KonMari-ing the fabric stash...sort of...not really

I should first disclose that I have neither read the book nor seen Marie Kondo's netflix series however it has become so pervasive in everyday life that you can't escape some knowledge of the ideas.

We recently had visitors who needed to be able to sleep in the spare bed and not under the large quantity of fabric on it. So I transferred all of the fabric off the bed and into the sewing room and lo the sewing room is covered in fabric to be tidied away.

On the sewing table are coat fabrics to go in the willow basket

On the floor are woven fabrics to be neatly folded into the two plastic boxes

This post was inspired not only by my recent bout of tidying up but also a YouTube video which demonstrates just how hard the KonMari technique is for sewers/crafters. The clip, Basically How Not to KonMari Your Sewing Stash with Bernadette Banner, is long but demonstrates the angst and dilemma we face with the concept.

There is a bit of a history of filling the bed with fabric and then needing to sleep in it. This is the bed in the other spare room before we moved in whilst the master bedroom was renovated. I didn't take a picture of the gluttonous sight this time.

The variety of fabric was different this time but the look of the bed similar. In the last tidy-up I purchased three more 60-litre underbed storage boxes, my acquisition on this occasion is a large rattan trunk.

The spare bedroom post tidy up

Opposite corners of the bedroom either side of the window (you can see the bed in the corners of the two photos). The bed may be clear but there is still plenty of tidying to do. Luckily the visitors only stayed three nights so were able to work around the stuff.

The art of KonMari

The KonMari part is that I wanted to be able to see all of the fabrics in the plastic tub at a glance and not have to rummage through it hoping to find the right fabric. Overtime I will go through all of the plastic tubs and fold the fabric up so it stands on edge across the width of the tub. Unfortunately they don't stand up on their own.

To help with the folding I cut up some foam core board the width and height of the tub. This means as I am folding the fabric I know it will fit into the tub. It makes the folding and organising that much easier but still not quick. It took nearly three hours to empty and refold 50 pieces of fabric back into the Liberty collection tub. From the fabrics sorted so far I can get between 25 and 50 pieces per tub (25 in the trouser fabric tub and 50 in the Liberty collection one).

The trouser fabric tub with foam core template on top

If I was really embracing the KonMari concept some of my fabric would be disposed of, as having 24 60-litre plastic underbed storage boxes full of clothes fabric could be considered excessive. Or maybe I am embracing Marie Kondo's ideas because all of the fabric I have touched so far has brought me joy as it was stroked and appreciated whilst being folded up. Also whilst the re-folding of all the fabric is a chore the re-organised tub is a joy to behold.

The coat and jacket collection

I thought that if I purchased a large rattan trunk for our newly renovated bedroom it would be ideal for my coat fabrics as folding them small enough to fit into the underbed box makes them inordinately bulky. The added bonus is my beloved will have somewhere to toss his clothes (other than the floor).

As I wanted to be able to move it around when vacuuming my beloved put castors on it. This had the added benefit of strengthening the bottom! To stop the canes snagging my fabric I made a calico inner for the trunk which will also protect the fabric from the sun streaming in through our bedroom window.

Rattan trunk with castors, inside the basket and the castor reinforcement

Rattan trunk with calico inner in place, complete with a small selection of coat fabric!

The Minnie Mouse collection

After careful exploration of my fabric collection I identified quite a few fabrics suitable for my Minnie Mouse wardrobe - about two-thirds are from the collection. They were stacked up on the bed and sewing table but now they are all tidy in a plastic tub ready for use.

Top: the red, white and black fabrics chosen for the Minnie Mouse wardrobe
Bottom: with the cut out leggings and a bit of left over silk popped on top

The overflow - a few too many fabrics to fit into the Minnie Mouse plastic tub

The Liberty collection

Here is my tub of woven Liberty fabrics. This tub brought me lots of joy, even though folding the silk chiffon pieces was troublesome. There is another tub of mostly Liberty knits which hasn't been organised yet but I am expecting joy from it too!

As an aside on the far right is a bright pink floral fabric I purchased from Liberty way back in the late 1980's. It was made into a bolero jacket, shorts and culottes, which were hardly ever worn as finding an appropriate top was difficult. The culottes, jacket and a white broderie anglaise crop top were worn for my first date with my beloved. I still have the jacket and shorts hanging in my wardrobe but the culottes have been disassembled to be paired with a plain pink cotton lawn for a dress. Until this miraculous moment occurs they are sitting patiently in my Liberty collection tub.

The trouser collection

Now that I have collected most of my trouser fabric in one place I realise that I have quite a large quantity of black denim. I believed the myth that nice black denim is hard to find and obviously every time I found some I bought a piece. I am pretty sure there are some trouser fabrics lurking in other tubs that haven't been KonMari'd yet. Not sure when it all comes out of hiding that one tub will be enough, as I can think of at least six fabrics not in the tub yet.

The forgotten collection

Whilst filling the rattan trunk with coat fabric I remembered the existence of some long ago purchased fabric. Now where was it oh yes in the wardrobe in the three larger plastic tubs I had conveniently forgotten when making my tub count.

