What is the most money you have ever spent on a piece of fabric? Seriously, tell me the truth! From one fabric-addict to another. I promise I won't tell your husband or anyone else for that matter. I know what it's like being questioned about my bad fabric habit. I think the most I have ever spent on a single yard is about $20 plus shipping (that doesn't count, right?). And that was for Japanese imported Kawaii fabric.
Over my years of dealing with fabrics I have made some interesting discoveries in my search for pretty cloth. It does not surprise me any more that some fabric designers are more sought after than others. In fact, I have come across one or two designers whose creations have become so popular that the price of their cloths has increased more than 10 times. One example is Heather Ross' fabric. I came across her cute designs a few years ago. I remember looking on Ebay and seeing people spending megabucks on cut up PJs made of her designer fabric. We are talking disassembled pants here - not even squares of fabric, people. Wow! I was shocked!
I love Heather's cute gnome fabric designs and have made many a dress with it over the years. But would I shell out well over $100 per yard to buy some of this fabric? Fabric addict or not - I THINK NOT! I simply can't afford it.
So now I have a little bit of a dilemma here. A little while ago I realized that I own a few yards of these precious, rare, sought after Heather Ross fabrics. One is the blue gnome fabric. The other is the purple fabric Matryoshka print. They are both so adorable and I understand why people are after them. So what should I do? Looks like I could make some serious coin selling them off as fat quarters to people who are worse addicts than me. Should I sell them? Or should I turn them into doll clothes? And then, what would the fair price for such a doll outfit made of this rare fabric be? My inclination is to keep the fabric and to use it the way I intended to use it when I first bought it. After all, I am not a fabric seller...I'd appreciate some opinions on this topic!
It does feel rather strange cutting into a piece of fabric that is considered rare and precious by so many people...
What do you call a person who is totally addicted to fabric? Fabroholic? Fiberholic? Clothaddict?
I know there are a lot of us. At times the addiction gets so bad that we get depressed over a piece of fabric that is totally precious to us because we ran out of it. We mourn over the last few inches as we cut into them. Sigh! Sniffle. But you may speak freely here and confess to me. I understand!
Or even worse than running out of a certain kind is this situation: Have you ever gone to a quilt fair and bought the most lovely piece of cloth? You bought just a fat quarter, because really you shouldn't have bought this fabric to begin with, since you spent too much money already...But then you came home, and you looked at the fabric, and admired it. It started to really grow on you. Next thing you knew, you were really sad because you began thinking that this was the prettiest fabric you ever set your eyes on. Oh the things you could make with this kind of fabric. If only you had more of it. Soon you started looking at the selvage line, frantically searching for the designer. NADA. It just so happened that the fabric was cut in a fashion that you ended up with a piece that didn't carry that sort of information. Wahhhhh. What to do now?
I am posting a picture of such a fabric here. It is pink and has the heads of roses. The roses have a silvery shimmer to them, they look kind of frosted. The roses are arranged in rows. I used the this fabric as a background for my current Valentine's Day blogbanner. I am posting this in the hope that somebody may see it and maybe know who designed and printed the fabric. If you have yardage of this fabric I'd buy it from you. Make me an offer! I want that fabric!!! Please, pretty please help me out here! I love this fabric and cannot find it anywhere. Maybe you know of ways to find a fabric. I searched the internet high and low. I even found a website called MissingFabrics and tried to post a picture there. I failed. Must try again.
I suppose they don't put pictures of missing fabric on milk cartons...
Confessions of a fabric addict...
So instead of the food diet, my plan for the year is to go on self prescribed "fabric diet". It is really hard with so many wonderful fabrics around. So much temptation. I recently reveived a fabric catalog and had to hide it from myself. Oh dear, I have so many bins of fabric in the house. It will take me years to turn them into doll clothes. Why do I still feel the need to constantly add to my stash? Why, oh why, do they keep designing new beautiful fabric collections each year?
And then, once you get one colorway of a cute fabric, it leads to wanting the same plus matching fabrics. Sigh! Is there a sort of patch for fabric addicts? Tell me if there is a support group for people addicted to pretty fabrics...My husband would be very relieved to know that there is hope, and some day our house will be cleared of bins filled with fabrics...