cheep cheeeeep

i culled my stash and closet last weekend.

like a greek goddess, eyes aflame, i was ruthless.  i had to be.  inspired by a recent splendiforous sewists' meetup, which provided a bountiful haul of fabric, food, and friendship, i needed to rebalance my karma.  teeny precious scraps went, yards of years-old weirdness went, poorly made clothing--both off-the-rack and handmade--went.  ruggy, i said, holding up a purple lace bought years ago in LA, does this look cheap?

yes. 

no hesitation.  clear quick answer.  do you like that about me?  he asked.

yes.

i feel like i'm better at spotting cheap fabric now... but man, i sure do have a lot of it i ventured.  uh, YEAH, my quick witted husband quipped, the amount of cheap yardage you used to bring home was baffling. 

OH THAT'S NICE HAVE YOU FINISHED THE BATHROOM YET

no no, that's not what i said.  of course his statement is true, the evidence of my dollar yardage days is well documented here in kalkatroona.  but it makes sense.  in my past life as a shopaholic, i always made a beeline for the sales rack, and i don't mean neiman's outlet.  small budget = carefully selected well made pieces, or small budget = huge closet from chain stores?  MORE IS MORE, YO.

but lately, more has ended up in donation bags than on my rack.  

the way i shopped for clothing made an easy, seamless transition into the way i shopped for fabric.  accustomed to cheap material, buy cheap material.  and i don't necessarily mean cheap price tag, you can find bad and good for a dollar a yard, or a dollar an inch (eee, and gads), but my eye usually landed unerringly on cheap quality, even when i started to branch out beyond a dollar a yard.  for example, the tacky purple lace that started last weekend's epiphany was $20 a yard.

i can remember clearly the few pieces of really beautiful clothing in my younger closet.  in fact, i can remember one piece: a gabardine trench coat from macy's, bought on employee discount with many saved pennies from an afterschool job.  it was gorgeous, and a muted army green, which is so not my color.  but gabardine!  i had no idea what the hell that was!  IT WAS THE MOST MYSTERIOUS WORD IN MY CLOSET!  it sat next to four polyester prom dresses, which cost my parents a much prettier penny than they were worth. 

but i'm glad i spent years in RTW clothing that pilled up after the second wear, if only because my style changed every time i went to the mall.  i know, i know, fast fashion, bad oona.  but back then i didn't know.  it morphed into "fast sewing," which maybe isn't that different.  three bags of handmade garments went into the donation pile.  is that the same kind of waste as trendy outfits that last one season?

i don't think so.  like my years of RTW fast-fashion-training (um, ha, i went to FFT) helped me to better understand my style, my years of working on questionable threads helped me too.  because it takes a whole lotta hours to get your skills tight, and that can get Ex. Pensive.

would i say mine are tight yet?  nope, that's what's delicioso, there's always something more to learn. but i've hit a point, this very summer in fact, where i've become proud enough of what i make to want to wear something i make, every day.  not just on a special night out.  i want to feel good fabric against my skin, as well as look good in it.  and 90% of the time, i DON'T want to rush through accomplishing that, i want to make it right.  

working with yummy fabric is bending my fast brain into all sorts of surprising shapes.  

the next thing i need to do is either learn to love making some solid staples, or start saving some pennies for well made (in every sense) staples.  the silk peacock print and gold sequins up at the top were bought after telling fellow sewist devra i really needed some good neutral clothing to wear to auditions. the chiffons and jersey knit above are my "neutrals."  the knit has been put in the corner for a time out, the chiffons are untouched.

but i do feel a bit better about what's on my shelves.  and in a case of coming full circle, i'll be taking all those scraps and garments to one of the biggest enablers of my ex-cheapo RTW habit: H&M.  yep, that's right.  in what i can only think is an attempt to earn better karma, they're running a recycling program, which accepts clothing from any store, even competitors, even the store on your very own sewing desk-- and they also take fabric.  your payoff for this good deed is a 15% off coupon, which i am sure they're hoping will start the vicious cycle of fast fashion all over again...

not for me, i'm being careful.  been there 4 times already, with 6 bags, and haven't picked up a thing. i'm not saying you'll never find me in the checkout line again, or flying through a one hour sparkly poly batwing dress... but i think the scales are shifting.

how about you?  fast sewing?  slow sewing?  on trend?  under trend?  where are you at?

(pictured top to bottom: 1. sequins & silk from chic fabrics, 2. linen & silk organza from mood, 3. raffia & shantung from mood, 4. chiffon & sweater knit from it's a material world & chic fabrics.)