The forgotten three hiding in the wardrobe, with the top one containing neatly folded
map fabric plus coordinating pieces for an arty coat with half a tub of silk velvet

The majority of the original fabric in this tub was moved into the rattan trunk. I just gathered all of the bits for my arty map coat together along with some silk velvet and the tub was full. So how did I end up with so much map fabric?

The arty map trousers!

When I purchased my WORLD map trousers a colleague gave me the dust bag (in the same map fabric) for a WORLD tote bag she had bought. This set me off gathering suitable coordinating fabrics for a jeans type jacket. I then discovered that I could buy more of the same map fabric from eBay which I did (enough to make another pair of map trousers as well as the jeans jacket). And now I have half a tub full of enough fabric to make several pairs of trousers and a full length coat never mind a jeans jacket. Hmm wonder how I ended up with so many tubs of fabric.

In with the new

Hopefully when I have re-folded and sorted all of my fabric in the KonMari way this new fabric will fit into an existing storage box.

Red, black and white faux fur from The Sewing Workshop is destined to be a winter coat
Fabric on the right from Silhouette Patterns
Patterns, stencils and fabric in front is from Diane Ericson

I definitely have fabricitis - a reaction to the hypnotic pheromones given off by fabrics and home textiles. Very common among women, but rarely affecting men, the condition causes the sufferer to purchase copious amounts of fabric and textiles without purpose or need and to then stash said fabrics in a highly protective and secretive manner. Prognosis - no known cure.

New storage ideas

Having now spent many weekends folding fabric and generally trying to sort my sewing stuff out, as well as moving our belongings back into our nicely renovated bedroom I want a new storage solution for the sewing room. I'd really like the sewing room to look more grown up and get rid of my brightly coloured plastic draws. But what to do instead?

The other over abundance problem I have is sewing patterns so whatever the storage solution is there needs to be room for sewing patterns. Sewing patterns used to live in two relatively large plastic tubs, one for Vogue designer patterns and the other for smaller sized BMV patterns.  Then came a third plastic tub for my Silhouette Patterns.  And then four Andrea Moore carrier bags - Style Arc; Vogue DKNY and Donna Karan; and two of miscellaneous patterns with nowhere else to go.  Finally three A4 copier boxes for The Sewing Workshop; BMV Marcy and Katherine Tilton; and BMV dress patterns.

Instead of sewing I have been down the rabbit hole of possible storage solutions. Do I want a cupboard or a shelf system or.....

Given that IKEA haven't arrived in New Zealand yet cheaper options are a bit limited. Early on in my search I found these storage cubes which come in two sizes 40cm and 30cm, are modular, able to be clipped together to make various sizes and are made in New Zealand. If I decide this is the way to go they will be paired with the grey cotton fabric box.

At this point in time my thinking is 4 wide by 3 tall of the 40cm cubes where the brightly coloured plastic draws are in the first picture in this blog post. With 2 wide by 4 tall of the 30cm cubes along the opposite wall for sewing patterns. At least one of the 40cm cubes will be used for my large sewing patterns (like Style Arc).

I will cogitate on this idea for a while longer whilst I fold up some more fabric. If only getting tidy and sorted didn't take so much time and effort. And all because of a little water which disturbed the order in my sewing room, creating the dilemma of how to get it back together with the same functionality as before.  Anyone would think that the drop of water had shrunk the room or maybe I was used to working in the semi chaos or Marie Kondo is having a bigger impact on me than I realised!

Vogue 1410 Lynn Mizono Winter Floral Dress

This is the third time I have made my adapted version of the Lynn Mizono dress. The previous two versions, which are slightly more faithful to the pattern, appear in my 2016 sewing retrospective but were made pre-blog. As this is a favourite pattern for a stylish dress with individuality, as well as only two pattern pieces, combined with a gorgeous fabric I thought it deserved a blog post all its own to explain how I got from V1410 to the Winter Floral dress.

The finished garment

On a very changeable Sunday in December I wore the dress in both its lengths. The optimism in the morning for a warm day (and the shorter length dress) didn't entirely eventuate, with the sunshine being no match for the cool sea breeze (long length dress).

However there was enough sun for this delicate English flower who needs to be careful in the harsh NZ sun. It is not often I venture outside without sunscreen but the weekend in Westport was much sunnier than forecast and I was caught out with insect repellent but no sunscreen. It doesn't help that I am allergic to most sunscreen so was very wary about buying some from the supermarket. Choosing to suffer from a bit too much sun rather than itchy skin for a couple of weeks was a definite error of judgement. Worst sunburn in years and months later I am still ultra careful about exposing my décolletage to the sun.

Back to the dress, versatility is its real beauty making it ideal for a travel wardrobe be it a weekend away or a longer trip. It is also a great fabric and the combination garners compliments from strangers, which is always an uplifting experience.

Carefully executed selfies taken at the Doubletree Downtown Houston
Jack and Charlie dress in the shorter length versus Winter Floral tunic with leggings

The fabric

A wonderful tana lawn from Liberty of London in a design called Winter Floral in the red colourway. This fabric was purchased from Liberty in person during our trip to the UK in May 2018.

