Creative Luxury

Recently, I had the good fortune to "inherit" a lot of fabric from Peter's mother, who was moving. And I mean a LOT of fabric. Bags of it. She, like many of us who sew and craft, always had another project in mind, and to her detriment for a long time she had plenty of room to store her stash and over 80 years to collect it.

What this windfall has done for me is opened new doors. When I purchase fabric, I do so carefully and selectively, and the fabrics and designers I love are relatively expensive. I usually purchase and sew with a market or show in mind. Now, with all of this new fabric, even though most of it is not what I would have chosen, I am free to experiment, and luckily I have daughters who always love things that I make even if they aren't perfect, so I have a ready test market for new things I try.

Last week's experiment was a new style of half apron and the recipient was my daughter Becca. Her husband immediately pointed out that he does most of the cooking, so I'm starting one for him tomorrow, putting it together in a slightly different manner. Then one for Liz and Carl, to make use of some fabric scraps from making them napkins and placemats...though their patchwork may be different in size. While the patchwork on these aprons is relatively time intensive, it makes good use of my generous store of little pieces that are "too pretty to waste".

Fabric Scraps..."Too Pretty to Waste"

I am a lover of all things fabric, and have been as long as I remember. I like seeking it out, purchasing it, laundering it (in Seventh Generation detergent), ironing it (well, as long as the piece isn't too many yards..), rolling it and adding it to my stash. I also love the little pieces left over when a project is completed, and save every bit of worthwhile size, finding them "too pretty to waste".

My daughter Becca, who makes brilliant hats and quilts (check out her barn swallow motif on http://flyinghen.blogspot.com/), recently asked me to bring her some scraps. "No problem," I thought, since I have so many. But then she asked specifically if I could spare a scrap of a green vine print designed by Densye Schmidt for Free Spirit's "Flea Market Fancy". I paused for a minute, remembered she is my daughter, after all, and agreed to share...Some fabrics, I think, are even more beautiful as little pieces than they are as yardage. This lovely print is, and Becca is also in love with it, and has even spotted it used in quilts in magazines. Another print which I treasure every little piece of is by Mary Engelbreit and has little girls reading books on it. One little fragment left over from making a child's apron showed a little girl reading Little House on the Prairie. Oh, how I loved that book! So I took this little piece and recovered one of my aging pincushions.

I keep adding items made from fabric scraps to my product line. I make note cards from fabric scraps, which I call my "Too Pretty to Waste" line. I started making headbands last summer, and those have been very popular. What fascinates people the most is my utilizing scraps to make yo-yo's. I'll blog more about yo-yo's another time, and include instructions, but for now let me say they are really magical...they bring back memories of grandmothers and great aunts, they gather up and change their design identity in the process, and seem to particularly fascinate babies, boys, and men! I have some small table covers in my etsy shop. I also make pins and ponytail holders from yo-yo's, and have made some toys for my grandsons, but haven't listed those yet.