When people ask about my stash/fabric collection/Great Wall o' Fabric, I no longer say that I collect fabric. Instead, I say I am a Fabric Affineuse. Affinage is the practice of aging cheese so that your favorite brie is just meltingly ripe and the wonderful English Coastal Cheddar properly sharp - but not too sharp!. Fabric Affinage is the practice of lovingly collecting fabric from all over the world - curating it, in fact, and keeping it until just the right project makes itself known for that fabric. Sometimes this can be days, or weeks, other times it can be years or even lifetimes. There is fabric in my collection from my late mother's stash, from Mr. Hunting Creek's mother's stash, from his late aunt's stash...and so on. No fabric is sewn here unless properly aged!
Sometimes the match betwen fabric and pattern results in a beautiful relationship. Other times...well let's just say that there may have been harsh words or even tears. But most of the time fabric and pattern become one and we all live happily ever after...until the next project.
Do you practice Fabric Affinage? Or, are you one of those people who buy their fabric one piece at a time, for each specific project? (Really? Not even any extra? I wouldn't even know how to do that!) Become an Affineuse - you'll be glad you did.
6 comments:
I do not undertand people who only buy fabric for a specific project. Esepecially the ones who read the backs of pattern envelopes first and then decide what to get.
I really just don't understand them. They're like aliens.
It's not normal.
I don't store much fabric, just a little so I can start the next season's sewing a few weeks in advance. But I also wonder about sewers and quilters who store their fabric on open shelves like that for long periods. Don't you get fade lines along the edges of the folds? I ask because I have bought stuff from stores with fade lines (denim and linen) so I reckon it can happen quite fast.
I keep fabric until the right pattern comes along.
My next project is using some linen gifted to me from my neighbour - it was her mothers and she passed away a LONG time ago.
There is no triumph like pulling a perfectly aged piece of fabric out of the stash and making it into the pattern it was destined to be! In other words, yes, I age fabric. A lot of it.
I recently sewed up a well-aged (25 years!) piece of fabric. I don't understand people who don't collect fabric. Don't they know that we have gone through decade-long fabric famines before?
Patterns and fabrics have to age properly. Things like interfacing, buttons, and zippers have a shelf life. I never know what sort of zipper I might need, or what size buttons, and I run through interfacing constantly, but somehow I always manage to have fabric aging away. Most of it was purchased in the past two years, but some of it is at least five by this point....
Post a Comment