Kind of Sad...

Our little town's only free-standing fabric store is shutting its doors come May 26th...true, it wasn't much a store...sort of dimly lit and nothing too exciting in the way of fabrics...or was I just not looking hard enough?


Because I went in today for some tea-dyed muslin (at 69 cents a yard) and came out with $71.62 worth of fabric and bias tape and a new marking pen...and some heavy duty needles...I don't know why but the sales lady seemed to want me to buy them so...

and now I'm regretting not getting more of the plain muslin...and the rest of that copper-coloured tulle (top of the stack)


I'm sure the decision to close the store was all about dollars and cents...this was a Hancock's Fabric but somehow became a Fabric World and now will become a nurse's uniform shop...


That leaves Wally World fabrics...and the scuttlebutt is W/M (or H/M as I like to call it) is closing down their fabric departments...I've read that all of the fabric departments will be shut and I've read that only some will be...


And 1 local quilting store...otherwise, saddle up and ride, boldly ride to find a fabric store...


What a shame...I think with some effort made to attract a wider clientele by including hobby & craft items (there is no hobby store here or craft store except for stitching and scrapbooking...and Wally World, of course, has a limited amount) along with some of the new hip fabric lines and offering classes (we are a university town) this store could have really shone...


okay, moving on from Maudlin Slightly Reproving Tone Directed Towards Corporate Office Who Will Never Read This Anyway...


so what, you ask, am I planning to do with this Big Beautiful Pile of Fabrics and whatnots?


I'm glad you asked...because I need to bolster my courage by repeating this over and over to myself...plus if I write it, I'll feel honour-bound to do it...because I've got an over-active Guilt Myself Mechanism, that's why...


I'm going to 1) make several cute summer skirts and 2) make dolls


I know! I'm a Wild and Crazy Woman :)


I've wanted to make dolls for years...and have bought some loverly doll making books...and have yet to work up the nerve to begin the first one...but I've determined this will be the Summer of the Doll...not "dolls" because, well, I'll probably have a nervous breakdown just getting through one...but I figure the First One has to the be the Worst One...right?


And the skirt thing? well (I know...I say "well" a lot), I love fabrics and it just seems strange to stockpile all this stuff...so I'm going to try to make some skirts...simple, slightly A-line...elastic waist...


I tried...several years ago...to make a 1 hour skirt pattern...12 hours later, I was in tears and the skirt never got entirely finished...but I did wear it to work...once... with the elastic held together with a safety pin (hidden beneath my t-shirt) because I was bound and determined to wear that stupid skirt...


I may end up with a lot of pretty dust rags...