Again to the Craft Thrift Store

On December 24, I checked the craft thrift store's Instagram, and saw that they had their e-gift cards on sale for half off.  I was recently reminded that I had some forgotten money in my PayPal, so I argued with myself for an hour or so before spending $50 to buy a $100 gift card for myself.

I trekked there the next Sunday, going by myself for the first time ever, so I could spend as long as I wanted, poking into every nook and cranny, and, most importantly, allowing myself the time to talk myself out of things, without feeling guilty about making anyone else have to wait for me.

The employees kept apologizing to shoppers, who were looking for specific things, about the store being a bit sparse, because they had recently had an "Everything $1" sale.  I was there for a "clearance items all $1 each" sale once, and I vowed never to go during one of their big sales again (too many people--it's not a large store.)

Me, though...I'm  happiest when I'm poking through the stuff other people didn't want, whether it's clearance stuff or donated stuff.  So!  Donated stuff left over after a clearance?  Fun!

Midnight Aubergine

I had a fabric in my stash, acquired long ago from...actually, I'm not sure.  It's likely it was the Walmart mill ends dollar table, sometime between 1995 and 2005, but it could have been a thrift find.  Maybe even the old Joann mill ends assortments--some source where fiber content would have been completely unknown.

I always assumed it was a petrochemical synthetic, or perhaps even acetate.  I was doing burn tests recently and decided to go ahead and torch a bit of this fabric to confirm.  It did not confirm!  The ash was fluffy soft and pale gray--rayon!

It's a relatively lightweight faille, and I think the texture was what was making me think it was...something that would melt when burned, and, therefore, something I did not necessarily want near my underarms.  Rayon, though?  I can tolerate a dress of that. 

Another Perhaps Ill-advised Diversion

I have cut pieces for another (simple) dress, but recently saw a post on the blog So, Zo covering the free Hyacinth bralette pattern from Ohhh Lulu.

Now, I am not, generally, looking for a...ah...soft bra. But.  I do have many odds and ends of knit fabrics, and, more pertinently, a small assortment of random bits of decorative elastics, which I very rarely use, and this seemed like a good opportunity to draw from that stash.

Also, sometimes, I get nasty headaches that make me think maybe I would be better off with everything being as soft as possible.  To date, worn out bras have served for that, but this will, perhaps, offer another option.

This pattern is very straightforward, with detailed instructions.   It probably took me longer to figure out which of my odd elastics to use for the pattern (and to pick some of them back off when I decided something else would work better) than it did to cut and assemble everything. 

 

The leopard print knit is from the same person who sent what I used for the seven slapdash sleep shirts, and the fold-over elastic is from a doll acquaintance. The white lace was salvaged from...something, and the black lace is from Deb's Lace (ordered for doll use; Deb's vast assortment of stretch laces have not interested me before...)  The white elastic is from Wawak, and the bra hardware was scavenged off of bras long-gone. 

The construction on this is rather slapdash, and I haven't even tried it on yet (it's cold!), but it was an interesting project to see if I could scrounge out of the stash.

Miss, Corrected

In late October, I made this dress and was very unhappy with it.  I removed the velvet and lace and still didn't like it, so folded it and put it aside in here.  I didn't plan to do anything with it but donate, but I didn't have anything else to donate, so I ignored it.

This morning, however, I decided that No!  I would try to save it!  So I carefully picked out the waist stitching, cut a wide band of ribbing, and got a spool of elastic and made it into a shirt

 

 and a skirt

 

 They're still not great, but they are significantly better.

Dark Librarian

I decided to make another layer cake dress, this time using an assortment of fabrics I'd gathered from my stash with the idea of using them for patchwork.  I then hesitated to do anything with them, because the color palette is on the darker and more muted end of my preferences

  

(Photo taken 11 days ago--I was just recovering from being sick when helloooo PMS, so I didn't work as fast as usual)

Turned out that that lack of jumping straight into patchwork gave me enough time to realize they'd work well for this kind of dress. 

As with the previous dress of this kind, it is absolutely ridiculously fun to wear.