What else was in that trunk?

Well as you saw in last weeks blog post that the trunk was quite full, but it didn't reveal the treasures. We haven't gone out thrifting this week because we've been busy cleaning sorting and listing our finds. We believe that the universe is leading us in a direction and we don't mind at all. Fabric is something we love and enjoy. Finding it opens doors to all sorts of sewing projects. We do keep some of the fabric we find, but lately we've been listing it on the stores to supplement our income. Last week we found so many differnt fabrics and here I am to share them with you.

This is two bundles of what is called PUL fabric. Short for polyurethane laminated fabric which is used for diaper making, snack bags, mittens and microwavable potato pouches along with many other waterproof projects.

These are bundles of cotton interlock fabric advertised for diaper making, more PUL fabric and baby flannel prints. So many fun prints and colors. Just fell in love with them.

This is everything from cotton yard goods, cuff ribbing, and cotton interlock.

To break things up a bit there were these two bright red fish shot glasses.

This is what we found for linens. Vintage sheets are just so much fun, but let me tell you that there is almost six yards of army green corduroy. This we will keep to blend with other fabrics for bags.

 There was dress fabric. This is a polyester crepe type fabric in an off white shade.

This black fabric is Posh fabric which is used for lingerie or slip dresses. All of this has been listed on poetcharms.etsy.com and the sales are starting to come in. This has been an awesome week, but I think the motivation came from the fun prints and different kinds of fabric. I would love to keep it all, but that's just not possible. I've had many creative moments this week, but just had to hope it gets loved by others. 

We always wanted to specialize in fabric.

Thrifting has been so wonderful so far this year. Yes we've found things to make our lives easier and better, but when we started thrifting it was to supplement our income reselling fabric. This is what we enjoy more than anything and we have been blessed lately with great fabric finds. Sure I like to find my unusual bottles and jars along with those vintage items and household items, but it's the fabric that keeps me hopping. It's changing almost as fast as technology and every day I learn more and more about fabric. When I raised my family I made most of their clothes, knitted and crochet their sweaters, hats and mittens and did what I had to, to make ends meet. I can't change time, but I can enjoy what young mothers have to work with today.

The bottles this week were five Ikea spice type jars. I'm looking forward to putting my flavored sugars in them for gifts or company. I also found some tall bottles that are perfect for vanilla extract. Also for gift giving. 

There was so much fabric last week. Here there are some stretch knits that will make fun tank dresses that are great for over bathing suits and of course sheets.

Did some one say pink elephants? These two pieces of yard goods are fun vintage elephant prints. Just love them. 

There was brown stretch knit skirting fabric, black posh and a great piece of camouflage fabric. 

This pair includes a great piece of corduroy and a couple of yards of Christmas table cloth fabric. I know it will never be a table cloth, but the sewing ideas are spinning in my head. 

I love the daisy fabric in this picture. We also found more vintage scarfs, an Ikea bud vase and some 1970s Precious Moments recipe post cards. 

The picture frame was an awesome bargain. This may be used to hold pictures of my three grandchildren or some thrifted piece of art work. There are three pieces of the lovely floral fabric, yards of the robot interlock diaper fabric along with a snoopy coffee mug and a vintage trivet. My daughter spray paints these trivets and hangs them on the walls around our apartment. I have to admit they do look good as wall art.

The beautiful pink fabric in this picture is a vintage panel. All one piece, but two different versions of the flower. The angel is for my daughters collection. She also puts little collections on shelves on the wall. I think she just hates white apartment walls. The clamp on light she bought for our picture taking. 

And then there was this. My daughter works at a large college and one of her students came by on Saturday and we did it, yes we did it. Took her around to some of our favorite hunting spots and this is what they came home with. Next weeks partial blog because I will only blog what is ours. 

Yes that's a tiger in the trunk. It's a vintage needle punch rug. It will be dry cleaned and this student will use it as a wall hanging. It is huge and the price $12. So much work went into this. Needle punch is not easy and your hands hurt after a short time working. 

Yes they filled the trunk, but most of this will have to wait until next weeks blog. It will have to be sorted out and photographed, but as you can see they had a great time. I on the other hand only spent $3.43 for a set of double pointed knitting needles to finish some hats, five packages of double fold bias tape and one canning jar. My bag was so small but I can't wait to do it again. 

