A radical way to control my fabric stash

This month I have been doing lots of reflecting - my two eldest girls are into their last few weeks of school - yes both GCSE and A-levels are happening in my house! 

I am also doing the Me Made May handmade wardrobe challenge - this year my photos and reflections are quite personal so I haven’t been sharing on social media but it has made me think about what I make and with what.

Over the years Stitching Kitchen has changed as a business - when I started teaching more dressmaking I was making example garments which then formed my wardrobe - but now as the business has grown and I have more freelance tutors I am able to choose to make clothes I want to wear.  We are also selling dressmaking fabrics now so ideally I should make my wardrobe from some of the fabric we have in store.  

With all that said it is definitely time to overhaul what I am wearing, choose styles which are more me and take heed of the advice from our colour consultations last year and keep to a deep colour pallet.  

The sustainable stash at the studio has lots of lovely fabrics which I have been holding onto - but the ones I love are not really right for what I would like to make and the colour pallet isn’t right for me either - also we need to order in some summer linens, I need space to display them too. All of this plus a well timed email and podcast from Zoe - check your thread means I came to the drastic decision this week to give away the sustainable stash!  

I created a Facebook event to promote the give away and also offered fabric to anyone who came into the studio this week.  If there is any left I will offer to someone who works in a local prison and also the textile department at the school.  

If there is anything else left over Zoe was talking to the founder of a new website in the Check your thread podcast - a new platform just for de-stashing your fabrics and yarns and related sewing / craft items.  The website is aptly called destasher and works in a very similar way to eBay, Vinted and Facebook marketplace but is tailored to us crafty makers.   And if I want to make something in a more sustainable way I can source fabric on Destasher in the future. 

So that is what I have done with my stash - don’t panic the stash for textile art and craft is still very much stocked full of plenty of colours and textures ready for the next creative textiles day.  

Let me know if you have any experience of reducing your stash and if you give destasher a try.