fabric - By the Yard®

In Defense of Keeping that Fabric Forever

When I was in high school, everything was purple. And frequently paisley. Whether inspired by the Little Purple Rock Star, Prince, or just a sign of the times, you couldn’t get away from the stuff. I used it for everything, including a purple paisley velvet jacket that boasted an impressive 28 pattern pieces. It was fully lined, too! You couldn’t pay me to undertake such a complicated project today, but back then with no kids and no job it was just an easy weekend’s worth of sewing. I still do have that paisley jacket in the back of my closet. I know I’ll never fit into it again, even if I did want to wear it ironically. I’ll continue to keep it around, just in case it is ever 80’s theme day at my kid’s high school.
Although I no longer have most of the tragically hip getups I crafted in high school, I continue to hang onto the little fabric remnants from those projects. There isn’t enough fabric to really make anything with them, even if those fabrics were in fashion again. Speaking of which, have you seen those dolman sleeve knit mini dresses that are now back in style? I still have my original McCall’s pattern for those… ripped straight out of the Brooke Shields line. Unlike the old days, with the benefit of my adult sized paycheck, I can now afford a serger to theoretically sew those knit dresses up properly.
I hang onto fabric scraps from those long-ago projects as a kind of tactile scrap book, reminding me of all my Prince and Bowie-inspired threads and how cool I felt wearing them. Just for a minute, I’m a kid again with the coolest jacket in the whole school.

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The REAL Reason I Buy So Much Fabric

For we quilters there are a lot of excuses for buying fabric that you don’t really need. The explanations are many, such as: “I’m bored with what I’m working on”, “I need it for a gift”, “I don’t have just what I need at home in my stash” or “looking at new fabrics inspire new ideas!”. For me, there is really just one explanation that covers it all: digital printing.
I first started seeing digitally printed fabrics in the early 2000’s, although the technology existed twenty some-odd years earlier. The first digitally printed fabrics I saw were very nerdy looking geometric stuff that appeared to be more like diagrams in a lab report from back in my old my MIT days than fabric designs. Fortunately, the florals soon arrived, and they were sumptuous. I was especially fond of anything from Hoffman California. I even went through a period that lasted at least two years of only buying Hoffman’s.
As the technology improved, the costs went down and now digital printing on fabric is everywhere. With traditional printing, each color required a new screen and with each screen the production costs went up. There was a practical limit to how many colors one could have in any one bolt of fabric. Now with digital printing, there is virtually no limit to the number of colors per design. Additionally, the lines can be very thin and crisp, making for a very vivid, even photo-realistic design.
The final benefit of digital printing is the one I like best: Digital printing opens up the market to a whole new generation of independent fabric design artists. Gone are the days of having to work for one of the major fabric producers and only being able to produce designs that the marketing team thought would sell a zillion bolts. Now, independent designers can print as few as 20 yards economically, making for a much larger variety of choices for the fabric consumer. Designers can afford to take chances on niche designs… and do they ever! As a result, there are so many interesting fabrics available today that I simply cannot help myself! I love the diversity of the design and color choices but most importantly, I’m so thrilled to be able to support independent designers.

Stash vs. No Stash: The Great Debate

Quilting and Collecting are actually different hobbies

If you are a quilter, you are definitely going to have a lot of fabric, whether you accumulated it intentionally or not is a source of great debate. Some quilters end up with a lot of fabric because they simply make a lot of quilts and extra fabric is a by-product of that process. Some quilters have a lot of fabric because they essentially “collect” it, either because it’s pretty, they have an idea for a project they might use it in, as a building block of their fabric library… the list of reasons goes on and on. But is having a giant stash of fabric actually a good idea? Consider the following:

How much space will it consume – A big stash is going to take up space. Do you have the room to spare? If your family is sitting on bags of fabric instead of chairs or you have to store things in piles on the floor because the closets are full, a huge stash might not be right for you.
How will you store it – There are endless blog posts written on “how to store fabric”. The choices range from the obvious – big plastic tubs, to the more creative – folding it up into mini-bolts on comic-book cards. The former has the problem of being environmentally unfriendly (all that plastic!) and after a time the plastic does impart a funky smell into the fabric. The latter is terribly clever and looks oh-so-cute all neatly displayed on a shelf, but the card stock does absorb moisture and can lead to mildewing and bug problems. Finding the right method for long term storage can be very challenging as there is no one perfect solution.
So many folds – No matter how you store the fabric, it’s going to have fold marks – lots of them. After years of storage, getting out those fold lines when it’s time to actually use the fabric can seem near impossible. Sometimes I feel like going out and buying new fabric rather than dealing with the endless pressing. I’ve even had to cut “around” the folds, which is a waste of fabric.
Out of fashion – Fabric, just like clothing, goes out of style. Maybe you don’t have 30 or 40 years to wait for it to come back in style, or maybe it just no longer speaks to your sensibilities, so why continue to hold on to it?
The guilt – Buying fabric is FUN. Having a huge pile of it at home really takes the fun out of buying new fabric because of the crushing guilt. Why am I buying more when I already have so much at home?
Unfortunate repeats – I have at times re-bought the same fabric that I already own because I either forgot that I already owned it, or I knew I had it but could not for the life of me find it.
Bound for the trash – After years and years of carefully curating the perfect stash, you have to be realistic about where it’s all going to end up: in the trash. When you are no longer on this mortal coil, it is highly unlikely that any of your remaining family members will take the time to lovingly move your stash on to some new home. It’s probably going to end up in a dumpster faster than the real estate sign is going up on your lawn. That seems like a tragic end for the fabric that you spent so many years lovingly collecting.

