Found and free fabric....

Many years ago there were little stitched items at craft fairs and the like that said "She who dies with the most fabric, wins!"   My mom and I joked about that since we never let fabric sit around long- I was
conditioned to buy fabric for the project, make it and move on.  It wasn't until this year when I dove back into the obsessive pit of sewing that I got frenzied and bought fabric that I was sure wouldn't be there the next time I went to the store.  Funny that I keep seeing the same piece of boarder stripe linen still in the store that I bought for one of my first projects last year.  Apparently there are still crafters and peeps out there that use this saying.

Anyway, I did go to NYC and visit some of the cool fabric stores (read: Thank you MOOD!) and that is a good reason to stash fabric.  I bought several beautiful pieces that I will show you eventually.  

However, this post is regarding what I found in the fabric library at my old office..................................

Let's review: until October 15, 2010 I worked for a start up outerwear company.  We made, they still make, snowboarding jackets out of waterproof breathable fabrics. The cool part is that they make garments that look like street wear that have all the bells and whistles for keeping you warm and dry in the snow and cold.  Above you can see this is a lovely herringbone fabric.  It was, of course made of not wool but polyester and nylon.  Normally they would coat it with a dwr (durable water resistant) and then laminate the back with some kind of breathable membrane.

Poly/Nylon Herringbone, untreated with flocking

I was busily categorizing and filing fabric- it had never been done before- and I came across this piece of a familiar fabric that was transferred with this interesting flocking.  I asked the owner about it and he said that one of our mills was wanting to show us their ability to flock large pieces/repeats.  Interesting.  How do I categorize? Do we need to file this?  Nope.  Ummmm can I have it?  YES!!!!!!!!!!!!  It came home with me.

It's interesting in that to me it looks like evil crows or something non-objective that you would see in Anthropologie.  We'll see, I'm going to make it into a pencil skirt.  I do also have some pieces of wool that are now in possession from when my mom did pass away.   She didn't win however, she was really good about not stock piling huge amounts of fabric because she sewed all/most of her projects.  I also have a beautiful sari that my aunt and uncle sent me from India.  I still cannot bring myself to cut into it.  It feels wrong.  Once I get them all cleaned, having been in storage in my shed, GASP, for so long, we'll see if they are salvageable.  What free and found fabric do you have?