Sunday, April 12, 2009

Thrift Store Fabric

My favorite thrift store (Mennonite Central Committee) had a half price sale on fabric last week. I had limited time (was shopping in the city while Leah was at playschool), but I still managed to pick out 19.9 METRES of fabric. At 75c per metre, that's a HUGE savings over buying at a store.

I managed to sneak back a few days later, with a little more time on my hands, and picked out another 13.4 metres. That's 33.3m of fabric, for $24. I asked why they had so much fabric (there were boxes and boxes of it - lots of 1980's polyesters), and they said that a church had a fabric sale, and had donated all the leftovers.



That's my 33m+ pile of new fabric, all washed and ready to be sewn. the pieces range in size from .7m to 6.5m. Most are cotton (or blended) knits.

Some highlights:
  • The top 2 fabrics have silver threads through them, and one piece has a flower design, and the second is snakeskin (what the heck am I going to do with those??)
  • the first blue from the top is 4m of a lightweight denim type fabric with a herringbone pattern to it (pants??)
  • the grey/blue/black fabric just under the white knit is a polyester that I plan to make a skirt out of
  • the blue/green fabric directly under it is interesting - it's a fine tulle with a plush pattern of flowers - maybe a princess dress for a little girl (good thing I have one of those!)
  • everything below that is a knit (except for the piece of animal-print polar fleece).
  • the green and blue fabrics will probably be pajamas for DH
  • the blue print (polyester knit) will be a top for me
  • the black is 4-way stretch cotton-lycra and has an interesting crinkled texture to it
  • the very bottom is a thick, soft double knit that really looks like denim and would make lovely pajamas
Since I probably won't have much time for sewing until the fall (it's gardening and horse riding season now!), I might save this pile of fabric for next winter's Stash Contest at Pattern Review.

1 comment:

  1. That is a huge savings! Oh how I wish we had that type of store here. There is a discount fabric place about an hour's drive from here but even the local Wal-mart doesn't carry fabric anymore. All the small fabric stores closed as well. You are so lucky to be able shop a fabric store! I can't wait to see what you make.

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