Once Again, to the Re-use Store

 I was very good, after dropping off the many many bags of mostly fabric to donate to the creative re-use thrift store, at not choosing a comparable amount of fabric to bring back home.

I got: 1¼ yard of black tubular rib knit that at least feels cottony; 1¼ yard 44" minty(?) green cotton; 2 3/8 yards 45" ivory that I'm now doubting is pure cotton.  Edit: Did a burn test on the ivory, it very thoroughly melted.  So.  And, since I had the candle lit, I went ahead and did a burn test on the green, and it...skeletonized?  Does it contain silk??

I was hoping to get some solid cottons in good weights for shirts, and the heavy ribbing was a nice additional find.

This place usually has a little box of vinyl samples, and I found several that should be good for doll purses.  Someday.

The red one is technically not vinyl--the plastic layer is polyurethane instead of PVC. I just thought that was neat.

I also grabbed a small package of aida cloth remnants, for whenever I finally try punch embroidery.

The bulk of my purchase, however, were 10¢ patterns.  So many 10¢ patterns.

Re-use Revisit, Part 2: Patterns All Around You, Patterns Everywhere

 No editorializing on things in this round up of the patterns I bought at the creative re-use thrift store today for 10¢ each, and, like the fabric, I did not allow myself to rethink anything--if I put it in my basket, it stayed there until check out.  You might be able to tell I've had vests and suit coats on my mind lately, with a nice find for that vague military-style marching band jacket idea I recently had, too.

I did donate 23 patterns, so bringing home 20 patterns is a net positive, right?

Restrained Craft Shopping

 A friend wanted to visit a local creative reuse thrift store, which was having a sale this weekend on cloth and  sewing machines. (The friend was hoping I could help her choose a decent used sewing machine, and she went home with a lovely, recently serviced Singer 237 that had a case, a few extra feet, and the original manual.  The car sagged noticeably when that machine was placed in the back.)

I managed to only spend about $10!

More Impulse Patterns

 So, it's currently September of 2021, and all KwikSew website patterns are $2 each and buy five, get up to five more free...which...certainly gives the impression that KwikSew may be going away, or possibly be getting a massive overhaul, but nothing has been announced, so maybe not.

That didn't stop me from kinda sorta panic buying a stack of KwikSew patterns that arrived today (plus one on-sale Vogue that I'd been eying since it was released, during the time when I have not been too keen to go to JoAnn very often, because of...y'know...vectors people.)

 

 Individuals below

Just a little thrift

Ventured to the out-of-the-way Goodwill yesterday, was confronted with a bin full of 49¢ patterns, managed to constrain myself to only four.

Large Bag and Big Bag

I forgot to post about it here, but, a few days after my birthday, I was able to go a'thriftin' on my own while Husband watched the kiddo, which meant I could take as much time as I wanted to look around without a certain little someone exceeding his boredom threshold.

I also wanted to stop in JoAnn, too, to see if I could find any cloth to make a pencil bag for the kiddo (at school this year, they're supposed to use large zip bags instead of pencil boxes, and, hey, I can make a zip bag...)  He'd wanted a print with as much BB-8 as possible, which I kind of found, and I also picked up a Halloween eyeball print that I thought would work well for doll clothes.  When I got back and asked him if he wanted to combine any other prints with the Star Wars print, he said, yes, he wanted the eyeball print.  Well...OK, then!

I picked out the zipper (because I still have a lot of these yellow zippers) and lining (because I wanted to make sure it would be bright enough inside that things wouldn't get lost in shadowy corners.)  He's happy.

But!  The bigger find was in the Goodwill--which is usually a relatively disappointing Goodwill, and seemed like it was going to be just as disappointing this time, yielding only two dolls (granted, one was a Marin Chiclana guy, something I'd wanted for a while), one piece of cloth, and a bag full of perler beads and small pegboards...and holes.  It was while I was chasing down escaped perler beads that I noticed the big bedding bag that was full of sewing patterns and marked $7.99.  It was held closed with a cable tie through the two zipper pulls, so there was no possibility of surreptitiously opening it up and digging around to see if anything was worthwhile, and, hooboy, was what was visible on the outside...not worth it.  So much late '80s/early '90s blandness.  Still, if there were eight patterns I liked, I could consider it to be breaking even...and...this was supposed to be silly birthday shopping,  stop trying to be reasonable, Self.  So I picked up the last perler beads I could see and dragged the...um...delightfully heavy bag of patterns to the register.  The nice customer ahead of me put it on the counter for me, expressing (possibly) a bit of appreciation for the find.

After I got home and put everything else away, I parked myself on the living room floor, snipped the cable tie, and dove in.

So.  Yeah.  When you get a grab bag that ends up having 120+ patterns, you're probably going to find plenty that look worthwhile, no matter how many 1980s beginner patterns or early 1990s fancy jumpsuits patterns (for girls and women) or curtains patterns or indie quilted vest patterns there are.  There were even a few men's patterns in Husband's size range, and kids/boys patterns for the kiddo (whose foot is visible here, yes), and a lot of patterns in sizes suitable for some of my friends.

I'm happy with what I got from this, although I'm now out of room in the file drawers where I keep my patterns, and I'm unsure of what to do with the giant stack of patterns left that I have no use for.  Still, definitely worth the $8.

I have a 1982 Laura Ashley shirt pattern picked out (and ironed flat) for my next project--hope to get back here soon with that!