Stash

Hello, my name is Kristen, and I have a problem with hoarding fabric. It's gotten out of control. We have a traditional New England built in cabinet in our dining room, and all the drawers below it are stuffed to the gills with my fabric stash. (This would make my Dad crazy. My Mom had the exact same problem. Her fabric had taken over an entire closet! At least I know where I get it from.) There's the fabric intended for elephants. There's the fabric I got to make who knows what with that's still in there. There's the giant pile that's supposed to magically turn itself into napkins for our wedding. And then there's the leftovers. I hate throwing away the extra bits left over from various projects. Case in point? Fabric from my sister's wedding. From last April.



I ordered 30 yards of silk and made three dresses from it. Two had long trains and bell sleeves, so that used up quite a bit. But I then saved ever scrap bigger than about 6". Come on, it's dupioni silk! You can't just throw that stuff away. Well, today I've come here to tell you it was totally worth it.

Our friends, the ones I made invites for, are obviously getting married and I clearly need a new dress for the occasion. But even more than a dress, I need a new purse to carry with said dress. I'm so bad with formal purses. I own one, and it's light purple. So I found myself some super instructions, bought a purse frame, and went to work.

Step one involved re-dying my silk. My silk was originally blue and white:



Then I accidentally put them in the wash together before I made my niece's dress, and came out with blue and light blue:



I wanted the light blue to be even darker this time around, so I stuck them in the wash again. Shameless, I know. But effective.



And it from there it was simple! I used the dark blue for the purse. The lighter pieces are larger than the dark, so I set those aside to make the skirt for the dress. I'll piece together the rest of the dark blue to make the top. Pictures will come when I, uh, actually make this dress. But for a grand total of $7, I'm now the proud owner of an awesome dupioni silk clutch. And completely convinced of the merits of stashing. :)