I have to admit

Well, I have tried to pair down my craft closet but I haven't been able to do much with two kids under the age of three.  Things are not moving very fast and I just today added to my craft closet.

I found out about an amazing company in my area in January while visiting my local fabric store (Harts Fabrics) in Santa Cruz (I was picking up ribbon for labels).  It's called Fabmo and it is based in Mountain View, CA.  This amazing company started when a couple realized that when fabric is discontinued the sample fabric is thrown out creating needless landfill waste.  What started as a few bags of fabric in their garage has become a nonprofit company that has a space which offers the creative community an opportunity to use these fabrics for whatever inspires them. This one company alone has diverted 70 tons of fabric, tiles, and more to a new purpose instead of going to the landfill a year.  

In January, I was unable to go, but yesterday I was able to check out what a Fabmo event looks like.  

I brought some fabric home. I have some leather I was going to make into some baby shoes for my daughter, but I was looking for a piece of suede for the soles.  I also found some orange and red scraps of leather for decorating the shoes. I am kind of excited at the prospect. 

I also was able to get some other fabrics which I would never buy in a fabric store because they are over $40 a yard.  The pieces are small but I think they will work well for my little zippered bags that I make.  

I would love to go to another of these events, but maybe once a year.  It will definitely not help my cause to reduce my own craft/fabric supplies if I regularly go to these events. 

I love the idea of this company. It's really a wonderful way to repurpose what would otherwise be thrown out. The company only serves the San Francisco Bay Area at the moment, but they hope to expand to other areas in the future. It's all volunteer based, so if they have volunteers they could expand elsewhere. 

Check out this company website:

http://fabmo.org/fabmo/Home.html