In which my Denim Needle gets a Good Workout.

Well, it's been a while since I've written about any fabric stash-busting. Perhaps I've bitten off more than I can chew this year?
But at last I have something to share with you!

See that embroidered denim on the right?  It's no longer a length of fabric but a skirt!
 

Of course, the path couldn't be all smooth running . . . I couldn't find anything suitable in my (vast) button stash, so put this one aside for a while . . . ironically, when I finally made it to Spotlight I still couldn't find a button that  I loved, so decided to buy 2 jars of button mixes and use all different buttons . . . cheaper than anything else  I vaguely liked, but possibly could have used what I owned after all . . . oh boy, now my button stash is even bigger! 

But one "very easy" wrap-around skirt doesn't make a "good workout", does it?  While I had the machine out, I also hemmed a couple of new pairs of jeans . . . and . . .
. . . deep breath . . .
Now for confession time!  The fabric stash I never told you about! About four years ago I purchased a book on various methods of re-purposing old jeans.  I bought a bunch of old jeans at various second hand shops and sewed like crazy, mainly bags, and several ended up as Christmas presents.  But then the rest of the jeans sat in one of those under-bed storage boxes for the next four years or so.
So I figured while I was in the denim-sewing frame of mind, I might as well try and reclaim that storage box, ('cause, boy, I sure could use it!)
So I sewed up a couple of heat packs from the legs of one pair of jeans . . .

(photo coming soon)

. . . and finished off this gored skirt I started all those 4 years ago . . .

That's four pairs of jeans sacrificed for this skirt!

With what was left in the box, I've bagged the remaining intact jeans up to be re-donated, and selected a few of the bigger pieces to be put aside for a couple more heat packs and another project I've got in mind. . .

Hooray! Two new skirts and I've got a whole storage box to use under my bed!

February Fabric Stashbusting

Wow! I'm really demonstrating my fabulous sewing skills so far this year.  Last month I made . . . a blanket, and this month . . . a pillow case!

Well, it's a dog bed, of course, but in terms of construction, it's a big pillow case stuffed with a few layers of an old mattress Robert was pulling apart (don't ask!)

This project counts as #2 of my goal to make a minimum of 6 projects from my stash, and also meets the suggested Stashbusting Sewalong challenge to "make something for someone that you love!" 

I didn't manage to complete my personal goal of completing one of the specific projects on my list, although I did do a burst of sewing yesterday and I now have a half-finished dress.  It's sleeveless, and today the weather has announced "Yes it is autumn now" with a windy, wet miserable day, so I'm suddenly a bit less motivated for that particular project!

January fabric stashbusting - and the Stashbusting Sewalong!

When I wrote that my goals this year were going to include some fabric stashbusting, I never really intended to do it alone.  I knew that there'd be the perfect stashbusting challenge out there for me somewhere, but I don't follow a lot of sewing blogs, and I didn't have a lot of time to go looking.  So I figured I'd get started, and find a challenge to join up with later. 

Lucky for me, my sister has caught the stashbusting bug too, and has done the homework for me!  the challenge I'm joining is called the Stashbusting Sewalong, and you can read more about it at Tumbleweeds in the Wind.

It's the sort of flexible challenge that I'm more than happy to play along with, pledge to sew as much as you want, freedom to join in specific challenges or not, and most importantly, new friends to meet in the journey!

So here's my pledge:

I, Julie Hearn, of spendlesscraftmore.blogspot.com commit to completing 12 projects from my box of fabric lengths and unfinished project box, as well a minimum of 6 other projects from my stash.  I further commit only spend money on items directly related to those projects from the stash.

OK, so the first length of fabric I have to tell you about is a length of white waffle weave, about 3.5m x 1m.  There it is, second from the right:

I originally bought this fabric, too many years ago, to make a summer-weight dressing gown (does that make it a brunch coat or something?) with some embroidered flowers on the collar.
White dressing gown?  With embroidered flowers? WHAT. WAS. I. THINKING?
First of all, when I bought it, I would have been knee-deep in the messy baby-and-toddler-stage.  Even now, I can't imagine keeping a white gown clean for more than 5 minutes.  I'd just be blaming the morning coffee instead of the baby cereal.
Second of all, the summer dressing gown I currently do own gets worn so rarely that a second one would be ridiculous.
And thirdly, embroidered flowers?  Back then, maybe.  Now . . . just no.

So anyway, I was having trouble sleeping one night in early January.  It was one of those nights that was like - doona, too hot, no doona, too cold, doona with leg sticking out, still too hot.  And I was thinking about that white waffle weave fabric . . .

 . . . Have you made the connection yet?

Happily, I did!  The next day, I cut the fabric in half, sewed the two lengths together and hemmed it to make a summer blanket! It is the perfect weight and I've used it almost every night since.

The January challenge at the Stashbusting Sewalong is to use small pieces of fabric.  I actually managed to achieve this as well.
 My old pincusion was pretty grotty, and full of rusting pins to boot, so I chose this, as inspiration:

 

 and here's my version:

Thanks for dropping by, and I hope you are managing to bust your stash as well!

P.S. If you're new to my blog, and want a quick catch-up on my recent fabric stash-busting, click here for my original goals for 2013 post, here for a skirt and finished mini-quilt, here for another skirt and here for some musings on stash-busting in general.  (Or just scroll back through the last month or so, if you don't mind a bit of papercrafts mixed in!)

The 2013 fabric stash challenge (and other crafty goals)

Happy New Year, friends and visitors!  There's something unique in the air that only happens at this time of year, isn't there?  An aura of expectation, of hopes and plans and dreams.  We set lofty goals for ourselves, and who's to say we won't achieve them!

Two years ago, I set myself goals to spend less on my craft supplies and more time actually using them!  If you've become a follower sometime since then through one of the Scrapbooking challenges I frequent, you could easily assume that this meant only papercraft supplies.  But the truth is, my craft stash actually encompasses fabric, wool, and beading supplies and more!

Lengths of fabric and half-finished sewing projects that weren't exactly new to begin with have now been sitting in their boxes for another two years!

Two lengths of fur and giraffe pattern

   Last month I decided it was time to pull down some of those boxes and remind myself what they held.  As I shared with you here, it was so overwhelming it started the biggest creative block I've had since I started this blog, and for a while I didn't see a way past it.  Although I did give away a couple of lengths of fabric and cull a lot of scrappy end-pieces, there was still a lot I wasn't willing to part with.  All that fabric, those unfinished projects, seemed insurmountable.

Five of the lengths of the fabric I can't bear to part with

But two skirts (here's the other one)and one mini-quilt on, I'm ready to commit to the revised Spend Less, Craft More goals for 2013:

• increased budget to $8 per week, plus an additional $50 "splurge" at the start of January and again in July, (equivalent to approx $10 per week in total).  
• I've reduced my free "staples" to basic adhesives only.  Everything else I defined as a "staple" last year (page protectors, albums and replacement blades) will now come out of the budget at 50%.  ALL sewing notions and other items required to finish sewing projects will come out of the budget.
• Create an average of one scrapbook page per week
• Start a 2013 "Project Life" style album, although I expect to do a double-layout (or perhaps two) per month, rather than one per week.
• Complete at least one sewing project per month, from my list of fabric lengths and unfinished projects.
• Not start any other sewing projects, unless the majority of the supplies comes from the stash,.

Two mini quilts, both ridiculously close to being finished

The central panel of a wall quilt