearthing buttons!

I'll have more treasure to show next week because I'm planning a trip to my favorite thrift store (The Economy Shop in Oak Park) on Thursday.  They only open for sales 3-4 times a month and I haven't been since June.  I've found all sorts of beautiful things there in the past, from fabric to buttons to fur collars and even a chair cover that I made into a wallet.  

In other news, I finished two skirts for clients and my class at The Little Bits Workshop is now underway.  And I just found out that one of my handbag designs is going to be published in Stitch magazine, so I'm having one of those weeks where I actually feel like I know what I'm doing!  I've got a sewing project on the table this week that is likely to knock that straight out of me.  I hope to give you an update on that one a little later this week.  Keep some fingers crossed for me!