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You've experienced the excitement of buying new fabric, but what about the satisfaction of using up fabric you already have?
Whether your fabric collection is overflowing or you're just looking to clear out your stash before buying new yardage, stash-busting can help. There are just three things you need to do.
First, develop a strategy for managing your stash. Knowing the details about what fabric you have will greatly increase the chances that you'll use it. You’ll learn some approaches to this below.
Then, put together a stash-busting plan. This involves setting some goals and identifying the kinds of projects that will help you work through your stash. You'll find some great ideas for this below.
Finally, change the way you shop. This doesn’t mean you need to go on a fabric fast! You’ll get some tips for buying with intention so you can keep your fabric stash nice and balanced.
How to Manage Your Fabric Stash
The first step whenever you feel like busting your stash is to take inventory. But it’s even smarter to set up a system to continually track what’s in your stash at any moment.
If you want to consistently maintain a creative reign over your stash, make stash inventory a ritual.
Make a plan for your stash inventory. This includes how you want to store your fabric, how you want to record yardage, and how you want to update this information whenever you buy new yardage.
You can organize your stash by fabric type, short-term and long-term projects, fabric color, however makes sense to you.
To track your fabric, you can simply cut a swatch and keep a list of the fabric name, fiber content, and yardage.
If you prefer digital, you can use a spreadsheet. Or, there are a bunch of apps that can help. If you’re a Seamwork member, we regularly talk about these apps in the Community.
Some common, multi-purpose apps include Milanote, Todoist, Trello, and Notion.
There is also a growing list of apps designed specifically for fabric stashes, like Cora, Stash Hub, and Threadloop.
If you want more ideas for organizing and managing your stash, here are some helpful resources:
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5 Ways to Manage Your Fabric Stash: Fabric shopping and sewing are two different hobbies. Here’s how to manage your growing fabric stash. -
What’s the Best Method for Fabric Storage?: 3 ways to think about storing your fabric. -
Do You Need a Fabric Stash?: How to understand and use your fabric stash. -
These Unxpected Apps Will Level Up Your Sewing: Get creative, stay organized, and sketch your sewing plans with these 5 apps.
How to Develop a Stash-Busting Strategy
The second step when you want to de-stash is to set some goals.
If you’re a goal-setter, this is a really fun exercise, but setting a goal doesn’t have to be stressful.
It can be as easy as jotting down words about what success looks like to you. Something as straightforward as clearing out specific fabrics, reducing your overall yardage, or sewing a certain number of projects.
You can also set a stash-busting challenge for yourself. Or, join an official challenge on social media—there are a bunch of stash-busting ones out there.
If you want to take things further, create a project plan.
You can assign projects to specific fabrics in your stash or pull the pieces from your stash that you want to work with first. Prioritize based on season, gaps in your wardrobe, or fabric types you want to focus on first.
This is also a good time to consider how you want to de-stash if you find some fabric you know you aren’t going to use. You can gift it, donate it, or sell it.
Once you set a goal or create project plans, make sure to give yourself a little reward each time you hit a milestone. It helps make this a fun routine.
Here are some additional resources for coming up with stash-busting goals:
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How to Find the Type of Sewing That Fits Your Goals: You might have sewing goals in mind, but it’s easy to get distracted. Here’s what to do. - Make a wardrobe plan! Use our Design Your Wardrobe program to plan an entire season of sewing. We host this program exclusively for Seamwork members every season, and you’ll walk away with goals, a color palette, and a sewing queue full of projects.
Stash-Busting Patterns for Every Fabric
The biggest trick to stash-busting is learning how to match your fabric to suitable patterns before you start new projects. The more you practice this, the easier it will get. Eventually, you’ll find yourself identifying specific projects you know you can make whenever you buy a new cut of fabric.
Here are a few things that make a good stash-busting pattern:
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Easy to sew: If you choose something simple to make, you can bring the fabric out of your stash and cut into it without much stress. -
Fun to sew: You get to define what “fun” means to you. Sometimes diving into a more advanced pattern is a good way to use your stash if it means you get to have fun and learn new things. -
Wardrobe staples: If you know you’re going to wear it a lot or it fills a gap in your wardrobe, you’re more likely to sew it. -
Good gifts: Sometimes the best excuse to dip into your stash is to sew something for someone else! -
It can be sewn in wovens or knits. Finding a few patterns that are fabric chameleons is a great way to work through your stash. -
Niche or special occasion workhorses: Keep a list of a few patterns that fill the particular requirements for specialty fabrics you tend to have in your stash. Think leather, silk, velvet, or lace—the fabrics that call to you when you might not have a purpose for them yet.
