Sewing Supplies

 Hello, I hope you are all well and busy making, learning and doing wherever you are.  I have been having a good look through my offcuts of fabric this week and I would really like to make a lot of it up this year into something.  Now I am not sure what into yet and that doesn't neccessarily mean into clothing either, or even for me but I would like to make a good bit of space as there are a lot of pieces that have just ended up with me becasuse they are leftover from work, or bits that I have had donated to me.  I don't like to say no to fabric, this means that my small but perfectly functioning sewing room is bursting at the seams with leftover bits.

There are these places, also full drawers and the bottoms of cupboards.

I am not a fabric hoarder, or a person who has a  fabric stash , you know there are lots of people out there talking about their fabric stash and they buy fabric all the time and never make it up.  That is not me, also if people want to do that then that is entirely up to them but it is not something I have ever done.  I tend to buy what I need then make it up.  So why have I ended up in a situation where I struggle to store fabric? Well you may remember last year I was very kindly given two big bags of fabric from an acquaintance who had lost her mum.  I did share some of this with a friend but there was such a lot, some of it has been used but there is a lot left.   Then of course I do sew alongs for Minerva, now every time I finish a project there is always lots of bits from around the edges left, now wanting to be green I can't possibly just throw all that way.  However it is not all to my taste, or big enough for garments and there are only so many bags I can store if I make those!  So I need to get my thinking cap on.

One thought I had was could I think of something quick and simple that would be a scrap busting project that I could sell on ebay, I have to say Folksy gets no traffic apart from what I send there directly myself so that is not a great one for custom I am finding.   So ideally I need to come up with something quick to make that will use the scraps but not take too long.  This way I can feel it is being utilised, I am being productive and maybe make a few pence from it at the same time, after all I do work from home now so every bit helps.   If you have any suggestions I would love to hear about them. I think quilting projects are all very well with bits like that if you are doing them for yourself but not sell on as they take forever and often people do not realise the many hours that go into things.  

My other thought while looking through things was that I need to make a much clearer system for my notions, they are currently stored in different conainers and boxes but a bit all over.  Last week when I was making the pink cardigan I was sure I had four brown buttons of similar style, I did of course but I had to look in a range of places but I got them all together.  So yes I need to get on that and do some clear labelling.

This past week I finished my book  A prayer for Owen Meany, I have to say while it was well written and had a good ending to it I felt it went on way too long.  This is not because I have anything against longer books it was just not necessary.  Quite a big chunk in the middle I felt like I zoned out, conversations about some trivial topic lasting eight pages and so on.  So I am not sure if I will read any more by John Irving.   This week I have just started Lessons In Chemistry, so I am hoping for a more enjoyable read with this one.

This was another book from Abe books, just £2 for the hardback, I get many of my books from the library but I do often find that any of the more recent ones that I want to read I can be on the reserve list for a year so buying them second hand like this is also good.  Well I need to get on with some work now so I hope you all have a good week.  Bye for now.