Practical Fabrics

Alternative post titles were going to be something along the lines of “I Love My Mommy” or “My Mother is an Enabler.” Because last weekend when I went to the store to get more lining material for skating costumes (a necessary purchase, and mostly for my paying clients) my mother came along. And when I was looking around and explaining that I pretty much can’t wear any of the non-jeans RTW pants that I own because they don’t fit anymore, and how I will totally need more grey and navy pants for this summer (at some skating events I act in an quasi-official capacity and there is a dress code) because the ones I made last summer were fine, but the fabric was so cheap that it really isn’t lasting well, well, my mother broke down and got me some fabric. Which wasn’t my intent, as I wasn’t expecting the store to have such a great selection of pants-weight fabrics in stock when I brought her, but, well, I don’t turn down gift fabric.

So here are my grays:

Top: subtle pinstripe. Unknown fiber content, though I guess polyester?
Very soft, though it had a funny smell when I washed it.
Bottom: crepe-like poly-rayon-lycra. I love this stuff!

The blues:

Left: Ribbed knit with cotton content? $2.49/yard from the mystery sale pile.
Right: navy poly-rayon-lycra for more pants.

So, erm, yeah, more fabric. But it was a gift! So it thereby doesn’t really count? Even if I won’t be getting to it for a few months, I am hoping it will get made up sometime this summer. I suppose the almost 9-yards of skating lining fabric I bought does count… but that is more of a necessary stash item, since I go through about 6-10 yards of that a year, and probably even more now that I am sewing for others as well. And, well, yeah. I have decided that my stash should really be full of things like interfacings and muslin, silk organza, and lining fabrics for skating costumes, when instead it is really full of stretch velvets, stretch lace, pretty silks and woolens. Of course, there is nothing quite like the feeling of being able to pull out stash fabrics and make something awesome. So, well, I don’t think my stashing tendencies are going to change themselves anytime soon.