Monday, December 2, 2013

Post fabric purge & my sewing room tour

Soooo...yesterday I wrote about my fabric binge in SD, following my fabric bender in LA.  I flew back to NJ the following day and then....I started purging my fabric stash!    I have been to a LOT of fabric stores this year (NYC four times,  LA, Honolulu, San Diego twice, Royal Oak, San Francisco) and have purchased a LOT of fabric.  It was like my own personal version of "no fabric left behind".  Since 2012 I have been shipping my fabric back home from my travels so I was no longer limited by weight like I was in 2010 and 2011.  And I haven't been sewing as much, in 2013 so the fabric has been piling up.  I live in a 2 bedroom townhouse and am lucky that one of those bedrooms is my sewing room.  I don't have a garage or a basement, and I don't have any walk in closets, so storage is at a premium. I like to keep all my sewing stuff in my sewing room, and specifically all the fabric in the closets in the sewing room.  This year the fabric was piled up on a table against the wall in the sewing room, and on top of the dryer, under the bathroom sink, and most recently in the hall closet.

I started purging Sunday night, then purged in earnest almost all day on Black Friday.  Seriously, I was purging all afternoon and evening.   EmilyKate had written a post ages ago questioning why she is hanging on to fabric that doesn't inspire her, which has returned to my brain now and then.  It's time to free the old fabric that I've had for years now, and also to release some of the crummier bargain fabric, and fabric that no longer suits my style....including some of the fabric I bought a scant 2 years ago!

  Finally, this is what it looks like.  All the fabric is in the closet.  All the fabric for muslins is in the hall closet. There is no fabric on top of the dryer, no fabric under the bathroom sink. But the fabric from LA and SD is still on its way....I will need to do some more purging to make it fit....

My sewing room 12/1/13
My two closets in my sewing room.

The left hand closet, with my fabric sorted by type, my buttons, and a bucket with my large wax tracing paper.  Now it is much easier to handle the tracing paper, and I can lift the whole bucket out of the closet and see the fabric behind it.


Here is a closer pic of the left closet.  I prefer sorting by fabric type as opposed to sorting by fabric color.  It works better for me when I'm trying to choose fabric to go with a pattern.
My sewing room 12/1/13
Here is the closet on the right, with my patterns, books, corduroy and denim fabric.  There's also lingerie elastic, hangers, mailing envelopes and a lot of the little tote bags I've made for PR weekends.  Oh and a basket of muslins.
My sewing room 12/1/13

And while we're at it, here's the rest of my sewing room.

My desk
My sewing room 12/1/13
A closer shot of my machines and my "inspiration wall"
My sewing room 12/1/13
My Ikea cutting table (with my cutting mats) and my Ikea chest of drawers with my thread, piping, trims, ribbons, etc. It's cut off but on top of the drawers is a little basket with patterns I want to sew soon (bwah ha ha).  Jacqui, you can see Upstairs Hal in this picture too!
My sewing room 12/1/13

Here's the final wall.  That's where a lot of the fabric used to be stacked up.  I temporarily put my mirror there--it is usually between the two closets on top of the step stool.  You can see my dressform Izzy and my ironing board.  Two of the lamps in my room were salvaged from the dumpsters at Princeton.  The junk under the table is my modem and router and an empty safe, ha ha.
My sewing room 12/1/13
Maybe someday this is where my future Elna press will go?   A girl can dream.

So I could make a fabric fasting pledge but I'm not going to.  Just retracting my spending/buying somewhat until I start sewing more again.  There are 7 more months to go on my big work project (it has been 13 months already!  7 more left)  so I don't know how much sewing I will be able to do anyway.  On the plus side, it helps that my next big trip isn't until PR weekend in Austin at the start of May.  TexStyles is an awesome fabric store and I'm sure I will buy a lot there.

My next post I will write about fabric I still want, as odd as it may sound.

I will say that I did not succumb to any of the fabric emails in my inbox this weekend.  So many offers of discounts on fabric and I didn't buy an inch!  Having all the fabric I'm donating in my living room helped a lot.   The donation service is not coming til Dec 20....

Be well!

18 comments:

  1. I did not succumb to any emails either, but I did my best for small business Saturday at my local Yardage Town. ;) I am jealous of your really well natural light lit sewing room.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post. I find myself wondering what your room looked like before the purge, it looks ready to go now.

    I do agree that your sewing room has great natural light.

    I have an identical Ikea cutting table, and another that I upholstered with batting and cotton duck that I use as an ironing table that can handle 45" wide fabric so I can iron the fabric before I start. I use another for my Singer 301 and 126 machines. Great price; I work around the general wobbliness because the size of the tables is almost perfect and the height can be adjusted.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great job organizing, I just purchased from one online source. You have a great sewing room with wonderful light.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm with Elizabeth, all of that natural light! You did a great job with the purge and clean up!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good on you for being so disciplined to clean out your stash - stay strong until Dec 20! I started cleaning mine out a few months ago and made a big pile of fabric to go, but my resolve crumbled and not only hasn't it gone but I've also started to put some back on the shelves!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you SO much for sharing your purge. I definitely need to do this as my fabric-buying got a wee out of control the last few months. Some of the purchases were stress-related, but still... I should get a handle on this and soon!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I looked at a couple of sites but the 20% off (at most) was not tempting enough to pay postage too.
    Plus the fact I finished my final week of overtime last week to head straight into Christmas....
    Great job on the organizing!

    I love all your natural light in your sewing room. Sew much fun to see other's creative spaces.

    {{Are you sure you cannot find some roller bins for under the cutting table? lol}}

    ReplyDelete
  8. Way to go! I should do the same. Maybe I will as soon as the new fabric arrives from my weekend sales. Some I just couldn't resist!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Good job! I've been following your fabric buying trips with some amount of envy...as I am fasting for a bit this year. Your townhouse is a wonderful place!

    ReplyDelete
  10. "No fabric left behind" - hee hee! I think I need to fabric purge and fast as well. I feel suffocated by all the fabric I no longer love. It's time to let them go to a new home. BTW, I love that Upstairs Hal made it into the pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a nice sewing room. Love how organized it is Kyle!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for sharing your sewing space. I always find it interesting to see how others set up and organise their sewing rooms. Lovely natural light too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love your fabric closets - and I think I need to purge as well:)

    I've just found your blog after reading L's blog - how lovely of you to help her with her zipper problem.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm envious of your sewing space! Great job on the purge -- I recently sorted through my stuff as well but was unable to actually part with any fabric. I ended up putting the "not as inspiring stuff" in bins, hoping they may resurface in the future!

    ReplyDelete
  15. It's so clean and organized!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. "No Fabric Left Behind!" Love it. The sewing room looks amazing! Yes, I remember the wall of stacked fabric from when I saw you just 2 months ago. That's huge. I need to do the same. Maybe I'll coordinate an end-of-year fabric swap and bring a bunch of stuff I've been hanging onto for no good reason. And I can't wait to see you in the ATX! It will be a blast.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Looks so neat and organized! I have been purging in my sewing room all weekend and still have a ways to go. You are inspiring me to keep with it!

    ReplyDelete
  18. You have inspired me! I am going to venture into my fabric closet this evening and begin the purge! BTW, I LOVE seeing your sewing room. It looks like it would be a very sunny space. Although I love my sewing room, it is in the basement, in an area with no windows so it's 100% artificial light. Boo

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading! I love hearing from you! Because I've been getting lots of spam comments, I'm changing the settings to moderated comments.