Late August Thrift Cloth

So I've been putting little videos on YouTube with the intention of documenting doll things I've found and done, but, when it comes to reporting thrift finds, I can't help but want to show off the sewy stuff I find, too, and I brought home a nice handful of cloth this week, most of which were featured in the latest video (that still is such a weird thing to think about in reference to me.)  But, since me waving cloth around in a video isn't the best way to show off the cloth, and since anyone who might be here for the sewing, with no interest in the dolls, probably would like to see the cloth without enduring the dolly natter, I'm posting pictures of the cloth here.

Starting, as shouldn't be surprising given the directions my brain goes, with cloth that's not in the video at all.




The thrift store I visited on Monday rolls their fabric up and wraps self-cling plastic around the rolls so that you can get only the vaguest idea of how much cloth is actually there, but, when I saw these marked at 99­¢ for the roll, and the rolls seemed to be a decent size, I went ahead and gambled on got them.

This one is 2 1/3 yards of 60" wide woven cotton (maybe cotton blend.)  I hope I didn't just choose it because I'm ready for anything but summer weather...

Green-with-vague-yellow-stripes, 2½ yards of 45" wide woven cotton--if the kiddo still wants to be the Skylanders Chompy Mage for Halloween, this will work nicely for the robe.  (If he wants to be something else...well...he still really likes green, so we'll still find some use for this.)

Then I went to the usual thrift store, which always has a nice selection of cloth, and it's folded over pants hangers, so is easy to pick up and unfold and look for flaws and get a really good idea of how much is there (and I always fold it neatly and hang it back up when I decide against something, I'm not a monster.)

The first thing I chose was this

...which has been tempting me for a while--for so long, in fact, that it was now half off (making it $2.)  I could tell it was over 3 yards (turned out to be 3½), and it's just...so...different from what I usually see.  The selvedge says "Designed by Kris Taylor for Fabri Quilt"; a quick search shows that this design seems very typical for the artist, and all the Etsy listings call it vintage (not sure if I believe that though.)  It's woven cotton, 45", and I also think the kiddo would like something made with it. (While Husband rolls his eyes, because the child definitely inherited the loud print tendencies from me.)

This is much more my usual "oooh prettyyyy" kind of cloth (and I immediately thought it coordinated surprisingly well with the previous "well...huh.." print.)  This store tends to put saris with the cloth, and I initially assumed that's what this was, but, nope!  It's definitely yard goods, about 42" wide and around 3¼ yards long. (and the $2.99 price is what first gave it away as being a not-sari, since those are usually $4.99 or higher.)  Pretty sure the base cloth is cotton.  The embroidery and sequin pattern stops short of the selvedges, making me think this could be treated like a border print if I were inclined to make something from it that involved a skirt.

I'm generally not impressed with homespuns, no matter how much I adore plaids...but...when the homespun is purple and green and purple metallic...  There's three yards of this, 42" wide, with a big overcast seam near one end, where the manufacturer had to splice lengths together.  It shouldn't be hard to work around.  This was also $2.99, which is a splurge price for me, but...metallic purple...

And finally, I absolutely could not resist...this...

This is...just...oh, my youth--unlike the brown print above, I have absolutely no doubts this is genuinely vintage (with the definition of 'vintage' being "at least 20 years old.")  At $1.99 for one li'l yard of 45" "probably cotton but the print is so heavy you can't really tell," this was even more of a splurge than the shiny stuff above.  But...look at it.  Gonna go wash it now, to see how much softer it gets *nods*