A Case for Buying Fabric as Souvenirs

I’ll wear two pairs of jeans at once to make room for the fabric

I recently took a trip to Acadia National Park… in the middle of the winter. The park was closed so that you couldn’t climb any of the mountains, but the shore was still accessible, and it was a lovely trip. All of the little shops were closed. The only businesses that were open were two hotels, one local pizza and beer type restaurant… and the local fabric store. Of course, I had to make a visit. I bought some beautiful fabric with blueberries on it, after all it was Maine, and some starry night type fabric to remind me of those crisp winter nights. I plan to make some dumpling style bags from those fabrics (bought the pattern from another shop in Maine on the way up to Acadia), and I can’t wait to get started.
I make a deliberate effort to buy fabric everywhere I go, as a sort of textile reminder of my travels. Buying fabric as a souvenir rather than a T-shirt or a key chain is a great idea for a me as a quilter because it’s not just a mass-produced trinket that will quickly become lost, broken or forgotten, it’s something I am going to use. Moreover, the projects I create from these acquisitions are made even more special because they evoke memories of the trip with their every use.
I have extended my fabric souvenir shopping by recruiting friends who travel to buy me some fabric if they have the opportunity. I’ve received some beautiful bark cloth from Hawaii which became a tropical tote with paradise vibes and some sunny pillows for my screened porch. Quilting cotton from Korea became a shirt dress. Some silk from China became a scarf for only the specialist of occasions.
The next time you head out of town on a trip, be sure to stop by the local fabric shop. You may end up finding some memories there, too!

I Didn’t Mean to Buy More Fabric

Today I went to the local big box fabric and crafts shop with a seemingly harmless objective. I wanted to buy a little tube of gear grease for my vintage sewing machine. She is very much in need of some long-overdue scheduled maintenance. This turned out to be a much more elusive goal than anticipated. They didn’t have any gear grease. I guess people don’t service their own machines anymore or maybe modern sewing machines don’t need grease? For whatever reason, I could not find it. I was then faced with the formidable challenge of getting out of the store without buying any more fabric. This made me think about why I buy so much fabric in the first place. Here are my primary challenges:

A great idea – Many times, a certain print of fabric will jump out at me. “This would make a great (fill in the blank)”. Whether I actually need or want that thing is another question entirely.
I was once looking for this – Often times, a fabric will jump out at me, “Remember when you were looking for me before?” Something I had wanted for a previous project and never found is now right there in my hands. The fact that I’m now done with that project, usually by finding some substitute for what I had wanted at the time, is largely irrelevant when you are face to face with something you had desperately wanted at some previous time.
It’s on sale – I have to admit, this one rarely motivates me. My capacity for spending money on fabric is pretty high now that I’m a fully grown adult with a day job. I no longer need to scrimp and save like I did when I was in college trying to make a full-length wool coat for job interviews for less than $5 per yard.
Stinkin’ cute – This one gets me much more than I’m willing to admit. I have no idea at the time what this fabric could be used for but it’s just so darned cute I have to have at least a yard of it. Years ago, my BFF fell prey to this scheme when there was a line of Coca-Cola fabric seemingly everywhere. She bought a bunch of it, took it home and thought “What am I ever going to do with a bunch of Coke fabric?!”. Fortunately, I had been an avid fan of Coke for decades, so she made me a Coke apron which I still use to this day.

I did successfully make it out of the big box store without buying anymore fabric, although I can’t say the same for the yarn section!

What To Do with Your Scraps

I never throw away any fabric scraps, no matter how small. I just can’t bring myself to do it. To me, every little bit still has potential. They could be a coaster, or a dollhouse blanket, or a Christmas ornament, or a bunch of them could be sewn together and make a potholder or a table runner. If I was really ambitious, I could cut them all into 1” squares and make a Postage Stamp quilt. That could use up over 9,000 one-inch squares and would make a real dent in my scrap pile. I’ve even known some people to take the tiniest bits (one quarter inch in size or less!) then iron them to a fusible backing to make autumn leaves or snow.

Another fun quilt that can use up scraps is an “I Spy” quilt which can be entertaining for the kiddos and makes a very charming gift for a child. Simply fussy cut visual elements of interest like animals or other objects like cars or dinosaurs or spaceships. Stitch them together any way you like. You can have a good time with the little ones finding all the cool things hidden in the quilt.

If you can’t think of a use for your scraps or you simply have an overwhelming number of them and are looking to clean house, you could:

Bag them up and sell them on ETSY or eBay. I know this sounds ridiculous… why would any buy something you are trying to get rid of? Surely, they must have plenty of their own scraps at home! Strange as it sounds, I urge you to give it a go. People will buy bags of scraps online.
Trade with other quilters such as at a guild or sewing group or even online. That doesn’t really reduce the total number of scraps you have but at least you will have different scraps to inspire you.
Rehome them on Facebook Marketplace. Simply bag them up, put up a listing, and leave them at the end of your driveway. Trust me, quilters will come.
Use them as stuffing for stuffed animals or other objects d’ art. Frankly I’d have a very hard time using perfectly good scraps for stuffing because you would not be able to see them anymore, but if the pieces were very small and a lot of them had been collected over time, I might be able to do this.

Whatever you choose to do with your scraps, keep on quilting and making new scraps!

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