Memories

I've been a frugal sewing person for a long, long time. I've been saving fabric from other projects for well over 30 years.
Thirty years. That's a long time when you think about it.
Tonight, I needed to clean and organize an area in my sewing room. My task involved cleaning out a WWII trunk filled with fabric and prepare the space for two bookcases I purchased.
I opened the trunk and started sorting. There was the black printed fabric I had made curtains and a tank cover for the bathroom in our old farm house when my oldest son was two. There was the off white printed fabric that had covered all the windows in the front two rooms of the farm house. That particular piece used to be the bottom part of cafe curtains; its mate was a brown fabric with the same print and it had been the top part of the curtains. Oh, I so remember measuring and measuring all these different windows to make sure I had the length and width right. Old farm houses don't come with windows that are all the same size!
There was the fabric that I had used to make my oldest son and his dad matching shirts for Christmas. Button down with plackets. I remember making them and interfacing the collars and picking out buttons in two different sizes that were designed the same. For the presentation, I packed my son's shirt in one box and wrapped it with my husband's name on the tag and wrapped my husband's shirt in a box with my son's name on the tag. My son opened his first and had the oddest look on his face. They rarely wore them at the same time, but it was great.
Oh, and darn, I remembered that other bundle of fabric - the ugliest orange and turquoise tropical fabric that had been a pair of "jams" my son wore in the 5th grade. Now we call them board shorts and the fabrics are not quite so gaudy, but this fabric was the height of 5th grade fashion at that time. What am I going to do with it now?
I also found the fabric I had made curtains and bumper pads with for my twins, who are now 24 years old. There were two coordinating fabrics to begin with, and I have very little of one of the fabrics and about a half-yard of the other now.
I also held some Austrian silk that I've had since I was a kid. I doubt I'll ever make anything out of it, but I have it if I want to.
All of the above fabrics missed the "give away" and "throw away" piles. I simply had to keep them. I might make something out of them some day, right?
Going through your stash of saved bits and pieces can provide a wonderful hour or so of wistful remembering. I highly recommend a trip down memory lane. You just might come away with a plan of attack for using some of those prized fabrics!