Local friend asked if I wanted to go to the craft thrift store again sometime soon, and of course I did. I had a few days to try to find things to donate (which is not necessary for a visit, but I do like the idea of divesting myself of craft supplies that don't inspire me--not that I had much left in that category after the massive culling last year, but I did manage to fill a few bags this time) and a few things to specifically look for.
One of the things was knit fabric that would be suitable for a shirt (or several shirts) for Husband. But. Every knit there today was either the wrong weight, very unpleasant to touch, or in a color or print that was unsuitable for Husband. Maybe someday!
The other main thing I hoped to find was more lining fabric. The big roll of bright yellow green lining I thrifted ages ago has finally been used, and I'm not sure how much of the thrifted bolt of light purple lining fabric is left, so I wanted to supplement it. And I did!
I even let myself be picky, skipping pieces that seemed like too short a length to be useful, and pieces that I didn't like the way they felt, and sticking to my general preferred colors. OK, yeah, that brown isn't my general preferred colors, but it's a nice, intense brown. There's over 14 yards of lining fabrics, many of them in 60" width. This should carry me through a few more skirts and jackets.
I talked myself out of a few of the fashion fabrics I picked up, and might have put more back on the shelf if my friend hadn't been cheering me on for what I picked out.
The top fabric is a cotton that was in with the $4/lb fashion fabrics and not the more expensive quilting cottons. I think there may be just enough to eke out most of a button-up shirt for the kiddo.
Next is a rayon, 3 yards at 56" wide, that will probably become another peasant dress, and possibly soon, since I have worn the previous rayon peasant dress so much that I forgot I only made it this year.
When I realized the denim had some stretch, I started to put it back, but Friend was cheering the very concept of stretch denim, and bargain denim is something I do generally keep an eye out for, so I went ahead and got it (obviously.) It's 2 1/8 yards of 60" wide.
At the bottom of the stack is a tweedy mulberry wool (probably blend) that Friend said was some of the most Me fabric they'd seen and wouldn't it make a great jacket? I had already been thinking of a jacket... I unfolded it to measure and saw that a big chunk had been cut out, which made me think, oh, no, not enough for a jacket, probably...although...I am good at getting things cut from less yardage than the pattern wants... Then I unfolded some more and found some cut-off pieces tucked inside; some were circle shapes with hemmed edges and cut-out centers, which I'd guess were meant to be gathered around those centers to make tweedy flowers. The other cut off pieces were sleeves. We'll see if I can work with them. There's a solid 1 1/8 yard of 60" there, plus another roughly half a yard of cut area, plus the sleeves.
And then there's The Big Piece
This is 5 1/3 yards of 56" wide cotton brocade. I have many ideas for it.
(when I unrolled it to look at it in the store, there was evidence of something small and possessed of an exoskeleton having undergone a major life event in the folds of this fabric; Friend is a fan of small things with exoskeletons, and declared that it had probably been a jumping spider egg case, so nothing to worry about! And I did think it was funny that we were the people who found that, because anyone else probably would have freaked out.)
Outside of fabric, I picked up some trims.
4½ yards of eyelet, from the era when Wright's yardage trim was sold in plastic casings. I almost talked myself out of that one, too, but it is an eyelet pattern I hadn't seen before. Also, the header is lightweight woven fabric, not like the bulky synthetic headers on modern gathered trim. And, it's zigzagged to the eyelet, albeit with chain stitched zigzagging, so I should still be able to find the right end and unravel the stitch to free it from the header so I can control the gathering myself.
The bag of pink is an unmeasured length (not much) of sheer knit net fabric strips on elastic with sparkly clear plastic fibers. I got it entirely because I remembered some of the clothes in the Japanese doll sewing magazines had used similar trim for a nice texture contrast (also it was 50¢) The appliqués were also chosen because they reminded me of things used in the Japanese doll sewing magazines.
And of course we spent time rummaging through the bins on the free table. I found the selection lacking this time, but I'm not complaining because it's free stuff, and I did find some things.
The lace flowers were cut (mostly very roughly) from lace fabric and will make nice appliqués. The samples were chosen with the idea they will be good to make doll purses from. Will I make doll purses from them? I mean, I want to. And now I change the subject to the bag of silk ribbon, which I didn't realize until I got home also contained some embroidery floss, two different size sewing needles, and a bag of about two dozen pearl beads, and the whole thing was heat sealed. I figure it was part of some silk embroidery kit. I like using silk ribbon on, yes, doll clothes.
Not really visible, because it's clear shiny on top of clear shiny, and sticking out of a tube, is a few yards of clear plastic lace with silver glitter. It had been tangled around the tube, so I took a moment to untangle it (I think that kind of activity is fun) and then coiled it up and put it into the tube. Next to that is a bit of narrow glitter washi tape. The two cat cross stitch books were chosen with the idea I may send them to someone.
And that's it for my only visit to the craft thrift store so far this year, and just a bit over an entire year since I was there last. I have done very well in using most of the fabric I got there last time, so I hope I can do as well with today's purchases.
No comments:
Post a Comment