Who you gonna call???

The Stash Busters!

I sooooo wish that I'd taken a before photo - I was completely out of control (again).
Now it's all neatly sorted into waddings and stuffings / cotton plains / cotton prints / furnishings / corduroy / flannelette / fluffy softie fabrics / teatowels / tablecloths and placemats, and then sorted by colour.

The girls helped me to go through one by one, and decide which ones to keep and which ones to add to the piff* pile.... and Bec even vaccumed to make sure that it looked extra spic and span once we'd finished!

We took a little lunchtime break where we enjoyed Liesl's beautiful chocolate cake....

Sorry about the terrible photography by me

.....and surprised Mel by celebrating her birthday (well she would have been surprised if she hadn't heard us whispering behind her back in the kitchen while we were lighting the candles)!

Oh, and in case you were wondering.... yes, that cupboard in the laundry should have sliding doors.

* Now I'm a little worried - piff is an aussie slang word which means 'throw away'..... but it seems that piff may mean something else entirely.

**PS - Pop on over and visit Mel and wish her a very happy birthday
***PPS - If you see me anywhere in vicinity of a fabric shop, please send me home.

The forgotten stash

I started collecting fabric about ten years ago, at around the same time that I decided that I wanted to learn to sew and make myself a handbag for work. I still have some very early incarnations of my make it up as you go along handbags which are quite funny to look at now. I remember being so proud that I'd made something myself, that I didn't even notice all of the unfinished seams and dodgy stitching.

At that stage, I was really drawn to silky satiny (ok, I know that's not really a word) type fabrics, while not realising that they weren't the easiest things to learn to sew with. At that stage, I'd also never even heard of interfacing!

Over the years, my stash of these fabrics ended up hidden away in a plastic container and were completely forgotten about, until I had an enquiry from Anna to make a Sunnies / Specs Pouch for her mum in a silky fabric.

Like a bolt from the blue, I headed off on a search through the mountain of fabric, to find my forgotten silky satiny gems. I even remember some of the shopping trips that I went on to buy them. I'm pretty sure that the fabric that Anna chose came from a little morning trip with my ex-MIL to Brunswick fabrics on Sydney Rd about 5 years ago. I originally intended to make myself a handbag with it, but just never got around to it.

So now I have Anna to thank, for re-introducing me to the forgotten fabrics that were instrumental in the beginnings of this little crafty adventure...... Oh how I love a happy ending!