How to make $1,000

First, you have to spend waaaay more than that.

I had my gigantic Fabric and Crafts DeStash Yard Sale today. I am tired. I am sore. I am cold to my bones because it was only in the forties and early fifties with the wind blowing hard the entire time.

I have about $1,000 I didn't have yesterday, and I don't have about 500 yards of fabric I did have yesterday.

I can't believe it, almost every single piece of designer cotton I had is gone! The crowds showed up a little before 8:00, hovering on the sidewalk until I said it was ok to come down. Ladies battled over prints, standing in line together if they both wanted something, snatching up pieces that were about to be put back on the table before they could get there. There was a lady here who bought tons of fabric, and she doesn't even sew! She called her seamstress to come over and help her pick fabrics.

It was a madhouse.

If I'd had a camera, all you would have seen was blur.

All of these pictures from the night before will have to do. I had everything stacked in my office, ready to go. Fabric prints, apparel solids, knit jerseys, ribbons, trims, buttons and zippers. All color-coordinated and separated by width and by use.

Yeah, the color coding last all of ten minutes when the hoard descended. They were like vultures, snatching fabric out of each other's hands the second it looked like it was a discard. At least a dozen times I saw people on their cell phones, saying "you have to get over here, you'd love it," or "I picked some stuff out for you, hurry up!"

My mom and I were at the cutting table and my dad was taking money. We could have used at least two more cutters the first two hours, but after that it was over. As quickly as they came, they were gone and so was my gigantic fabric stash. Gone!

And you know what? It feels kind of good. As I was sorting and separating yesterday, I was totally bummed. I'd look at each piece and say "oh, I love this one!" But then I thought about it some more, and realized that even if I sewed every single day for a year, there's no way I'd ever use every piece of fabric in my Keep pile, let alone the ones I was letting go. So I added more to the Sell pile. And more. And then this morning some more.

I still have a lot of fabric left, but most of it is apparel fabrics, most of it is 60" wide. To my surprise, the apparel fabric didn't sell as well as the designer cottons, probably because it's a smaller audience that would use it.

All in all, it was a huge success. I feel lighter already. Now if only someone would go downstairs and re-organize my sewing room, I'd be totally set!