Here are ideas for patterns you can make using under 3 yards (2.3 meters) of fabric.
- Camisoles and tank tops
- Simple skirts or shorts
- Simple tees and blouses
- Bodysuits or swimsuits
- Layered or tiered skirts (to use multiple cuts in one garment)
- Unlined vests
- Tote bags and pouches
Here are some ideas for patterns you can make with larger cuts of fabric if you have 3 or more yards.
- Dresses and jumpsuits
- Pants
- Jackets
- Blouses
- Loose-fitting tops or tunics
All of these patterns are easy to sew, don’t require a ton of yardage, and they work with the everyday fabrics you might have in your stash.
10 Woven Stash-busting Seamwork Patterns
Riley Top
This pattern takes less than 2 yards of fabric! The Riley is perfect for lightweight to medium-weight woven fabrics such as linen, chambray, batiste, lawn, voile, linen blends, rayon challis, cupro, and Tencel.
Riley is a woven boat-neck crop top with a cinched waist that looks great paired with jeans, shorts, and skirts or layered over dresses. In other words, it’s a total wardrobe staple!
West Top
If a top has short, cut-on sleeves, it often uses less yardage. If you have 60” wide fabric, the West top uses under 3 yards. It uses up to 3 yards if you only have 45” fabric.
It’s designed for light to medium-weight woven fabrics such as chambray, cotton lawn, shirtings, batiste, Swiss dot, linen, cotton voile, cotton gauze, rayon challis, rayon crepe, and silk.
Otto Vest
If you’re looking for a quick, satisfying project that you can sew entirely from your stash, the Otto vest might be perfect.
It’s fully lined, but it uses under 2 yards of fabric for the each side. So if you have two cuts of fabric that are under 2 yards, you can use one for the main and one for the lining.
The main fabric calles for medium-weight woven fabrics such as linen, linen blends, denim, twill, suitings, corduroy. The lining uses lightweight wovens such as cotton lawn, acetate, rayon, or silk.
Romie Blouse
This cute top takes under 3 yards of fabric, and it’s a really fun stash-buster because it works with so many of your favorite wovens.
You can sew the Romie blouse in light to medium-weight woven fabrics such as cotton lawn, cotton voile, cotton gauze, chambray, Swiss dot, linen, rayon challis, rayon crepe, and silk. You’re sure to have one of these in your stash!
If you look closely, this pattern also has a few smaller pieces that would be ideal for color-blocking, including sleeve hem bands a collar, and a tie. If you only have small pieces of silk or a certain special print, these are great places to use them.
Clarke Tank Top
This tank top was designed to help you make the most of your fabric stash. You can sew the Clarke tank in wovens or knits and it has an all-in-one facing that’s ideal for scraps.
There is also a center back seam you can use to color-block.
Look at the giant list of fabrics that work for this top: Lightweight to medium-weight woven fabrics such as denim, cotton lawn, chambray, linen, Swiss dot, tencel, rayon challis, rayon crepe, crepe de chine, and silk crepe. Lightweight to medium-weight knit fabrics such as cotton, merino, soy, bamboo jersey, and rayon blends.
Pauline Skirt
The Pauline skirt uses light to medium-weight woven fabrics such as linen, chambray, batiste, lawn, voile, rayon challis, cupro, and Tencel.
Pauline is a midi-length, straight skirt that can easily be dressed up or down. It looks so good in prints, so if you have a cut of rayon hanging out in your stash, give it a try.
Knox Pianfore
It’s really satisfying when you can squeeze a dress or pinafore out of under 3 yards of fabric.
The Knox pinafore is also very stash-friendly. You can sew it in medium to heavyweight fabrics such as denim, twill, canvas, suitings, corduroy, suede, and faux suede.
Madhu Top
Madhu is an everyday garment that will make the most of a small cut of fabric from your stash.
This cropped raglan top is also so easy to sew, you can cut it out and wear it on the same day.
It works well in light to medium-weight woven fabrics such as linen, chambray, cotton lawn, batiste, shirting, double gauze, and rayon challis.
Benning Dress
Benning is one of our most popular dress patterns, probably because it’s a total wardrobe staple and it’s very stash friendly.
This tiered dress has a V-neckline and sews up in light to medium-weight woven fabrics such as linen, chambray, cotton lawn, batiste, shirting, double gauze, and rayon challis.
You can actually use up smaller cuts from your stash to sew Benning, too. Just color-block the tiers on the skirt.
Joss Pants
A pair of trustworthy elastic pants is a perfect stash-busting pattern. They’re easy and quick to make and they’re so comfortable to wear.
