Stash-busting 2013: the books, the fabric, the patterns

Today I signed up to the stash-busting challenge hosted by EmSewCrazy and Cindy of Cation Designs. They seem like very nice young women and it’s an excellent idea.

Here’s the unreviewed book and magazine stash. Not quite all of them. A few are somewhere in the house. I swear they just go walking about by themselves. I could start blaming the ghost that previous tenants swear haunts my home. It’s not known for its interest in sewing though. If it was, I’d ask it to jot down a few book reviews, preferably in neat copperplate.

Given that my main goal is to test the instructions for pattern drafting in the pattern books I review, I have to ask myself  why I have accumulated so many old sewing patterns and burdened myself with the tracing, testing and documenting of them. And I simply must trace them. The thought of putting pins or accidentally snipping through my mouldering fragile pieces of history gives me the cold shivers. They’ve already been through so much.

And then there is the fabric stash:

I don’t feel too bad about the stash. It causes relatively little household conflict. It’s largely accumulated from op shops. I’ve been very environmentally sound.  And financially well-behaved. Relatively little money has been spent and most of it went to good causes. Honestly.

The priciest bits of fabric are a scant few metres of linen in white and brown hidden in the back there. Still uncut because cutting fabric I really like makes me nervous.  On the other hand,  I don’t harbour special affection for the extensive yardage of op-shopped floral with the black background, and yet I still haven’t cut into it. Hmmm.

No more! I have signed EmSewCrazy’s pledge with my own special amendments:

I commit to using 12 pieces of stash fabric in 2013. I also commit to not buying any new patterns (i.e. "new to me", I never buy new) until December 13, 2013. Furthermore, in the process I will review my shameful stash of vintage pattern drafting and sewing books. My stash-busting will be documented on this blog.

So those, in broad outline, are my blogging plans for 2013.

What are you up to this year?