Stashin’

Made a little headway on organizing my fabric today. Didn’t actually organize any of the fabric, but got a step closer. When we decorated the office/sewing room this year, we chose the Expedit bookshelves from Ikea for my main storage units. I put my books, projects and fabrics in the available 24 spaces. The problem is that fabric shouldn’t be exposed to light because that has a tendency to fade it. I’ve looked for drawers or doors or anything that I could install on the shelves that would help with hiding the stash, but nothing seemed to fit.

Finally, though, I found the Itso fabric drawers from Target. They are the perfect size—exactly the dimensions I needed. The colors matched the room decor we set up and look really nice. For Christmas, I told Robert that I wanted eight drawers—enough to hold my entire fabric stash and box up some projects. He got them and now I’m in the process of putting my fabric in them.

I spent today working on the sample cards that I intend to keep in a box or perhaps on a flip ring. I made a template in Word that has space for width, length, prewashed status, fabric content, care instructions, where and when purchased and price paid, after discounts if any. Most importantly, I included a spot for box number. I intend to number all eight boxes and as I fill them, I’ll make a card out for each fabric. I will cut out a 3”x3” swatch to glue to the back so I can see what I have at hand easily. At this point, it won’t matter if a fabric is for me, the kids or Robert (my current system—we all have shelves, more or less) because I can just look in the specific box and find what I’m looking for. I also intend to try to keep the stash to just these eight boxes, so I won’t be getting the itch to go out and buy stuff when I don’t have any place for it.

In all, I’m pretty excited about it. I need to get to work measuring and describing the stash I have, but as soon as I’ve got it all labeled and boxed, it will all be smooth sailing. When I get new fabric after I get it organized, it will be a matter of minutes to get them into the system and put away neatly.

Bring on the Snow!

Or, in my case (as I live in East Texas), the slush!

Finally finished Laura’s jacket. I cut it out probably a month or so ago, along with the stuff to make a jacket for Harrison as well. As so often happens, the projects got set aside for life and I have only in the past few weeks or so gotten enough time to get to them. I finished Laura’s completely today, although all I had left was the snaps and the hole through which I bagged the lining. The sleeves threw me for a loop—the directions seemed totally non-intuitive, but I trusted Ottobre to have worked out the details as they so often do and it came out perfectly.

I used a short napped fake fur from Hancock’s and lined it with a nice, cushy baby pink knit. For the bears, I embroidered the facial features instead of using buttons. I figured since she’s still under a year that there was no reason to be tempting fate with chokey things.

I think the only thing I would have changed is to add some bear ears to the hood. At the time I was making that part, the fabric was being kind of fiddley and I just didn’t want to make the effort to add them. As it is, it looks really cute, but ears always make things better. Maybe next year.

I’ll get pictures of the girl in it soon. She wore it out Christmas shopping today and was oooohed and aaaaahed all over the store. More importantly, she kept rubbing it and smiling, so I think it was pretty successful.

Now, on to the boy’s jacket!

Grrrrr…I mean, Brrrrrr!

Working on the girl’s jacket since it’s finally winter here in East TX. It’s going together pretty quickly, considering that I’m working with fake fur. It’s got a really short nap, so it’s not too bad, but I’m definitely going to think twice about using this fabric again. If I didn’t know how adorable she’s going to be in it, I’d have given up hours ago. Nice thing is that it’s entirely lined (bagged!), so I don’t have to worry about finishing the seams. I’m finger pressing them open and running over them at the junctures with seams to keep them open and that’s pretty much doing the trick. I might tack them down in a few places, but overall I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. I’ve got to redo the hood (again), but I think I’m going to work on that tomorrow since it’s nearing midnight and I do actually work for a living. :)

Will hopefully get to the boy’s jacket by the weekend, although I’m not as worried about his just because he’s already got one really good jacket. I am making him a reversible hoodie so it will be warm without being too hot or bulky. It’s cut out, I just need to get it finished up. One project at a time!