Stashbusting Pledge 2016

With February well underway already, it seems rather late in the year to be talking about my stashbusting goals for the year. 2015 is done and dusted, and I just scraped by to meet my goal of not adding extra metres of fabric into my fabric stash. But my stash is not getting any smaller. So that means I am in again for the Stashbusting Sewalong 2016.

In an attempt to find some space on my shelves, I was tempted to go for a "no fabric buying" pledge for 2016, but then would miss out on being able to buy fabric on sale, or needing to make something that I don't have fabric for, or want to try on a whim. I would really like to make a dent in the stash this year, and even thought about giving myself a goal, like sew up 100m of something crazy like that. Given that I don't actually know if I have 100m that I want to sew up, I rejected that idea too.

I came up with a compromise for my pledge this year.

I, Andrea Firth of Obsessive Creativeness, pledge to use up at least twice as much fabric as I buy during 2016.

Now it's confession time. I've already bought 5 metres of fabric in January. The Fabric Store were having a VIP sale, and I try to get to most of their sales, even if I don't have anything specific that I need. So my goal for the year has already been set at a minimum of 10m. Sounds OK so far!

The January theme for stashbusting was Getting Organised (link to the first of 4 posts here) Judy took us through how to get ourselves organised so we can get back into a productive year of sewing. I took the opportunity during the last week or so of the school holidays to get a few things organised for myself, so if I find an hour or so spare, I can get right into sewing without wondering what I should sew. I have already sewn up one of my new pieces of fabric (my daughter's leopard print dress), cut out another, and have a pattern started for a third. That will take care of 4m, so at least I'm following through on the plans that I had for these pieces when I bought them. I also have a top cut out and started. I guess I was on theme for January then?

When I started writing this post I came across a list that I had written at the start of 2015 with my 'wish list' if you like, of things that I wanted to sew during the year. I can't recall referring to it again during the year, but went through the list and ticked off everything that I did manage to get done. Of the 27 projects that I listed here, I actually completed 11. Not bad going for not looking at it at all. I'll be sure to have another look at this list next time I'm wondering what to sew! I have since written myself another list to cover me for this year, just off the top of my head, so there is a bit of crossover.

To help me track incoming and outgoing stash this year, I tweaked the spreadsheet that I made myself for last year. It's nothing fancy, and gives me just enough information so I know where I stand. Rather than keep track on the computer, I've printed out a few pages, and will fill out information as I go.

The last thing I want to talk about now, is an idea that I saw come up in my Facebook feed at the start of the year. It's a fabric time capsule that you make by saving a snippet of every fabric that you use during the year. Here's my jar so far.

I've added scraps from dresses that I started last year but haven't finished yet, and of course, everything else that I started this year. It will be interesting to see how full it gets by the end of the year!

And now, I just need to find some time to follow through on my sewing plans.