Imagine you have a loaf of bread, dated tomorrow (say). Then for some reason*, you suddenly have 2 more loaves of bread, both dated a week or so from now. Experience tells you that you aren't going to eat 2 full loaves of bread in the space of a week.
(a) open the bread dated tomorrow and use it until it starts to go mouldy?
(b) open the bread dated tomorrow and use it just for today, then chuck it?
(c) chuck the bread with tomorrow's date and move straight onto the fresh bread?
Out of habit, our family tends to go with (a), which always causes my Mum to declare "Curly Watts!". Apparently Curly Watts, whilst managing his local supermarket on Coronation Street, often used to come home with surplus food, which he then insisted on eating in date order. The running joke was that he came home with fresh bread every day but always ate stale bread.
My conundrum is re: fabric. Admittedly, fabric doesn't go mouldy (hopefully!) but it can seem a bit 'stale' once it's been hanging around in the cupboard for a while.
The Mrs Beeton's Household Management in me tells me that I should use up my old stuff first, so that I don't end up with very old stuff in my cupboard.
My impatient self shouts "Curly Watts!" as I worry that I will always be sewing with older stuff that I don't love any more instead of nice fresh stuff I've just bought.
What I really want to be sewing with right now...
Of course, the answer to all this is to sew more and buy less. Yeah, right!
I am dutifully working through my Finish-a-Long - and getting through it, step by step - I will post an update soon. However I always have one eye on what I will choose for my next big project. Old or new? What to do?
Answers on a postcard please....
G x
* P.S. The way you end up with twice as much food as you need is when your parents come to visit and they bring their own bags of food (literally the equivalent of a supermarket shopping trip) just in case I haven't been competent enough to stock my fridge and cupboards with edible produce. Yes really.
Bugger Curly Watts, see with the new stuff! I may have tested my ancient bladder laughing at the shopping thing ;-) xx
ReplyDeletebwahahahahaha at your parents, and USE THE NEW STUFF!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteSew with what you love and if it is the new stuff, don't worry, the old stuff will still be there!!!
ReplyDeleteMy parents always turn up with food and wine, the wine I don't mind!! Never as much as that much though!
fabric doesn't go off and after you use the new stuff, the old stuff will be totally in demand and you will be a real trend setter. How long are the parents staying for?!?!
ReplyDeleteNew...the old stuff is old anyway! I will not be called Curly Watts - ever!
ReplyDeleteBit of both, sometimes the perfect bit of fabric is hiding under a pile of "impulse buys" but sometimes it is not!
ReplyDeleteGet your own back and pack your parents off with just as many bags of shopping when they leave:)
Actually my current lack of sewing means I don't use either - but have still managed to keep buying (there is some deep pyscholgical meaning in that I'm sure - but I'm not going there). My parents used to do that too! Sadly they're not able to visit that often noe, but I did manage to finally train them out of doing it! (I think sending it back with them due to no room helped.....)
ReplyDeleteFood wise we eat in date order if fresh and if we have too much bread (never happens with teenage boys but hypothetically, if we do) then I would freeze the rest. As for fabric… go with what makes you happy. And the parents shopping for you…ggrh…be gracious and stick what you can in the freezer. Don't let it irritate and spoil your relationship. They still think that you are a child…you are not alone. Di x
ReplyDeleteoh, my mother in law does that and I find it really imposing. Like she thinks I'm incapable of buying enough food for us all. It really irritates me and my husband too. For food we tend to use the same method as your family. For fabric, use the new. Do what makes you happiest!
ReplyDeleteIt is a tricky one! How about sew with the new stuff and finish really quickly, then you can sew with the old stuff in no time! It's win win :-)
ReplyDeleteKeep telling 'em Gertie, one of these days you'll come up with a scenario I haven't lived through, though I'm starting to think yours and mine were separated at birth! ;)
ReplyDelete