The Mother Lode of Fabric
 

The mother of two boys that graduated from our high school called me and asked if I would like a donation for my sewing class. She said her boys had volunteered to clean out the attic and there was a bunch of fabric up there. I said sure. My chapter of the Am. Sewing Guild has a huge garage sale every Sept. and we sold ALL our fabric last year so I figured what I couldn't use, the guild could use. All the money raised goes for scholarships.

So the first wave came today via one of the boys. I just had to take a picture. Twenty 32 gallon garbage bags of fabric. I went through all of them looking for fabric for my class. Found some fabulous stuff I know the kids will like. There's cottons, flannels, fleece, silks, satins, sateen, knit, home deco, fur, felt, unfinished baby quilt tops, panels, denim, silky polyesters, you name it, it's in there. He told me he could bring 40 more bags tomorrow and probably another 20 on Monday!!!

I'm delivering this shipment to the guild's storage unit tomorrow, then coordinating getting tomorrow's shipment over to the unit this weekend, then hopefully the last shipment on Monday. All the fabric is in great condition too. My personal stash looks so pitiful now.

sadly being stored in an attic, could means tons of issues...#1 rodent "stuff", and #2 dry rot or mildew. I would not store this anywhere until I knew what I was dealing with!

That poor lady is going to have buy insulation for her attic now!

Wow! You scored! And that's stuff that won't be going to the landfill so it's a two-fer score!

I agree that there may be problems with the fabrics from being in the attic. I would pull on some of the fabrics to see if they tear easily. It probably depends on how hot/cold it got in the attic (some are fan ventilated to keep cool in the summer) and how long they were in there. Given the size of the lot, I don't think they were put there temporarily. Maybe you'll be lucky and they were only put there recently. That'd be great!

Another caution, just in case: If there are mouse or other rodent droppings mixed in, you need to wear a ventilator to prevent breathing dust from the droppings. There are diseases you could get (marsala? I forget...). You also should spray any droppings with a mist of water first to minimize dust and wear gloves, of course. Hopefully you won't need that little tidbit of information!

This looks like a wonderful donation for you and your group! I hope you and the guild members are able to add to find useful items and then boost the guild's treasury with garage sale fabric.

Dayle

If you only lived closer I would love to come and help you sort out all that fabric!! It would be so much fun! Have fun with this amazing donation!

Oh what fun!

My question is why so much fabric? I'd like to know the story of this collection. Has the mother been storing this up for awhile or was it from a previous owner of the house? That's an awfully big stash in anybodies book, & various kinds, too. Don't get me wrong, I think the gesture of the donation is fabulous, but that much? Someone had to be hoarding for years!

Yes thats the mother lode have fun

WOW!! Don't know what else to say.

I agree that caution is in order when sorting through the fabric before storing it again, unless you know the exact conditions it's been stored under and they were clean.

wow what a mother load of fabric. what i thought about as i read your post is the 1000's of $$$$'s that went into building such a large stash and how if i had half of those dollars i could take a cruise and upgrade to the balcony suite and sip my umbrella drinks from the comfort of my balcony.:)

wow i wonder how many years and how many dollars went into building that stash but no worries someone else gets to benefit from it. it could have all been discarded in a landfill somewhere. of course there could be some issues with critters or dry rot but i am sure you and your guild members are skilled enough to take the necessary precautions to sort through all of this fabric and keep what you can, discard what you must, donate what you can and clean everything before using or passing on.

good luck to you all. i hope from this stash your guild raises plenty of scholarship $$$'s, make plenty of donation quilts and give some to bless other quilters in the area.:thumbup:

You are absolutely right about the insulation for the attic! And the bugs--just got home from an auction (hoping to score a glass front bookshelf to put fabric in--got outbid by a lot!) where there were some old quilts--smelled SO musty! and about 8-10 boxes of fabric--most not cotton--but in looking in each box I had to be very careful--spiders everywhere!

Oh my. What a load. So much fabric and so little time.

Waiting to hear what the contents of the bags were like?

I would think that attic storaged fabric would be less chance of mildewed than basement storage, though.

Wow, what a wonderful gift. I would wear venilator and gloves and sort through each bag before bringing it inside. I would also wash anything you plan to keep and donate the rest. Good luck and hope you can make lots of wonderful things out of it.

Kat

Great gift for your Guild.

What a score! The price was definitely right, too. Enjoy!

Here's hoping this stash turns out to be the Great Gift it promises to be! Best of luck to you and your Guild!

My thought exactly! So I emptied every bag so I could check it all out and also find fabric appropriate for my sewing class. The fabric is in great shape, a lot of it looks brand new. No droppings, no mildew, no discoloration. It had all been stored in boxes. I believe the attic is already well insulated and more like a bonus room upstairs rather than the attics we think about that are dusty and possibly damp and cold. I live in Southern CA too, a more temperate climate for storage.

So far all the fabric has been in excellent condition, no mildew, mold, dust, droppings, anything. As I said in another reply I did, I think it was stored in a bonus room on the upper floor of the house that was used as an attic. So far I haven't found any issues to deal with, not even bugs or spiders.

Sounds like you did your work going through everything FIRST !!
Congrats to your group & all the potential $$$$ you will be able to raise to help so many receive schorships.
Psssssss,what a fantastic local newspaper story to also honor those who donated,delivered ect.

It's fabric that belonged to the mother and the daughter. The mother has passed and the daughter doesn't sew anymore. It does make you wonder about hoarding but I know I've gotten carried away and ended up with more fabric thanm I could ever in a million years use. We see it, we like it, we buy it. Fortunately my guild has a massive garage sale every year and I rent a spot and sell the overflow that I loved when I bought it but not that enthusiastic about it now. So I manage to keep my stash down to a dull roar. Without that garage sale every year, I'd probably be looking for a storage unit somewhere.

Happy stitching.