Sewalongs and Contests 2023

[Celia]

Me too, I don’t know how big my stash is but it is too big.  Plus I still have some kits that need attendees that count they haven’t been started

[Renegade Sewist]

@SewRuthieSews , in my rebellious way I was preparing to start one in the "fun with fabric " section.    I was just trying to come up with a different, catchy name for it. I've gotten rid of about 20 yards so far this year. None sewn. 

So, yes.

[Puzzler]

What would constitute stash, as in how long would one need to have had it sat marinating (love that term @datcat23) in their drawer/closet/storage box for it to be official stash? Not stuff we bought last week, presumably.

[Tamnymore]

Well I have some stash items that have been marinating through the premierships of (checks figures) ten prime ministers. 

[Helen M]

I think I've a few pieces that could beat that @Tamnymore, I dread the thought of counting them (PMs that is!).......

[Bumblebuncher]

I went on Wikipedia to check and personal stash is 9 prime ministers but I had some lovely fabric given to me that belonged to my friends mother and that goes back to Harold Wilson the first time 

[Tamnymore]

I've just realised I have some patchwork pieces from 1969 so that's Harold Wilson #1 too ... and the moon landing.

Winston Churchill anyone?

[Acorn]

I have got a piece that I inherited from my mother-in-law that looks like furnishing fabric from the 50's.  I don't think that counts as the date though, because I've only had it for 5 years.  My oldest goes back to John Major, so 31-32 years and 8 prime ministers.

[Helen M]

I've a piece that goes back to Thatcher's first term......

[allea]

I think I will join in on this one also.  I just moved my sewing room, and the amount of fabric I had to use, plus all that I gave away, was mind boggling.  I am also teaching my granddaughter to sew and I know she has been eyeing quite a few pieces of my stash, so I will get double sewn?

[Ouryve]

Some of the small, musty pieces I chucked, the other week dated from the last few years of Thatcher's reign. I was still in primary school when she came into power.

[Kwaaked]

...I have some that goes back to David Lloyd George that I have had for 30 years.  Not the original stasher, but the 4th.

Does it count?

[Renegade Sewist]

@Puzzler what constitutes "stash" ? That's completely up to you. Like you said I probably wouldn't count what I bought last week. But surely fabric more than a year, decade and from last millennium. 

I dislike the word "stash". It has an irritating "fingernails on a chalkboard" vibe for me. So my overabundance of aged fabric is referred to as my Fabric Archive. Like all good archivists occasionally I need to deaccession materials no longer deemed worthy of inclusion.

My favorite old fabric is three boxes out in the garage. They are labeled good, better and best. Been out there since 93. I've looked in them a few times. Aside from one or two pieces of linen it's the nicest collection of polyester fabric you'll ever find. 

I have some remnants of my own dating back to about 1970. 

PS I brought the linen inside years ago. Receipt said 1978.

[datcat23]

What would constitute stash, as in how long would one need to have had it sat marinating (love that term @datcat23) in their drawer/closet/storage box for it to be official stash? Not stuff we bought last week, presumably.

LOL ... you are welcome, although I wouldn't claim to be the first to coin that term.

How long before you consider fabric as a stash?   My thoughts are it depends on how long it is stored.  So if I buy fabric last week, and then it sits on the cutting table, is cut up and made .... then that is new fabric.  However, if I buy fabric, I bring it home, wash it, fold it and put it in the fabric cupboard, then it is officially stash.  Even if I have identified it as having a purpose, if it goes into storage, then its stash.

BTW, I can understand the aversion to the word "stash".  I would imagine that for some, it has connotations of something illicit, or not allowed.  We are grown adults ..... we shouldn't feel guilty about what we purchase, as long as the purchasing isn't itself a cause for concerns for yourself. 

Oldest fabric in the stash?  I not sure I subscribe to the prime minister unit of measure .... however I do have a few pieces of dead lady fabric, which probably date back to the 70's.  I have a bolt of 1930's polished cotton I picked up from an antique consignment store.  Its purchase was the cause of much distress for the seller, as she was mortified that I would not be "storing the fabric for posterity" and instead planned to ...*gasp* cut it up and sew with it.

So my advice would be ...... regardless of whether its Stash, Future Proofing, Fabric Archive, Retirement Fund, or Doomsday prepping ....... its just fabric, and you should sew it up.  She who dies with the most fabric, dies anyway.    

Sew it!   

[Puzzler]

Yes, I like the Fabric Archive term better than s***h. I also think whatever is in my closet needs to be used, however old and however many prime ministers have come to power (bit of a cheat as we have had a few in quick succession recently  .)

Some of my old patchwork fabric has been showing signs of being stored for too long. There are fade marks where it’s been folded. I have always kept it out of sunlight and out of the light in general. I found a small piece of bleached denim I had bought for DD1 who wanted me to make her shorts. I can understand why the bleach has eaten through the fibres. I was going to discard it but I thought better keep it. I could make a bag and camouflage the bleached lines with something decorative. Not so for the quilting fabric. That might need rotary cutting the bad bits off and using the remainder for a scrap quilt. Lastly, my oldest piece is a length of silk which X gave me back in the late 80’s. That’s really suffered and will most likely end up as a lining. It’s long but very narrow.