Part Two: On With the Thrifting Treasures

I purchased a ton of stuff from the major thrifting places, Salvation Army, Goodwill, and the SPCA Thrift Store.  Most of it this week to be used in holday decor.  Then today on the way to Hobby Lobby I drove by an new thrift store benefitting the nonprofit I have been doing work for.  Surprise me--did not know they had one.

My table is full of treasures that I paid anywhere from 75 cents to $3.99 with most of the stuff about $1-$2.

This small pumpkin scene plate was 75 cents and the black iron holder ($1.01) was meant for a tile I think. It has two prongs at the top that I cut off with bolt cutters--love those things--bolt cutters that is.

The little rabbit with basket is small but very heavy and less than $3.00

The flower arrangement with the pink roses is for my mother it was $3.99

Small sunflower candle holder $1.01

Pheasant salt and pepper shakers $1.00 (tail on male bird was broken and glued back on--not an issue for my purposes and better than that no one but me will ever know)

This small piece of handmade pottery reminded me of an acorn.  It is heavy and very pretty.

These two angels that sit on the edge of a mantle match my Lenox nativity set and were only $4.04 for the two.  Next to it is a Lenox like Christmas ornament that holds a photo on the other side--$2.02.  It would also be beautiful as trim on a Christmas package.

These are two pieces meant to hang on the wall, one is corn and the other lilies. 

A small porcelian doll with red hair dressed in a beautiful green dress.

Vintage Santa less that $4.00

Two more Lenox like pieces--the heart trinket box is Lenox and the reindeer is close enough.

Ok, that is all I can show you for now since I have to run.  Tune in later for more and I'll show you my lovely Thanksgiving mantel piece all decorated with some of these thrifted items.

Promise kept and new projects completed.

I promised on  Sew A Beginner's blog that I would wear a garment I made before the weekend was through.  So for our Sunday morning brunch downtown I wore the blue knit dress I made with a cute fuzzy cardie I bought at Salvation Army.  The dress has small flowers on it the same color as the cardie.

This is really turquoise not teal as it appears here. 

What I leanred from wearing this garment is that the neckline is too wide for me.  As I moved around this would fall off my shoulder if I was not careful.  I like this pattern so I will re-draft the neckline to make it narrower.  By the way the cardie was a bargain at $2.99!  I recently was donating some things and took a look around.  I bought a bunch of tops, jackets, etc. for $1.99, $2.99 or $3.99.  Some of these items were top name brands and new.  Yeah for me!

Projects I have completed were the new red skirt from the previous "was going to be a dress".  This was the red slinky knit that was torturing me but I won HAHA!

Red Slinky Knit Skirt

I also made a four gore skirt from a purple micro suede I purchased at Hancock's Fabrics from their bargain fabric section.  It was so soft and the skirt was easy to make.  I hemed it by hand which was a breeze.

I am thinking maybe to wear this in the fall with a pair of boots.  But who knows maybe I'll come up with a way to wear it this summer too.

This is a vintage baby pattern I found in the sewing machine cabinet of the Bernina I picked up at my mother's.  I tried it out in a really inexpensive (yep, that means cheap) cotton from Wal-Mart.  The pattern was so easy and this was the first garment I have made from cotton.  Oh my gosh, how easy is cotton to sew with?  And I did Hong Kong seams!  I did not have the 1/4 inch elastic needed to finish the little panties so that is for another day.  I think the pattern is too small for the child I had in mind but it gave me more confidence to try sewing with cotton and on baby garments again.

Still need to perfect gathering as you can see

Hong Kong Seams in top

This is the new project I started.  I selected the jacket to sew and the fabric is a knit which costs $2.00 per yard.  So no fear on messing up a really expensive fabric.  Just the usual fear I have when I select a fabric with a design.  I never can foresee how it will look and sometimes that means I work on a really ugly garment before I can see where things are going. 

So what do you think?  Will this paisley design fabric look good with this jacket pattern?  Do you have any hints on selecting fabrics to patterns that would help?