Thrifty Thursday

Here's a few of the goodies from last week's thrifting:

Cute Coke glasses -- juice-sized, for those who like to begin their day with toast and Coke. And four funky daisy mugs + sugar and creamer. These must be from the 70s? when gold and avocado were the 'in' colors. For some reason, I could not overlook their cheerfulness.

Here are my favorite finds of the day. Vintage fruit crate labels, all framed up. And at a fantastic price. (More colorful than shown here. Hard to capture.)

I heart 'Chickie'. That one may end up in my kitchen. But first I'm offering all three to Z, for his new apartment. He thinks he'll like 'Buckingham' but he might want all three -- certainly has more empty wall space than I do.

Oh, and see the vintage tablecloth above? It's next on the Flea Market Bag worktable, perhaps.

Thank you, Salvation Army!

Another Flea Market Bag

I'm just so excited about this bag! It's made from pillow ticking (from an old feather pillow), an old embroidered doily, and some polka dot fabric -- love me some polka dots, especially white on red.

The ticking fabric had limitations -- size: slightly too small for the pattern; condition: a couple of stains. So I made the bag slightly smaller than the first flea market bag I did and used the exterior pocket and a little button heart to cover the stains.

I also had to use some canvas for the interior of the top placket and had to piece the handles just a bit to get the right length. (So pleased about the change of stripe-direction piecing on the handles.) And I lined the handles with the red/white dots.

Love!

Thrifty Thursday, er Friday + Wristlets!

Just popping in to show a couple of fun finds from last week.

A pair of '70s pillowcases and some vintage patterns. Thinking of sewing up some library totes from the pillowcases. . . .

And I'm sewing wristlets -- these from some fabric scraps that I 'won' from sewmamasew blog. I'm trying out the side zipper idea -- I think I like it a lot.

And -- big thrifting news -- the Salvation Army thrift store closer to me seems to be undergoing a transformation. Usually this particular store is a mess, with chipped china and stained linens and total chaos in the book section. Only occasionally do I find anything I want.

I popped in there yesterday, hoping to find maybe some more pillowcases, at least, or tablecloths for sewing projects. And, oh my! Shopping-cart-fuls of goods were being unloaded onto the newly organized shelves. After circling the aisles again and again as the carts were emptied, I emerged (was it an hour or two later?) with many many goodies, most destined for resale on Ebay or at the Inn Shop. I'll show some of my finds next week.

Enjoy the weekend. Spring seems right around the corner here, perhaps as soon as the 8" of snow (remaining from our recent 16") melts. The light is just beautiful.

Flea Market Bag

Oh, hello!

I haven't been here in a long time. But now it's February: almost spring and time to make great bags for all the wonderful markets -- flea, farmer's, antique -- that will soon be here.

This great bag is from Carry Me: 20 Boutique Bags to Sew. It measures a very generous 18" x 17" x 5.5" and has wonderfully deep side slits that allow the bag to open wide.

I decided to sew it up exactly per instructions, using an Amy Butler print for the outside and a thrifted piece of soft-handed woven green/blue fabric inside. I also put in the zippered pocket, using a technique I had not tried before: after attaching one side of the zipper tape to the pocket, the other side of the zipper tape is attached directly to the lining and then the pocket is topstitched down. I'm not convinced that this is the strongest pocket, but I wanted to try the technique. And I do like a zippered pocket in such a deep bag.

The outer fabric has ironed-on interfacing, which gives it just the right amount of body. I did add a second piece of regular interfacing to the top band to give it a bit more body and prevent droopy-droopy. But that's the only change I made.

All in all, a great pattern, easy to follow, and good results, I think. Am thinking of more more more to make -- especially with vintage tablecloths?

Thanks for reading my blog. And I promise not to disappear again.