Vintage Quilts

Nothing better than good estate sale finds! This week I stumbled upon a pile of hand-stitched quilt "squares" in the flower garden pattern. Judging by slightly yellowed muslin and the colors and prints my Mother and I agree that these are likely pre-war! Some hexagons show the stitching or seams of reused clothing, patchwork in the oldest traditions of the craft.
I've decided to Incorporate some of the pieces into bags, but most are going to be finished into quilts. I started with some of my own hand-stitching and it certainly gives you appreciation for a sewing machine!

Vintage Skirts

From a time when women were smaller.... I went to a crazy estate sale, and picked up sewing notions, cool fabric, and a pile of nice vintage pleated wool skirts. They appear to be homemade, and thus have no tags - and are about 24 inches around -.-

Fortunately since they are pleated there is plenty of fabric to make them big enough. I'll be posting a tutorial next week showing how I open up the waistband and give them some more space! No fair to let the skinny girls have all the fun after all...

More Vintage Buttons

It so happens that my pile of estate sale finds always runneth over. My mother and I are always picking up little bundles of notions and fabric scraps from the basements of old crafty ladies. I recently was going thru them and found this lovely bag of fabric covered buttons, all appear to be handmade. After some debate as to whether or not I wanted to use them I decided to put them on cards and stick them up in my Etsy shop! It's nice to share the vintage love right?

We be Stashin'

Estate Sale score!!
Mom and I went to a sale in a home rumored to be the abode of a former yarn shop owner, and we were not disappointed. Tons of vintage yarns, all sorts, and all in original bags and boxes with sets of 10 and 12 skeins intact! (Moth free to boot!) I picked up quite a pile, and in fact had to pass over the boxes of fabric since I was full up.
There were mostly older yarns, but this little gem is five skeins of koigu sock - lusciously soft and fabulously colored. It was in with bags of WIPs - ugly holiday sweaters and licensed character baby blankets... a glimmer of good taste in a sea of unfortunate crafts.


There were oodles of mohair blends, and much of what I got was mohair/angora or baby camel. Including 24 skeins of fuchsia bouclé - Mohair sweater here I come! Super fluffy and fuzzy, I'm happy to see it's bounced back after being stuffed away for many years!


Much of the rest was acrylics and such, but I did get this great sparkly wool blend just perfect for me (single ply, natural fibers, medium weight, glitter...) So now I have started growing a "real" stash with large-project quantities of yarns, in in 70 years I'm sure my estate will look like this one :p

Instant Collection - Vintage Finds

Step one - Go to thrift store, charity shops, garage sales, estate sales (you should be going there anyway!) and finding something you like. Pick up another. Find a set piece in your apartment dumpster, with a slight chip on it. Raid your Grandmother's house, she's getting old and won't notice something gone... right? Notice that you have an affinity for some old thing, for both it's aesthetics, and the well worn functionality.

Go on Etsy and find some more! I picked up some matching pieces for my sets on Etsy. When ever you see something like what you already have you can't help but reunite the set! (Say that to my bright red coffee tins that never more shall hold coffee) I had the plain green bowl, the large orange and the small handled bowl, I filled in the sets other pieces, and a spare!

I got one set of bowls from Jen'sCloset and the other from Zelle'sAttic . Hmmm, I sense a theme... Both were shipped promptly and arrived in one piece - oh so important for glass bowls! What ever nostalgia you are looking for, you can likely find it on Etsy, go check out their Vintage category, and remember that reuse is the first and most important of the three Rs.

More buttons!!

Mom is my hero. Once again hit the estate sale jackpot. 4 jars of buttons and a shoebox of 'em still on the cards. Woot! Now I can be destracted from actually sewing by the rainbow pile of buttons waiting to be sorted and paired up... Some of those on cards will be for sale in my etsy shop soon - I like to spread the joy around!