The Joss pants sew up great in medium-weight woven fabrics such as cotton twill, linen, linen blends, denim, chambray, and rayon twill.
10 Knit Stash-busting Seamwork Patterns
Ryan T-shirt
You can sew any version of this shirt for under 3 yards of knit fabric. The Ryan tee has gender-neutral drafting with two versions that have mix-and-match details.
Version 1 has short sleeves and a V-neckline, and version 2 has long sleeves and a crewneck. An optional chest pocket is a handy detail for both versions (and also a cute way to use up a litte knit remnant).
It works for medium-weight knits with at least 25% of 2-way stretch, such as cotton jersey, bamboo/soy jersey blends, rib knit, and interlock knit.
Callen Sweater
If you have a couple yards of medium-weight knits in your stash, you can make the Callen sweater. Look for knits with at least 20% stretch, such as French terry, ponte, double knit, and sweater knit.
It’s also a fun stash-buster for buttons! It has 3 on each shoulder. There’s no need to match them, so dig into your collection for all the orphaned buttons.
Edie Top
This pattern uses less than 2 yards of knit fabric! The Edie top is also a total wardrobe staple.
It looks great under pinafores, jumpsuits, and button-ups in colder weather, or all on it’s own in the summer.
Look for medium-weight knit fabrics with 4-way stretch and at least 50% stretch, such as cotton jersey, bamboo jersey, rib knits, and ITY knits.
Orlando Tee
The Orlando tee is one of our most popular T-shirt patterns. It takes less than 2 yards of fabric, so it’s also great for your stash.
Look for medium-weight knit fabrics with 4-way stretch and at least 50% stretch, such as cotton jersey, bamboo jersey, and ITY knits.
If you have a little bit more fabric, the member bonus version of Orlando is a bodysuit.
Lito Dress
The Lito dress is a knit T-shirt dress that takes less than 3 yards of fabric.
It fills a fun gap in your wardrobe, because it’s so easy to throw on and layer up for any season. Look for light to medium-weight fabrics with at least 50% stretch, such as cotton, rayon, merino jersey, rib knits, and French terry.
If you have any ribbing in your stash, it looks great contrasted on the neck and arm bands.
Mel Joggers
The Mel Joggers are comfortable enough to wear everyday, and they are really fun to sew. Plus, they take less than 3 yards of fabric!
Look for medium-weight knit fabrics with at least 35% stretch, such as ponte, French terry, double knits, sweater fleece, and jerseys.
Oliver Sweater
This sweater has lantern sleeves that give it an elevated look, even if you’re using a knit you’ve had in your stash for years.
Oliver works for medium-weight knit fabrics with at least 10% stretch, such as French terry, ponte, double knit, and sweater knit.
Bobby Dress
The Bobby dress is designed to make you feel pretty without sacrificing comfort.
Pick a knit fabric that will give you a silhouette you love, whether it’s more structured, or really soft and flowy. Look for medium-weight knit fabrics such as cotton jersey, interlock jersey, double knit, and modal or rayon blends.
Jones Dress
You can sew this dress in a day! The Jones dress also has a wide overlapping neckband and deep cuffs if you want to do some color-blocking.
Look for medium-weight knit fabrics with at least 20% stretch, such as French terry, ponte, double knit, and sweater knit.
Dexter Pants
The Dexter pants might look like a sleek pair of fitted trousers at first glance. But don't be fooled by their tailored appearance, these pants are actually knit!
They’re so easy to wear, which makes them really fun stash busters.
Sew Dexter in medium to heavy weight knits such as Ponte or double knits for a classic structured look or try French terry for something with a softer drape.
Tips for Future Fabric Purchases
When stash-busting is your goal, it’s not a one-time project.
Part of managing your fabric stash is being a little more conscientious when you buy new fabric—you have to shop with intention.
Here are some tips:
* Buy versatile fabrics: Take a look at the patterns above and jot down the fabrics you see most often that you also love to wear. These are smart fabrics to have on-hand.
* Know the fabrics you like to wear:
* Try a “one in, one out” strategy: for every new fabric you buy, complete a stash project.
* Regularly reassess your stash and rethink storage options: This keeps all your fabric fresh in your mind so you don’t buy repeats.
For more tips, listen to this episode of the podcast: How Can I Use More of the Fabrics I Buy?. Or read this article, How to Shop for Fabric You’ll Actually Sew.
Organizing your stash, setting goals, and using stash-busting patterns are the best ways to keep a healthy, balanced stash that doesn’t overwhelm you. From there, you just need to shop with intention to avoid an out-of-control stash.
What is your stash looking like these days? Do you need help finding projects for a certain cut of fabric? Comment and share!
