Wednesday, August 7, 2013

My Weekly Thrift Shop Run

 I find my "second chance" craft supplies, fabric and patterns, as well as my clothing and linens to upcycle in all kinds of places. Thrift shops, yard sales, estate sales, auctions, friends and family and more. The thrift shop pictured above, though, is a weekly stop. They have patterns and fabric for sale on a very regular basis. They bag up their fabric, yarn and other craft supplies in large bags and it's often a guessing game as to what is in the bag. I can spend several minutes per bag trying to determine if the bag is worth buying.

They have a system of coding everything by color. After a number of weeks they start reducing the items. I don't wait for the fabric and patterns to be reduced or I would miss out on a lot of good stuff but when I'm looking for items to upcycle, I look for the items that are 75% off for two reasons. One, because it's a lot cheaper and two because it's had awhile to sell and hasn't. These are usually the items that are worn, stained, have buttons missing or other problems and this makes it a prime candidate for upcycling!
And this is the haul for this week, lots of patterns that I'm listing now on Deb's Patterns. A bag of fabric and another bag of buttons that I still have to go through and take pics and list on Deb's Crafts. A couple shirts for pillows or whatever, a beach wrap with messed up fringe and a stained damask tablecloth, all candidates for upcycling, watch Deb Upcycles for the results once I figure out what I'm going to make.

5 comments:

Nalin said...

I love thrift store "grab bag" fabrics! I'm the same way, I'll look through them to decide whether they're worth buying or not. Sometimes it bugs me when there's one material I like in one bag and then another in a second bag...I end up having to get both bags even if I don't necessarily like the other materials they're paired with.

Karen said...

I have a good thrift store ON MY STREET. Do you know how dangerous that is? I stop in several times a week, strategically "relocating" things I want in anticipation of the weekly Saturday half-price day.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Oh I love thrift stores, loads of them in Edinburgh and some of them 'specialise' in crafting supplies

SarahBeth said...

Thrift shops are THE BEST for fun shopping! I have a vintage shop also and find many goodies in thrift shops! Looks like you had a successful trip!

Natural Home Maker said...

Following you from the Etsy blogging buddies team! Thanks for following my blog too!

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