Liberty describe this fabric as: "Taking inspiration from the joyful splendour of traditional African prints, Winter Floral depicts an array of dancing, sinuous botanicals. From the Garden of Temptation collection it offers a visual feast of rich, symbolic imagery. Inspired by the works of Hieronymus Bosch, it captures a hidden fairy-tale world of thick foliage and luscious fruits, presented with a delectably twisted sense of humour. The colour palette is hallucinatory and opulent, with creeping tropical fronds and acidic paisleys sitting alongside blushing, light-toned hedgerow flora and fauna. Dive into an aesthetic, allegorical other world of arcane temptations and decadent decay."

The pattern

Vogue describes this pattern as Very loose-fitting, pullover dress is sleeveless and has very narrow hem finish on scoop neckline and armholes, front and back pleats, inside button/buttonholes forming drape and three adjustable lengths, French seams, and narrow hem. Purchased lock and elastic cord forms front drape.

The adjustable lengths give you a mid-calf or above knee dress or a mid thigh tunic.



The pattern alterations

This pattern is a TNT having been made twice before without sleeves. From the very beginning I loved the idea of a skirt that could be buttoned on the inside for different lengths. The fullness on top created with the gathers of the elastic cord to form the front drape and the full skirt are not my best look. I really do need to follow the wisdom of a fitted half and a looser half otherwise the outfit closely resembles a sack. Given my attraction to a skirt that could be worn at different lengths the obvious change was for a more fitted bodice to provide the necessary balance to the fullness of the skirt. When I first made this dress I used the bodice from Silhouette Patterns #400 Traditional Blouse which has fish eye darts for waist shaping front and back. These fish eye darts can either be sewn as darts or as pleats similar to the original dress design. The Winter Floral dress has the darts and the Jack and Charlie version has pleats.

I always trace my patterns rather than cut up the original. For my version of V1410 the bodice of Silhouette Patterns #400 Traditional Blouse was matched at the waist and centre front to V1410 and the new pattern traced blending the two parts together at the side seams. Essentially I blended from the size 10 at the bust (40") to the size 6 just below the waist (49") and continued at the size 6 to the hem.

By matching the two patterns at the waist it lengthened the bodice and lowered the V1410 bust point 2". This is not unusual for me I generally lengthen the bodice and lower the bust point at least 1.5" on most Vogue patterns.

For the sleeveless version I narrowed the shoulder strap 1" in from the shoulder point and raised the armhole ⅝". This gave me a slightly cut in strap on the shoulder and the appropriate bra coverage.

Original V1410 front pattern piece underneath
Left: SP400 on top; Right: adapted sleeveless V1410 on top

Original V1410 back pattern piece underneath
Left: SP400 on top; Right: adapted sleeveless V1410 on top

For the Winter Floral dress I wanted sleeves but was too lazy to create a new pattern piece. So the pattern piece for V1410 was placed on the fabric and overlaid with my trusty Silhouettes Pattern #400 to cut the fabric with the necessary changes for sleeves (shoulders widened, armhole lowered). The sleeve from SP#400 was used for the short sleeve.

The sewing

I was worried about the Liberty tana lawn not being opaque enough as a dress so I underlined it with a plain red cotton lawn. The reason I underlined rather than lined the dress was to retain the buttons/buttonhole in the side seam that enable the dress to be worn at various lengths and I wasn't sure how I could do this if I had the dress with a separate lining.

I sewed the dress and the interlining at the neck edge, trimming, pressing and understitching before turning wrong sides together. Now that the neck edge was neatly finished the outer fabric and interlining were treated as one - the darts were sewn and the side seams were sewn with French seams.

The sleeves are not interlined. They were attached to the bodice with French seams. The sleeve hem was turned up and machine sewn.

A buttonhole is made in both side seams just above the hem before the hem is sewn in place. Once the buttonholes had been added the hem was turned up and hand stitched in place.

The six buttons were hand sewn to the side seams as indicated by the pattern markings in my motel room in San Francisco. The dress was then worn to travel to Portland the next day.

The outfit of the day

Out and about on the west coast of New Zealand wearing bare feet or United Nude Lev Wrap low heel in red. With warmer or cooler temperatures depending on the wind this was a fabulous choice of outfit as it could be worn as a short and long dress at various times through the day.

Cape Foulwind

Cape Rocks and a visiting Weka

Charleston

The Truman Track

Out and about at the International Quilt Festival

As already mentioned this is such a great dress to travel with it can be worn at the shorter length during the day and then lengthened at night or it can be worn as a tunic with leggings.

Left outside the Hilton Americas hotel: Untouched World Moonless Lofty Merino Cardi,
Jack and Charlie Dress and United Nude Rico Boot Neon Red Disco
Right outside the George R Brown Convention centre: V1410 Winter Floral dress,
DKNY Navy & Milk Dot Leggings and United Nude Zink Patch Mid Pop Mix booties