Precious Fabric Challenge Part 1: Choosing My Fabric

When I’m working on a project in my studio, I tend to alternate between playing music, listening to an audiobook, or listening and sorta watching videos from YouTube sewists. One of my favorites to follow is Whitney of @TomKatStitchery. From her, I learned the value of choosing a personal color palette and letting it drive your fabric purchases. I’ve watched numerous sewalongs and I always pick up some new technique or tip from her. And she definitely motivates me to try other patterns and projects.

So when she announced her Precious Fabric Challenge for National Sewing Month 2024, I knew I wanted to play along.

The basic gist is this: you’ve probably got one or more lengths of fabric in your stash that you’ve been holding onto and you’re struggling, for one reason or another, to cut into for a sewing project. Might be that you love the fabric so much you’re holding out for the “perfect” project; could be that you bought the fabric because you loved the pattern but then don’t know what to use it for, or maybe it’s something you bought from a limited supply and knowing that you can’t get any more makes you nervous to use it in case you make a mistake. Well, the idea is to pick one of these pieces from your stash, choose a project, and make it before the end of this month. There’s a whole slew of prizes you can win if you post the finished make on Instagram and tag it with #preciousfabric24 and @tomkatstitcherycarmel.

Turns out this is the kick in the butt I needed to choose my next sewing project. I have one month to sew whatever I want before the season of sewing for Christmas begins, and I’d like to make the most of it. Plus, with my chronic daily migraines, a project that should take a sewist just a couple days generally takes me several weeks … so if I’m going to finish in time, I need to start now.

I looked through my stash and pulled out three cuts of fabric that could, for one reason or another, be considered “precious”. Let’s take a closer look…

Option #1 – Designer Deadstock Polyester Woven “Brush Strokes Floral”

Purchased from Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics in February 2022. It’s 100% Polyester/Acrylic and I have 3.5 yards @ 58″ wide.

I love the idea of keeping fabric out of landfills, and when I can also support a small business (read: non-corporate chain store) I consider it a double win. I found this gorgeous print on Stonemountain & Daughter’s website in their deadstock section and ordered every bit of yardage they had … which amounted to 3.5 yards. I didn’t know what I was going to make, but I knew it would be fabulous.

The challenge with deadstock fabric is the reseller doesn’t always have specific information on what the fabric is. I knew it was a woven with no stretch, and it was 100% Polyester. When it arrived, I was surprised to find it’s thicker than I expected, with an almost plastic feel to its super smooth hand. It looks to me like a twill weave; it’s very crisp and doesn’t drape very well. More body than drape, I guess you’d say. So while I adore the print, and I know I want to make an apparel item from it rather than a bag, I have no clue what to make and just stuck it in my stash

Option #2 – Promenade au Pavot Midnight Blue Stretch Cotton Sateen

Purchased from Mood Fabric in February 2022. It’s 97% Cotton 3% Elastane and I have 5 yards @ 55″ wide.

This fabric has so much potential – I just didn’t know what I was doing when I ordered it. It’s a Mood Exclusive design, printed on their stretch cotton sateen, which is an utterly delicious fabric. It’s got some weight to it, but it drapes and moves beautifully and I can’t wait to sew it up. The problem is the way the pattern is printed on the fabric.

I thought it was a border print. It’s not; it’s a panel. Totally my mistake, and a result of my inexperience with panels. Rather than the flowers running along the selvedges in a vertical design, they run horizontally from selvedge to selvedge and repeat over and over. The design is just about 24″ long, and I’ve got 8 panels in total. With some careful planning and fussy cutting, I know this could make a GORGEOUS piece of clothing. I just can’t figure out (a) what I should make, and (b) how I should lay out the pattern. The fact that I’m extremely buxom (H+ cup) and curvy adds an additional challenge to choosing a pattern that will fit properly on the fabric. So it’s sat in my stash, unused, but not forgotten.

Option #3 – Black Ponte Knit with Magenta & Orange Floral Foil

Purchased from Mood Fabric in October 2019. It’s 95% Polyester 5% Spandex and I have 3 yards @ 59″ wide.

This is one of the older pieces of fabric in my stash (which I began building in mid-2018) and it’s totally a case of “my eyes were bigger than my skill set.” I spotted the fabric on Mood’s website while shopping for a metallic knit for a special occasion dress. The keywords “knit” and “metallic” brought it up in my search results, and it was love at first sight. The site had it listed as a Ponte fabric, but when it arrived, I discovered it was far more like a thin scuba knit. Having never worked with scuba before, and worried about both the low stretch percentage and how much heat the dense polyester would hold in, I set it on my shelf until I could find the right project for it. Over the past 5 years, I’ve considered making some kind of jacket with it, but haven’t found a pattern I like that requires just 3 yards. And since it’s no longer available to order, I’m stuck with the quantity I have.

So there you have it: three of the precious fabrics from my sewing stash, all up for consideration. Which one do you think I should tackle for TomKat Stitchery’s Precious Fabric Challenge? And what should I make? I’ll be back soon to share my plan and pics of my progress throughout the month.