At the beginning of the year I made the resolution to buy less fabric and start using up more of my stash.

How do you think that went?? 😆

I certainly started off with good intentions with lots of plans on how I would use up my stash (the Mandolin Quilt for example), except like most new year resolutions those intentions have fallen by the wayside and I appear to have gone back to old, albeit fun habits. Not helped by the fact that I have a new addiction to Heather Ross fabrics.

So what am I to do??

Well, I’ve decided to have a sort out. My fabric is not very organised at the moment, I have them in baskets divided by colour (which sounds organised but could be better, i.e they are overflowing!) I also have 2 large boxes of randomly stashed fabric. I also have some bundled by collection where I can’t face to split them up. The whole thing is basically taking over our bedroom, and although my husband bless his heart has said he doesn’t care, it bothers me. I don’t know a lot about Feng Shui, but I feel the bedroom needs to be reclaimed and made into a sanctuary and my sewing space sorted, so there is a clear definition between the two rather than a heaped old mess. I mean how am I supposed to use my up stash if I can’t see it properly!?

I have invested in a Billy Bookcase from Ikea and some comic boards from Amazon and I’m getting organised (more about that in another post!) I’m also going to be harsh with myself and have a destash. I’ve opened a new Instagram account solely for that purpose, you can see it here. I will be listing some things over there soon and because I want it gone it’ll all be at bargain prices!

I’ve also “invested” in a new book (any excuse!). I’ve had my eye on the Fussy Cut Sampler for sometime now, and I thought this was the perfect excuse to get it and dig into my stash. This will definitely take me out of my safety zone of just using one fabric per block and mixing things up a bit!

The funny thing is while I’m sorting out my fabric, I’m finding things that at the time I thought I couldn’t be without and desperately added to my basket, and then eagerly awaited their arrival. There are fabrics like that that have been in my stash for years. So why do you ask have I not used them? The one simple to that answer is FEAR!

Any fabric addict will till you it is almost impossible to cut into favourite fabrics, what if you cut it wrong? What if the project doesn’t work or it looks bad? What if there is another project further down the road that would have been much better for the fabric. How about instead I store it nicely and stroke it while I decide what to do with it, even if that means it is sat redundant in my collection for close to 10 years!

While I was sorting through them, I felt a little ashamed of myself for being so frivolous and impulsive. As I fell back in love with my collection I have vowed to myself to use more and create more, which means surely I have room for more, after all there will always be a new release of fabric I must have so why not make things I can use and stare at it that way rather than it being stuffed away in boxes.

I’m not going to kid myself and say I won’t buy anymore fabric for the rest of the year, but I’m certainly going to make more of an effort to use what I do have and be a bit more economical, after all this really is a first world problem and I’m not feeling all too proud with myself!

What are your favourite fabrics you can’t bear to cut into? Will you join me in some “Stash-Busting”?