Evolution of a Fabric Stash

I equate having a perfectly organized fabric stash to a state of sewing nirvana that is unachievable in this lifetime. Maybe heaven is a giant room filled with shelves of fabric that are always perfectly folded to be the same size, and are somehow simultaneously organized by fiber content, in ascending yardage and also color order. Is this even possible? Don't you dare say that it is.

A few days ago, in an effort to make more room in my plastic fabric boxes and to get rid of some stuff I knew I was probably never gonna use, I set up a destash account on Instagram [@missmake_destash if you wanna follow!] and sold some things. It felt GOOD.

I love looking through my fabric stash. I'm a really visual person, and that's how I remember things. If we have a conversation, I might not remember all of it in a month [sadly], and I am TERRIBLE with names after people introduce themselves to me. But when I look at my fabric I remember exactly where every single one is from, why I bought it and the shopping experience of picking it out.  Maybe I should pin a piece of fabric to everyone's shirt when I meet them [although I still wouldn't remember their name, I would just be like, oh you're Robert Kaufman Laguna Jersey in Pepper.]

In the midst of rolling around in my fabric stash pressing and folding the destash orders, I looked down at the stack of my most recently bought fabrics that were waiting to find a home, and they looked so different than the quilty rainbow explosion I was surrounded by that I had to take a picture of the contrast.

Here's some of what I'm destashing:



[Let it be known that there are fabrics in this picture that I still love, they are just too small to really do anything with. And also sometimes you just gotta let go and make room for the new.]

I think it's pretty easy to tell that quilting is what first roped me into sewing seriously as an adult ['murican flag calico, anyone?]. I liked picking and pairing colors and prints, and the fact that you only had to buy a quarter or half yard of something to use it. I've always felt like making a quilt was like making a big, pretty, snuggly collage.

Buuuut now I make clothes! Here's that new stack that was waiting to be put away, all things I've gotten pretty recently:

A leeeetle different, no?

And because if I were reading, I'd want to know, here's what they all are:

1. floral rayon challis for a TBD tank/shirt 2. gray stretch twill for a cigarette pant, possibly clover? 3. acid wash jegging knit(!!) for jeggings, duh 4. melon jersey for a tshirt 5. black rayon challis for a TBD tank/shirt 6. rayon jersey for a pair of anima pants 7. buffalo plaid jersey for a tshirt 8. floral rayon jersey for a tshirt 9. striped double knit from a pair of anima pants [from The Fabric Studio] 10. gold metallic woven fabric for a clutch [from The Fabric Studio] 11. striped tissue knit for a hemlock [from Britex] 12. motorcycle jersey for a tshirt 13. striped rayon sweater knit for a cardigan/wrap 14. striped jerseyfrom a myrtle 15. rayon challis for TBD tank/shirt [from Wanderlust, out of stock]

I like how these pictures don't look like the same person bought all the fabric, but when you see them side by side they still kind of make sense together on some level:

Has your stash changed over time? What do you keep and what do you part with? Do you ever look at fabric you bought a long time ago and what what the hell you where thinking?