The spill has been contained

I used to work with radiation - 32P to be specific. If there was a bad spill or contamination outside the designated "hot" area, Radiation Safety (complete with jumpsuits and Geiger counters) was called in for the cleanup. It was a serious process, and the responsible grad student/postdoc/technician was made to feel like a criminal. Believe it or not, I never actually caused a serious infraction. I was scared of that stuff, and treated it with the greatest of reverence (which I owe entirely to the meticulous people I worked with). I still have nightmares about it, in fact. A recurring one involves me finding vial of neon green stuff in my home freezer and trying to figure out how to dispose of it properly without getting caught.

Anyways, dealing with my awful mess of fabric was the closest thing to a decontamination effort I've experienced in a long time. The sheer volume of "waste" was overwhelming - it was tangled, disorganized, and full of evidence that I have some personality disorders working.

Cleaning always inspires self-reflection, right? Here are my theories on how my fabric mess got so out of control:

1) I am a PACK RAT. This is no new revelation here. I'll hang on to a gum wrapper if it is pretty, shiny, and possibly useful.

2) I used to sew for very tiny dolls, so even the smallest scrap could be enough for a tiny dress. I used to buy 1/8 yard cuts, can you believe???

3) I currently do applique, so even the tiniest scrap could be just the thing I need for a beak or a lug-nut. I still buy 1/8 yard cuts, can you believe???

4) I really do myself I disservice by not "cleaning up" my fabric before releasing it back into a drawer. Those strips hanging off the usuable fabric love to entwine.

5) Without a system, I have to rifle. Rifling causes even more disarray.

It took me a couple of days, but I was able to organize my stash into categories that made sense to me. I then placed the nice, folded pieces back into the clean drawers. I even have room to spare!!!




I learned so much about my stash throughout this process. For one, I don't have as much "folding fabric" as I thought. The bulk of my pile was composed of teeny, tiny scraps. So I had to make some choices - if it was big enough (and the appropriate scale print) for an applique, I saved it. I only allowed myself two drawers of teeny scraps. Stuff that absolutely was too small to use was trashed. This is the resulting bag:


This is probably two drawers worth of stuff. I feel terrible about putting it in the landfill, but really...it is beyond usable. Heck, most people would deem the stuff I saved for applique unusable!

I also learned that the stuff I LOVE and the stuff I HAVE are entirely different things. I thought for sure I would have a drawer full of polka dots and stripes. Nope! I could really stand to bulk up that aspect of my stash. I have a few nice, long cuts of designer fabrics, but the things I am more likely to grab and use up are the good old basics.

The stuff I DO have...many small cuts of homespuns, ginghams and tiny floral calicos (some go back to the 80's, some are relatively modern)! There are lotsa lovely little pieces of fabric in there. I'm sure I would have used them up by now if I had continued sewing for teeny-tiny dollies. As far current usefulness goes, I found TONS of great fabrics for making gifts. I'm not going to have to buy a single fraction of a yard! There is stuff in there that I had completely forgotten about, and it will be absolutely perfect for the projects I have in mind.

My next few days will be filled with cleaning, eating, enjoying family (yay), and shopping (yuck). When the Thanksgiving holiday is over, I will be happy to return to an organized stash and a "scintillatingly" clean sewing room!

Stash Talk

Our group has been comparing and contrasting our beloved fabric collections - inventories, favorite designers, and organization systems (or lack thereof, in my case).

The poor souls who have either worked or lived with me know what an unbelievable pig I am. I can trash a room in seconds, and that is not an exaggeration. I'm not purposefully destructive - there is just some disconnect in my brain when it comes to picking up after myself. Clutter builds and builds, and it doesn't bother me in the least until I am drowning in it. My husband does more than his fair share in trying to keep the house sane. He is totally in charge of the kitchen (hooray for me), and he is great about decluttering and putting through loads of laundry. The one room he won't touch is the sewing room. He doesn't even go in there. It is that bad.

People are always willing to share pictures of their freshly organized sewing rooms with neat stacks of fabric arranged by color, and their nice clean desks awaiting the next project. Hoping to find a kindred soul (or someone even worse off so I could feel better about myself), I proposed a mini-challenge for the group. I asked them to share pictures their workspaces without any tidying and reorganizing.

The first few pics came in almost instantly. These ladies had gorgeous, serene, well-organized spaces. Sure, they had a few little "in progress" piles here and there, but definitely nothing to be ashamed of. So that got me worried - oh gosh, if I show them my space as is, they are going to have me put away (or at least removed as team captain for reasons of insanity). So I cheated a bit and removed some items that didn't belong in there anyway - coffee mugs, shoes, towels, trucks (lots of trucks), etc. I also went over the carpet really quickly with a shop-vac (a regular vacuum just wouldn't survive the debris). After the spiff-up, this was my room:


Not so bad, right? Well, what I failed to mention is that I haven't sewn in there in over a month. I've been working in our spacious dining room since before Halloween. This is what it looks like:


Again, not too horrible. Keep in mind this is a common area, and I know that anything I leave down is subject to being trashed (either by the tidy husband or the mischievous child).

Back up to the sewing room. I decided to be a little more forthcoming and show what really lurks within...


This is drawer 1 of 12. That is right, I have pictures of a dozen drawers stuffed with wads o' fabric. As I was uploading the photos, more and more images of beautiful Martha Stewart-worthy workspaces popped up in our forum. ACK! So I freaked out a little and did something drastic:


Yup, that is the bulk of my stash right there in all its glory. See anything you want? The pile started on the desk, but I ended up throwing it on the floor so I would have a folding surface. Louie enjoyed rolling around in it, and Buddy enjoyed sleeping on it.

This was Friday a.m. Since then, I have been folding, organizing, and taking stock of my stash. I'd so much rather be sewing, but I really NEEDED to do this. I'm making great progress, and it feels amazing. I'm really glad to be starting out the challenge on the right foot. It will help me so much to know exactly what I have and where it is. I usually spend so much time digging and hunting, so I think this little expenditure of time will pay off in the long run. And even though I didn't get to do any sewing, my embroidery machine was hard at work.


I did all the applique work on the Kimberbell Kids Name Pillows I am making for Del's niece and nephew. They are turning out so cute - I can't wait to show them off! And hopefully I will soon have some lovely pics of my incredibly organized sewing room to share!