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!