The Year to Bust the Stash

 The other day I was in the sewing room and was surveying The Fabric Situation.  My fabric lives in a huge cedar chest that my grandfather-in-law built for my husband when he was a little thing.  I'm not sure how many cubic feet of stuff it holds, but it's a lot.  And the chest is packed completely full of a variety of fabrics that I've collected over the years, either through inheritance, purchase, or thrifting.  So I have made an executive decision and no one and no thing shall deter me from it: this year, I'm going to bust the stash. (Actually, at the rate I sew and the amount of fabric I own, it could be three years of stash-busting. "Yipes,"as Annie says!)

This is it!  No exceptions! Okay, one exception: the only exception I plan to allow is the exception for Annie's dresses; I do have some fabrics I plan to use for her new dresses, but I also know I'll want to get some more.  For instance, we are attending a wedding this summer and I think I'll make her dress, but not with anything we currently have.

In order to bust the stash, I hope to make things like--

*blue linen skirts for Annie and for me for Easter (I have had this beautiful blue linen for years! It's time...)

*a red velvet skirt for Christmas (for me)

*several floral dresses for Annie

*maybe one floral dress for me--maybe a wrap dress!

*as many jersey dresses as I can make with the fabrics I have on hand

*ditto with jersey scarves 

*a hanging knitting needle organizer--my friend Kate has one; I'm obsessed 

*slipcovers for *all* the dining room chairs 

*a couple of summery nightgowns for Annie

*quilts from scraps 

*pillows, perhaps?

....et cetera!

I shall report all items I make as I go.  I never did post about the cedar-and-lavender boot shapers I made last year for my tall boots.  That was a good project.  Or the vintage dresses I've made for Annie in the past couple of years; she's wearing Butterick 7333 as I type this.

I hope this will be a fruitful, if pokey, endeavor.  I'm so ready to use up what I've got!