more fabric shopping strategies

As it turns out, yesterday's focused fabric shopping was spot on!

I've loved reading everyone's comments on yesterday's post about their struggles with fabric shopping and how they keep themselves in check. One of the comments tripped a wire in my brain and got me working on a small and relatively quick project this morning which should help me out with practical shopping. Jacqui of Hazelnuts said "... before I discovered quilting and just sewed clothes, I only bought fabric for a particular pattern and I bought the required amount and that was it..."  That sent an alarm bell off in my head. 


Twice now, I've been standing in front of a Liberty fabric rack in Japan thinking about buying fabric for a dress, but I was unsure how much I needed. I'm not good at remembering those sorts of details and I never carry the patterns around when I need them. I remember one time I emailed Carmen from an internet cafe in rural Tokyo to try to find out how much fabric I needed for a particular dress. It was an act of desperation because I was completely disorganized. In the end, I didn't buy the fabric or make the dress. I still have non-buyer's remorse which can give you the same queasy feeling that you get from overbuying.


So today I did something about it. I went and grabbed my stash of patterns from the sewing room and opened up Word on my laptop. I decided to make a little foldup A5 book with all of my patterns requirements in one place. This includes patterns I've already made and others that I'd like to try. At first, I thought I might need to type everything in. Then I realized that in our digital age, all of the pattern requirement pages are on the internet. So I just opened google and started grabbing images.

I plopped them into a Word document and used the drawing tool to circle the section that highlights how much fabric I need for each project. This will be particularly handy in a shop when I'm wanting to get enough dress material without squinting my eyes to find the right size.


If I've made the pattern before and know that I can get away with less material; I left myself a note on the page. For instance, I love the Theresa dress. I'm a simple girl though and make it without pockets, placket or belt. Instead of needed 2.2meters of fabric, I can squeeze it out of 1.5m. That's a huge savings when it comes to fabrics like Liberty. That's the kind of thing I need to remember in a shop. So I've left myself notes in a little A5 book that I can take along with me when I go into the shops.

Unfortunately, some patterns have errors in them. So after copying each pattern requirements image from google, I popped over to the designer's page to look for updates. This will help make sure I buy the right amount of fabric for each project. I don't want to be caught out and I don't want to overbuy.

I printed it out and joined it all together with a bit of washi tape. It can easily be update as I get new patterns or reprinted if it's lost. I also made a PDF copy for my phone. If I'm in a shop, I usually have my phone on hand. It's an untested strategy, but I think it will be quite helpful next week in Tokyo. I know there have been a few times that I've walked away from fabric because I didn't know how much I needed or what type. Equally, I've bought way more than I need at other moments because I wasn't organized.

I'll let you know how it goes when I get back! I've got a good feeling abut it though. Thanks Jacqui (and everyone who commented!), you've given me food for thought. I love that.