Thrift Finds from Last Week

There's even more you can't see.

I'm pretty behind on this blog, I realize this. Well, okay. Behind compared to how often I'd like to be posting. A post every few days has been fun, but just not practical for me of late.

Which is why I'm only now posting about some awesome thrift finds I had last week. I stayed home with a sick Buddy two Fridays ago, which gave me time to finish my wedding crepe. Only thing was that I didn't have any bias tape, and the tutorials I reviewed about making my own recommended the use of a bias tape maker. Boo.

But! I had time to make a Value Village run while Buddy was sleeping off some crazy allergic reaction. I've gone there before and saw bags and bags of bias tape, so I thought I may get lucky. I didn't really get lucky in terms of bias tape, but ooh la la! Fabric and buttons!

One bag of vintage buttons, which also contained some belt buckles and bias tape (but I didn't see it until I had already bought some for the crepe). $2.50

And more.

One and a half yard or so of black duck cotton. $1

Almost three yards of thick brown cotton. $2.50

I also got a pattern for Butterick 6602, which I think was $2?

So, grand total of under $10. Yippee!!

This is actually black.

 I bought both the pattern and the duck cotton in the hopes of making some shorts. As I watch others get ready to participate in Me-Made-June, I realize I just don't have any home-sewn bottoms. Just some dresses. 

I had thought I'd make some shorts with the fabric and pattern together, but I think I may try to use them separate. The simplicity of the pattern seems like it may be a waste of some fun fabric. 

The brown fabric is also darker than this.

I am really excited about the brown fabric, as it is just long and heavy enough for me to feel like it'd work well for a jumpsuit. My cousin has requested a jumpsuit, and I plan on using the "ugly" pattern I posted on The Sew Weekly a bit ago. This will be my first time making a fitted pattern for someone else since I resumed sewing. I never realized how much pressure I'd feel just knowing that someone else will wear this.

I have some kawaii cotton fabric from the tsunami raffle I won a bit ago that I think I'll use as some contrast fabric. Not doing the pockets and straps like that though. No way. 

All I need now is a long zipper, and I can tackle this project.

As for the buttons, these are my favorites. The dark buttons are hopefully to be used on some sailor pants I'd like to make. I love those things. The green and red have such cool designs on them! The mother of pearl buttons are just so pretty and sooooo vintage. The belt buckles are fun because I can now think in terms of matching belts for projects. And finally, the fabric covered buttons should offer some fun options for future projects.

I know these pics are  a little small. I'll post bigger versions on Flickr.

After participating in the Traveling Lace exchange through The Sew Weekly Circle, I realized how small of a notions stash I had. Seeing all of the lovely gifts others were sending around the world, I became even more self conscious about the meager set of options I had at home. I still think that my recipient through traveling lace hasn't received her package (though one person just recently got theirs, so maybe hers will show up soon too). Feeling really quite bad about that, I have decided that I will use some of the finds I've made recently to send her a new and improved notions package. She has know idea of what bounty awaits!

The Sew Weekly's Lace & Notions Exchange

I am not the most active member of The Sew Weekly, but I love the concept. A new sewing project every week? That's the kind of productivity I'm hoping to get to. Once I figure out where all of my actual time is going. 

Mena Trott, the woman who started The Sew Weekly (and also was a co-founder of Six Apart and has done some pretty amazing things in her non-sewing career), started a project called the Common Thread Project in which she sent various seamstresses pieces of the same kind of lace with which to make something.  The projects already completed are impressive, and I think it has been quite the hit. So much so, that one of the members of Sew Weekly's Sewing Circle, Kat, had asked if the Sew Weekly community would be up for an exchange of notions too. 

Needless to say, I signed up right away. I don't have much of a stash, though, which was perhaps poor planning on my part. Join a notions exchange when I don't have many notions. But, I was excited to share. 

I'd show you what I sent, but it seems that my package still hasn't arrived at the doorstep of the person I was assigned. :( Super sad. I've offered to send her a new package, but I haven't heard from her yet. Super super sad. 

If I can send her another package, I will be working hard on making it spectacular too. I mean, look at what I received:

Vintage buttons, multiple zippers, lace upon lace upon lace, ric rac, ribbon, a homemade pincushion (yes!!!), a homemade flower pin, an Australia magnet (she's from Australia). Oh my. I almost cried when I got this. So. Amazing.

I have a lot of ideas jumping around for these notions, but I have managed to make one (and a half) pieces using my gifts. I may have stated this before, but I often choose fabrics by touch, rather than by any knowledge of their uses. My cousin and I found incredibly soft brown jersey pillow cases at the Goodwill recently, and I'd been trying to decide what to make with it. When I got Debbie's notions, I was immediately drawn to using the orange and cream trim. It seemed a perfect match with the chocolate brown of the jersey.

I had a costume I had to make for a festival, and the combo of these two new members of my stash seemed just right. I had a little extra trim too, so was able to make a choker. I sewed two orange ribbons on each side, and finished the edges of the trim. I'll probably run some FrayCheck on it though, as the cut edges seem to unravel quickly.

I am contemplating adding an insert of lace at the top, since the top shows a good deal off when worn alone. But I may just wear it with different shirts to play with the look some more. As I think on it, I have a nice green cowl neck shirt that would match very well. Yay for flexible wardrobe pieces!

As mentioned in the last post, I also have another use for the lace Debbie provided. I am hoping to use the wide white eyelet lace trim on the ties of my Crepe dress. I'll post pictures when it's completed.

In the meantime, I have to hatch a way of getting notions to my assigned recipient. Traveling notions go slow when they have to get across oceans, I suppose. (Still sad.)

(And for those of you that may have seen this early, i.e., before May 18th, my apologies. I scheduled the post for the wrong month!)