Part of the procrastination on starting my next project was that the local friend and I were planning another trip to the craft thrift store, so I devoted a lot of time to scouring through supplies to see what I could let go. (Not all of what I found was donated to the craft thrift store--some went to the local friend, and some was put into boxes to send to non-local friends. Still procrastinating further work on those.) And then we had some days of severe weather (we're fine.) We did finally get to the craft thrift store over the last weekend.
I shopped with some specific classes of fabric in mind: lining fabric; knits suitable for shirts for Husband; obnoxious print woven cotton for button up shirts for The Child and me; a lot of lightweight woven black to use for tiered skirts (poly cotton blends acceptable); more wool; more plaid; more chintz; more purple. I found everything except for the Husband knits, which I know are always going to be scarce even at retail, let alone at thrift.
What I did find was, I think, pretty good.
The lining fabrics:
There are two different navy lining fabrics, 2½ yards of 45" each. While I am not inclined to use much navy on the outside, I am not a stickler for perfectly-matched lining fabric, so having lots of navy is fine. There are 4 yards of the salmony rosy dobby lining, 2 of the sandy stripe, 1 1/8 of the blue, and 4 of the gray charmeuse, all 45" wide. I feel like that's a decent amount of lining, and, added to what's already in the stash, maybe I won't feel like I'm always about to run out of lining for a while. (I got spoiled by finding some entire bolts of lining in thrift stores in the early Twentyteens.)
I figured the lightweight black woven would be acquired in many small pieces, so I was happy to be able to grab this big piece, which turned out to be 8¾ yards of 45". It does feel like it's a poly cotton blend, but that's fine since I intend to use it only for skirts--specifically, replacing the worn thrifted skirts attached to this and this, and also making another of these. I genuinely don't expect to have much of that fabric left, because tiered skirts can use a lot of fabric (which is why they're fun), but I'll be happy to have those dresses tidied up, as well as another skirt to wear, just so I don't wear that first one out as fast.
Obnoxious woven cotton prints: check. Plaid: check (ha.) Chintz: check.
This chintz is something I've had before, in a different colorway. I barely had two yards of it then, but I have over three yards now, and a better understanding of why a bodice should not be cut on the cross grain, so an attempt at a similar style dress should go better this time. It's still only 45" wide, so my options aren't too generous.
As soon as I spotted the mad scientist print, I grabbed it to make a shirt for The Child; when I showed it to The Child, the laughter went on for a while, so I think it was a good choice. It's 1 3/8 yards of 45", so it will have to be a short sleeve shirt with at least a contrast inner yoke, if not also contrast inner neckband and more.
The doll print... Let's just say the friend was extremely amused by the sound I made when I spotted it. The colors are fabulous! The theme of dolls and fiber arts is perfect for me! The actual print is so so bad! I couldn't resist. There's 2½ yards of it, although it's only 40" wide, so it won't go quite as far as wider fabrics. I will definitely make a long sleeve button up shirt from it, and see how much of a short sleeve shirt I can get from what's left.
I grabbed the madras simply because "plaid," and only later realized how well it coordinates with the doll print. There's 3 5/8 yards of it, at 45" wide. I'm going to make another fake Burda 6401/fake McCall's 8197 with most of it, then either a short sleeve McCall's 5675, or another heavily modified Burda 7831. Then I'll see what's left to mix with the doll print.
The general search for wool found these:
There's only about a half yard of the red, and it's cut extremely off grain, but I picked it out with a vest, and/or patchwork, in mind, so that's fine. It's 56" wide.
There's 2 1/3 yards (68" wide) of the black-with-pale-blue-kinda-waffling, and it will, at the least, become a nice long A-line skirt made from modified McCall's 7981. Probably lined with some of that navy lining fabric up there.
That lining fabric should also work well for the blue/green/aqua wool plaid, which is 3¾ yards and 60" wide. I don't have solid plans for it, beyond "possibly double breasted" (I have a few patterns I've wanted to make that fall into that.)
And then the "purple." I've noted before how rare it is to find purple fabric second hand, and the presence of purple in these is what tipped me into getting them, although I don't think you'd describe either of them as purple fabric.
There's one yard, 60" wide, of the teal/purple two tone metallic knit. I picked it up as much for nostalgia as anything, which I generally try not to do. (I had picked up, then put back, one floral woven cotton, because I'd had that exact fabric before and made it into a shirt, so there was temptation to buy some now and make that shirt again. I resisted, even though that print also contained a lot of purple.) This knit is so lightweight that it will work for doll clothes, and not take up much room in storage.
The other fabric in this picture is also a knit! It's a double knit that's doing such a good job of mimicking jacquard/tapestry that I had to get it. 1½ yards of 60" wide means I have enough for a lot of possibilities, and I also have purple ribbing (not an exact match, but not bad) as an option to finish edges.
I bought a few non-fabric things. The small bag of multi-color iridescent flat rhinestones(?) was the only pure impulse, "no idea what I'm going to do with this" buy. But. Look at them. So shiny.
The pattern is because I'm still convinced I will make many jumpers. The roll of holofoil vinyl is adhesive backed--no, I don't have a vinyl cutter, but I do have craft knives and patience. The ties... The last few times I've been in regular thrift stores, I looked at neckties, hoping to find some with foulard prints. I did find some, and they made me amend that hope to "foulard prints that aren't also stained and discolored." And then there was a big box of ties at the craft thrift store. I'm sure the intent--and probably the reason most of them will be purchased from there--is to use them as fabric. I will happily wear these as they are (well, OK, maybe I'll iron them first.)
And then we paid and I was delighted to find I had $10 in store loyalty point credit.
And then we walked outside, and, oh, right--the free bins.
There were a lot of boxes that had obviously been used to hold appliqués and frog closures for sale, somewhere, with the boxes now empty, but examples of what would have been found inside still stapled to the ends. I got this one for the small fish and dragonfly appliqués, but, honestly, it's a nice little box, too.
The sandwich bag is full of poster board shapes with milti-color holofoil on one side. The Dollar Tree stamped steel tray had a pencil holder stuck to it with double sided foam tape, which easily came off--I'd been looking for a small tray in thrift stores and not finding anything that seemed worth the prices asked; I can work with "free." The rest shown is black glitter washi tape, silver foiled Easter Seals, die cut florals, clear sequins, wooden drawer pulls, and a scrap of metallic purple heat transfer vinyl to mess with.
Then, of course, I grabbed a bunch of free cloth scraps.
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