Thrifty Thursday: shut the front door

Ohmygoshyouguys!!!!  I found this rotary mat at Goodwill for $3.99

Excited much?  Soooo much.  My old mat was a much smaller size and somebody stepped on it and broke it so I really needed a new one.  I was toying with the idea of buying one, but $60 to $70 is a lot of money... a lot of money that could be spent on fabric!  Oh, the dilemma.  

Then the thrifting gods smiled upon me and I found this 36x24 inch mat at Goodwill.  It wasn't even in the sewing section, I just randomly spotted it as I was walking through to home wares.  It was seemingly permanently bent into a tube, but I (and my dad, thanks dad!) spent some time flattening it out under furniture, with warm irons, with sock feet (veeery carefully) and it's definitely flat enough to use now.  As a matter of fact it fits perfectly on my sewing/cutting table and has already gotten some use (there may be another quilt brewing in the near future).

So now you know, if you find a rotary mat at the thrift it's probably worth buying, even if it's a little bit bent out of shape.  Those things are so damn expensive new, I'd rather do the work than shell out all that extra cash.

Anybody know what this is supposed to mean though?  It's in the lower left corner.  Did the mat originally come with a magnifying glass?  Or is it just a handy hint?  I can't even begin to guess.  Underneath it just says "Made in Japan" so that's no help.

Anybody else lucked out at the thrift store lately?

Thrifty Thursdays: a whale of a wale

Nearly three yards of wide (veeerrry wide) wale cord for $5.  Nom.

I love all things late 60's and 70's so I'm pretty excited about this find.  Now I just need to make it into pants and we shall live happily every after.

Thrifty tip: When buying fabrics at thrift shops unfold as much as you can to see if there are any worn spots, holes, stains, or fold lines.  Sometimes when a piece of fabric is folded for a long period of time you will see discoloration on the outer portion or a discolored line where a fold has been.

Til next time!

thrifty thursdays

sorry for the crappy night photos... but i just had to share.

the thrifing gods were smiling upon me.  in addition to some great fabric i found a set of brand new size 5 addi turbos: originally $14.95 (in case you can't read that)

that's right: $1.99  

win!

thrifty tip: if a piece of clothing has seen better days and is destined for the scrap bin, pull anything usable off before tossing it.  are there buttons?  a pants hook and eye?  a non-broken zipper?  an embellishment that you can re-use on a new item?  you'd be surprised just how much can be salvaged even when the fabric is beyond saving.  (most of you probably already do this if you sew, but in case you don't, there's your thrifty tip of the week)

Thrifty Thursdays

I got this huge pack of ten baby girl patterns (and one weird 80s dress pattern) for one or two dollars.

Why are there only 9 here?  Because I already made one of them and it's now floating around my sewing room somewhere.  These patterns are all from a similar time period, but not exactly the same year.  Since they are all the same size, I believe that these came from a person who collected vintage patterns, as opposed to being from the original owners. 

That's cool, though, I don't care.  They are just exactly baby girl's size, so I better get crackin'