Tuesday 11 May 2021

Unleashed Beasts

I have a problem.  It isn't a knitting problem.  It is a sewing problem.  

As my interest in clothing myself as grown and expanded by the experience of sewing my own pants that fit, I have become re-engaged in the idea of clothing.  Re-engagement has led to the purchasing of fabric and the need for more fabric, and the purchasing of even more fabric.  It isn't out of control.  Really.   

I still haven't spent what an average person does on clothing in a year and I still have only barely scratched the surface of replacing my old, old things. (Yay pants)  I am taking some comfort in that but the problem is that I now have more than enough fabric to clothe me.  In the same way that buying yarn is separate from knitting, fabric buying is a separate obesession from sewing to clothe myself. 

I have purchased material before for sewing and then never gotten to it, but those pieces are being used now as test fabrics and to wear fabrics.  The material I have had for years was for things suitable for office clothing.  Crisp fabric for skirts and jackets.  A few fabrics for blouses. In the life I live now, most of that will become pants because that is mostly what I wear now.  Very little of it has the drape that skirts or dresses I want to wear now would need.  I find myself heading to the online fabric place (Fabricville, the online part of the Quebec part of Fabricland) just because.

For instance, last night.  I woke last night thinking very seriously of a lovely floral fabric I bought a few weeks ago.  It is for a simple dress, loose fitting, comfotable.  I am really looking forward to it.  But I don't really want to use it on a new pattern without having tried that new pattern.  This is where most people would make a muslin.  Muslin is plain and  at 6.99 per metre by the bolt, quite reasonable, but at the end of my work, I would have something so utterly dull, I wouldn't wear it.  

What I needed to test my plans for the dress was cheap fabric.  As cheap as can be.  I didn't spend really big money on all the fabric I have bought so far. Even my very pretty fabric is only 8.99 a metre.  I have been really careful so far, purchasing what I like and getting some very decently priced material.  

This time, I was looking for stuff I wouldn't mind having wasted but that was nice enough that if it worked right, that I could wear and enjoy.  I hit the clearance pages.  

I had a great time. Seriously great.

Last night, in the middle of the darkest of the night, I purchased five pieces of fabric to test out patterns for fit and size.  I purchased colour.  I purchased flow and drape and joy.  It was wonderful.  

Thing is, I really only intended to buy one fabric to use as a tester.  That really was the goal.  I only put the things in the cart so they would be marked and the plan was to pick one.  I couldn't do it.  I wanted them all.  I needed those fabrics like a yarn ho needs yarn.  

I had two intended pieces of fabric in my cart as well, long planned for and quite purposeful, well thought out purchases but the full damage last night was seven more pices of fabric, therefore seven more garments are coming to my house.  I am pretty sure that if I include last years fabric purchases, my wardrobe after sewing this all up, will be bigger than it has ever been in my life.  

I can see that I am going to have to do a bit of work lest I unleash a dragon that I did not intend to release.  It's possible it is already too late.  


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