Thrift Gift of Fabrics

Thrift shopping was put on hold this past week because of one of those events that happen in life, so these are last weeks finds, but Wow! What a time we are having. Got out a bit while the sun was shining and found linens, which are our favorite things to find, along with a few other items. 

Just so excited about these curtains and pillow shams. I have already reclaimed the lace and salvaged the pleats on the drapes to up cycle. Envisioning a few projects with the remaining fabric.

This is just a few of the sheets we found. We are so addicted to fabric and sewing.

Imagine the thrill of finding NIP vintage sheets. The trip was getting better every minute.

Then there were napkins, a Vera scarf and an embroidered linen just right for a pocket on my up cycled robe. Got to have a pocket.

My favorite fabric find is the beautiful piece of vintage pink floral fabric. Almost silk like, but so Hollywood. I remember fabric of this kind made into wonderful bed covers. The vintage Vera scarf is a poppy pattern and then there's the lovely bowl with it's cover.  A couple of years ago I found four pear shaped dishes that are part of a Lazy Susan set. They were so nice that I couldn't leave them behind because I felt that some one could use them as serving dishes. Who would have thought that a couple years later I'd find the center bowl that matches them, in a totally different place on earth and in excellent condition. I can't wait to put them together, but now the challenge will be to find the wooden base to put it on. Not impossible. I just need to put it out on the radar and it will come.

I just had to show everyone how beautiful this is. Imaging finding the pieces years and miles apart. Currently listed on butterflyplace.etsy.com.

Thrift finds and the fun continues.

As I said in my prior post we have small shops popping up all over. We got an email from my sister-in-law stating that she found another one while she was driving down a popular street here and couldn't wait to tell us. This past weekend my daughter purchased a new to her vehicle and I envision us doing even more thrifting. With information coming about new pop up shops in the neighborhood it looks like we are going to have a great year thrifting. Here are some of the finds from last week.

Always linens and scarfs. I think we look for these items first. This collection includes a vintage plastic floral Kleenex box and amazingly a vintage sheet with the same colors, a towel, scarfs, and crochet doilies. Some will be used for sewing projects and others will be listed on the store. Towels we seek out for our vintage bathroom. 

Plenty of vintage linen napkins. These are just some of what we found.

There is a vintage vinyl bag which can hold those wonderful vintage thermos bottles, a Mikasa tea pot, a Pyrex double boiler, and my favorite finds are the stainless steel coffee pot and the vintage Christmas items. 

The Mrs. Santa with extended arms hugs a candle and since there was only one we knew she had to come home and be added to our collection. I have to take a minute and share a fun moment about one of the new pop up shops. We saw the sign outside that said 50% off and got excited about a possible hunt. When we got to the door it was locked, but the sign said open. We knocked and got no response. A minute later the partner to the owner came up behind us and apologized. He had run next door to the 7-11 for something to eat. He was left alone to move a counter to the front of the store and empty boxes. I didn't ask why he didn't have help. I just started to rummage. After we found so much we couldn't hold it any more we told him we were ready to cash out, so he proceeds to write up a slip because he didn't know how to use the cash register. The only job I could find after losing my job in 2008 was cashiering. I wasn't thrilled, but I needed income. I told him I would look at it and help him and he got excited. Well it was just a simple adding machine style register and he knew a couple of steps and I rang up a couple of customers for him to show him the final steps. He had it down by the time we left. We got our items rung up and I think we came out of his shop with close to $90 worth of merchandise for $10. We tried to convince him that it was worth more, but he insisted that the sale was final. He was grateful for the help and as we were leaving at least six more customers came through the door. We helped him and he helped us and business picked up for him. Amazing how that works.

Some more finds included Pyrex, vintage paper party napkins and cups, a turquoise teapot, jelly jars, mugs and a toy VW bug.

The wooden recipe boxes are awesome. To see some one's cooking history and think about the meals that were prepared from the recipes in the boxes has been so much fun. This person even added pictures to her cards for excitement. There were Aladdin thermos bottles and an American Flag themed candle holder. I think that may get painted. 

We found baskets, Wilhold pattern boxes, vintage plastic Christmas table clothes, NIP paint by numbers, signs and framed pictures, cook books and vintage pinking sheers still in the original package along with vintage contact paper.

Then the new desk chair. Yes, there is plenty more and this weekend we visited one thrift store and found so much more in the way of linens. It's been a great year so far. Having the time of our lives junkin'.