An attendee to Sunday's Tea brought a stack of vintage fabric looking for a home. I picked out some of it. A rough measurement after washing it revealed there's over 25 yards of material pictured here. OMG. What am I going to do with this stuff?!?
The amazing thing - my claim barely made a dent in the available stash. There must have been well over 100 yards of fabric in that bag.
I fell in love with the variety of colors. Most of it is lightweight. It feels nice, but I'm not sure how good it will be to mix and match with my other fabric. As I perused the pile at the Tea and thought aloud what I'd make with it, people asked: can I have that when it's done? (We do project show-and-tell, too, and everyone wanted to take A Season of Change home with them.)
I liked the nest fabric, which was requested for a Japanese knot bag like mine. The blue floral and salmon fabric felt heavy enough to make shopping bags (and immediately had dibs claimed). There's just enough to make two bags, but I'll need to either modify the handles or find other fabric for that. The pattern I follow runs the straps go around the whole bag, which is much sturdier than just sewing them to the top.
Many have permanent marks on the fold. The red fabric has holes along the selvedges. The large piece of blue has fading/discoloration in random spots. It may be hard to avoid because I only notice it in good strong light.
Bags first, then I plan to do some kind of strip quilt blocks with the pastel solids. I have a black and white quilt in the planning stage, which I'm hoping to use the monochrome flower buds, even though it's lightweight. The fabric with the little blue birds and green hearts is closest to "normal" weight and also in the best condition. That's going in my stash. The red fabric I'm at a loss of how to use it. I picked it simply because I love the border print. I need to use that somehow.
All this won't fit in my fabric drawer, so it's a sudden change in plans. Projects for these before I can move on to my regularly scheduled stuff!
Your description of some of the damage to the vintage fabric brings up a question that I'll bet you can answer: does old cotton thread (still on the wooden spools) lose it's strength? I've had this notion that old thread is "rotten" just from sitting idle for, well, many decades, but maybe that it not true at all.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing your creations :)
wash it all. Right now, maybe twice! Dry it. Then decide what stood up. My granny made every quilt out of old clothes, Different weights and composition fabrics and it all had been washed, and although we used those quilts and washed them, they never fell apart or wore out. Love the nests. Be happy you are the recipient of yards. Someone will step in when our time here is done, and take our stashes too. And say, wow she had good taste!
ReplyDeleteexactly! Wash and dry it beat the crap out of it because if it can't pass that test you don't want to use it
DeleteAs a person, who keeps asking one of your other friends, to come shop my stash of fabric please. I have collected a lot of fabric. When I have odd water stains on some fabrics that I've picked up in odd places, I do what my grandmother would have done, wash it and hang it outside on the line to dry. Sun and breezes can sometimes do more to improve a fabric than anything else. Might even "bleach" (sun bleach that is) out some of your lines. Couldn't hurt to give it a try, though it may take more than a day of sun to accomplish that.
ReplyDeleteSuch a wonderful stash enhancement! Hope you can harvest some good-sized usable pieces out of the damaged parts.
ReplyDelete