Fabric Annex Redux

Several years ago I wrote about my Fabric Annex. When I made the move away from commercial fabrics, I stored them in an inconvenient location. In order to retrieve any fabric, which I have been using for backings, I have to crawl on my hands and knees (ouch) underneath and around the model train foundation. And I'm running out of the larger pieces which means there is a considerable amount of piecing necessary in order to get a backing large enough. Needless to say, this has all gotten quite tiresome.

I could use the fabric I have already dyed, but it's a very tightly woven broadcloth and it's difficult enough to sew through one layer of it. Making it the back layer also would make it impossible to do any hand work at all. Not that I do all that much, but sometimes I like putting some big stitches in by hand.

Well, duh, why not get some looser woven fabric and dye that for the backing? I ordered 50 meters yesterday from Testfabrics. I got the 400M, their cotton print cloth. And since they're so close, it showed up today on my doorstep and I've already cut off two large pieces and dyed them for backs for the current pieces. They're in the washer now.

So, timewise, it's difficult to say which is more efficient. Actually, getting fabric from the annex probably takes less time. But crawling around on a hard wood floor is becoming less and less appealing as my knees get older and older. Probably should send one of my grandchildren up there to pull fabric. I'm sure they would love the little cubby hole.