I keep a very small stash. I get overwhelmed when I feel like I have to much fabric to sew through and occasionally go on mini fabric-fasts. I’m in the middle of one now and it is NOT going well.

I realized that I have a good base wardrobe and wanted to slow down my fabric consumption for environmental reasons. The cupboard I keep my fabric in was also exploding so I didn’t really have much choice but to start sewing with what I’ve got.

The problem is, however, that the fabric in my stash has been there for a while because it’s not stuff I want to sew with right now. It’s wrong for the season, or a colour I don’t wear anymore, or is denim. What’s resulted is my sewing a bunch of not great garments and filling my WIP bin with half-completed projects. I’m usually a one-and-done kinda gal, so this is very unusual for me.

I feel like I’ve tried to shoehorn projects into my queue that are all wrong. Either they’re not my style, the wrong fabric for the project, or were just objectionable choices to begin with. I know y’all enjoy a bit of schadenfreude, so here’s a round up of all the things I’ve made (or started) over the last few months.

This t-shirt is the best thing I’ve made in months, but I never bothered to post it because it’s so ho -hum. It’s the peekaboo patterns essential tee I’ve made a thousand times.

This is a tank I made from a heavily-hacked version of the Fancy Tiger Crafts Adventure Tank. It’s okay, but the fabric isn’t quite right. It doesn’t drape like I wanted and doesn’t truly fill the roll of athletic tank like I intended.

Believe it or not, these half-constructed Joss pants by seamwork are way better than they were. I took them in at least 8 inches. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish them because, honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever actually want to wear pink linen pants.

This was supposed to be an afternoon project to kick-start my sew-Jo that backfired in a big way. This is actually a pair of jeans converted into a skirt which I never hemmed or top stitched because I honestly won’t ever wear it. It’s not my style and has the same fit problems as a skirt that made me hate it as pants.

I’m really disappointed about this one. I saw an adorable crochet granny square purse somewhere online and knew I had to make one. Instead of buying the right yarn, I tried to use scrap and the result is this floppy disaster. I’m not sure what to do with it now.

And then there’s the jeans. I started these almost two years ago. Made a muslin, cut it out, and then hid it away because it just felt like too much. I decided to try again about a month ago, but realized I do not like a dark indigo jean, so I bleached the fabric. Once I sat down to sew, I realized the zipper and top-stitching thread were now the wrong colours, but I got started anyway because I was desperate to move forward on something. I deeply regret this now but I personally think it looks awful and fear the bleached denim is less stable than I like and it’s all for naught. I honestly don’t know if I’ll continue.

I’ve put all of these away for now and am trying to move forward on other projects that are more likely to succeed. I bought myself new yarn to knit a shawl I‘ve been dreaming of forever and it feels good to make some kind of progress on it. I’ve realized that, in trying to save money and resources, I’ve wasted a bunch of materials on stuff I’ll never wear because it’s just not right.