NOW OPEN: The Destash!

tl;dr: My epic Destash sale is now open! Get yardage, remnants, notions, scraps, and more. Not a sewist? Tell your friends who are! 

why a Destash?

For those who don't know, I shuttered my handmade business named MarshMueller after running it for over a decade. 

You might think that I just sold through the rest of my inventory, pivoted to a new brand and new products (hollymarshmallow, the very website you're reading this post on), and that was that, right?

Well.

No.

You see, over that decade, one of the foundational values of MarshMueller was sustainability. I opted to use as little packaging as possible and avoided using plastic as much as I could. Sometimes using plastic was unavoidable when stocking goods in stores, but I opted to use recycled plastic or compostable plastic.

Another thing I did that aligned with that value was design products that created as little waste as possible. If you're not someone who has sewn or cut out a pattern, you might not know that some things create a LOT of waste-- from our garments, to accessories like bags, and even in quilting- it all has its own version of wasted fabric.

While MarshMueller products didn't have a TON of waste, there was still...some. 

And it was mostly fabric. 

For pieces and bits that were 2" and under, they went into the trash. 

But for pieces of a decent size (but were too small for me to use in any of my products): I kept them. I usually had a box under my cutting table that I would put these scraps, and then when full, I would fold up the top and put it in the closet. 

Rinse and repeat for 10 years. 😳

Were there times where I would look at the boxes in the closet and seriously thought about just taking all the scraps to the transfer station and be done with them? Yes. 

Did I have the occasional hyperfocus session where I would Google places that would take and use/recycle that volume and size of scraps? Oh yeah.

Were there times where I thought about calling Hoarders on myself? Also yes.

I'm not typically a believer in fate, but perhaps there was a part of my subconscious that knew I would eventually deal with these scraps some day. 

working through scraps : working through anxiety

I try to be real careful with "someday" projects, as someday may never happen (h/t Charlie Gilkey). I've got PLENTY of "someday" projects that seem more important than sorting fabric scraps. 

But those scraps were JUST what I needed when dealing with a cancer diagnosis.

It was Fall of 2019. I had just gone through the mad dash of "oh-shit-there's-a-lump/ultrasound-mammogram/biopsy/OH-SHIT-I-HAVE-CANCER" and I found that it REALLY helps to physically work through things to tamper down my anxiety when I can. I had painted my alcove a lovely seafoam green when I was anxious and waiting for my biopsy appointment to arrive.

Since I was still recovering from the biopsy, I couldn't lift a lot, but my husband Rob carried every single box of scraps from my closet to our living room downstairs. And there I sat, separating a decade's worth of fabric scraps, weighing the bundles, and watching silly shows. I don't even remember what I watched. But I do remember that doing that work over the course of a weekend helped me think. It helped me process. It helped me work through my anxiety. 

And then I boxed up the bundles, put them back in the closet, and then fast-forward a few years.

Prepping for The Destash

When I closed MarshMueller, I took a lot of time to process, and prepping the rest of my raw materials was how I physically worked through all those feels.

Initially I had bundled scraps into 1-pound bags, but then I discovered that they are not fun to photograph, nor look good in said photograph, and once you reach that 1-pound threshold, shipping automatically jumps to Priority Mail, which is more expensive. 

It wasn't until I saw my friend Jessica Swift do a destash and her fabric bundles were SO flipping cute. And they didn't weigh a pound- they were around 10 ounces. 

So I opted to rework the scraps into the cute little bundles you see now (thanks, Jess! btw y'all should get Jessica's new book Art for Self-Care. I'm making art as I read through it, and it is so, so lovely). 

THEN came the rest of the work to get this destash off the ground. I won't bore you with those details (but if you really wanna know, let me know, and perhaps that can be a post for a later time), but it was far, far more work than I anticipated. So I chipped away at it, little by little, when I had pockets of time. 

What you'll find in The Destash

And now it's finally ready for you! Here's what you'll find:

• Yardage of fabrics that I curated and used in the MarshMueller line
• 1-yard cuts of fabrics also used in the line but that's all that remain
• Out-of-print fabrics within scrap bundles, 1-yard cuts, and remnants (for those who don't know, fabric is just like books- sometimes it stays in print for a while, other times, it goes out of print when the manufacturer is done with it and moved on to other prints)
• Remnants (aka pieces that are less than 1 yard)
• Scrap bundles! SO many scrap bundles. They have been sorted by color, license, etc. Each piece is at least 2" but most are far larger than that. 
• Notions- mama's got a lot of YKK zippers, trim, and piping 

Every bit of yardage, scraps, and notions have been priced according to market pricing, rarity/out-of-print status, and my time. 

I'm SO excited to send this literal labor of love to folks who will make their own magic and creativity. xoxo.

SHOP THE DESTASH