What 30 Minutes in a Thrift Store Can Accomplish...

Who says that being frugal cannot be an absolute joy to execute! There is something magical in the hunt...the hunt for beauty, function, a need, inspiration, or uniqueness. There is a fun challenge to find something worn, tattered, or forgotten that has hidden potential. There is laughter to be found in objects that make no sense but show the comic side of an individual. There is a sigh of relief when the budget can only stretch so far and the needs seem to outweigh it -if purchased in a "real" store...but you find it for pennies in a "treasure" store. There is playfulness, creativity, and intrique to be captured among those messy shelves. Yes, I am a thrift store junkie and happy to be so. My kids have grown up affectionately calling these stores the "treasure" store. My trips thrifting are for everything from the normal mundane things like kiddos growing out of their jeans every other month(or so it seems) to furniture(my very favorite pieces in my house have been aquired at thrift stores) to fabric(I very rarely even walk in the door of a fabric store anymore). I will pick up clothing to make patterns from, recycle the fabric, or redesign into one of a kind pieces for family and friends. I have found beautiful frames for capturing precious family photos that I could never have afforded to get professionally framed. There is no better place to find unique storage solutions that fit both form and function from funky old suitcases to charming old enamelware pots. Even my antique blueware china was thrifted-squeal! My children eat through books and our walls are piled with treasured stories and adventured that only cost a dime or quarter but fed their imagination beyond what could be measured in dollars. With all of that said, I thought I would share one of my 30 minute trips to a thrift shop and how it takes care of so many areas of our lives.

Here is my one load of laundry and endless possibilities from my trip!

Some fabric yardages for the shop. New and old.

Two vintage slips for the shop. Such yummy colors!

A cotton top that has an amazing bold design that I will use for quilting!

Two vintage cross stitched aprons. And again-these will be put in the shop or used to repurpose.

And 4 pillowcases for the pillowcase bundles I offer in the shop. Perfect for wee one's pants, dresses, quilting and so on!

My girls love fun socks! So, they always greet me at the door to see if I have scored a new wild pair for them! Today, I found one for Bell. Oh the joy in simple pleasures!

A fleece baby blanket that will work wonderfully for the lining in my felted wool mittens!

Three new sheets to cut into fat quarters for the shop.
Two fun sets of vintage cloth napkins. I will either reuse them in sewing projects or list them in the shop. Still have decided:)

Some fun plaid shirts for the littlest and biggest men in my life:)

An old globe for a continuing project in the kiddos rooms. I made a mobile over Noah's bed from all sizes of vintage globes. The girls have requested one of these as well. Couple dollars for a broken down globe is exactly what I need for this!

This is what Noah's mobile looks like . So I am in the process of collecting for the girls.

Finally!! I have found a drum shade! I have been looking for over 6 months for one of these. I have had plans to recover one.

Here is the finished project-yeah!!!. Here is the how to on how I recovered the shade.

A beautiful ceramic bowl for the kitchen-all the more reason to eat fruit all day long!

Oh! And I almost forgot! I also found a brand new pair of aeropostale jeans(labels matter little to me as far as vanity-but I will say that quality many times is found in the better labels and are therefore a good buy) for my oldest son-and he said-hey-they will fit for at least a month:) Sorry-he refuses to allow me to take pics of him-stinker totally!

mAKING THE mOST oUT oF yOUR rECLAIMED wOOL sWEATERS...

I do not always work in this order but I thought it would be fun to share a bit on how to reclaim a wool sweater for quite a few wonderful new purposes! Whether you "accidentally" washed a lovely wool sweater or did it on purpose, now you have a fabulously felted piece of cloth. And once you get a tiny taste of this little miracle and the creativity waiting around the corner for this scumptious fabric, no wool sweater will ever be safe again and neither will your washing machine or dryer! If you have felted wool, you know what i am speaking of.

Usually, I work in bunches, I gather, gather, and gather and then I explode into a big ol mess of possibilities of one item. If I am doing a hat, I do 15, if I am doing a coffee cozy, I do 20, etc etc. But today, I am taking 3 sweaters and showing all the things that can be done with them.

First, they had to be felted(this I do as soon as they come in the front door. ) Hot water wash, good amount of soap and a hot dryer and that will shrink, soften and make that wool much denser, and in my opinion, much warmer! I wash like colors together, otherwise, if you mix colors, they will come out a mess of mixed colors and be much more difficult to work with. So, do it in small loads, many times I have to wash each sweater individually. When you dry it, throw in a clean towel which will help it to felt and dry quicker.

This time I am working with 3 sweaters in grays and blacks. My sweet sis wanted a pair of the mittens I started making a few weeks ago. She loves simplicity, so black is the winner.

The pieces of the mittens can be cut from the bodies of the sweaters. The cuffs on the sweater are perfect for the cuffs on the mittens. I have shown those peices in the picture.


I do line my mittens with fleece-but they can be lined with wool also. So Nic! They are finished and should be in the mail by next year:)-just kidding-you should have them soon! Just need to get Mike's done!

Now, there is still ALOT of wool left in these sweaters, so here are some more ideas for what to make.

The next thing I made from these sweaters is a toddler hat. Use the bottom hem of the sweater that already has a finished and most of the time a decorative finish making it a wonderful asset to your hat. Most of the time I do not do a finishing stitch on my hats because -1. It is itchy and uncomfortable and 2. wool that has been felted almost always will not fray.

I used the grey to applique a giraffe to the front of the hat. And again, it does not need to be satin stitched or finished because it does not fray. You can find applique shapes in almost anything. Stencils, coloring books, fabric designs, doodles from your kiddos,art books, clip art, etc provide great designs for applique.

Next comes the smaller scraps you end up with from these projects. I do sell quite a bit of my scraps through the shop to wool artists, but the scraps that I keep, I store in a vintage suitcase. It is fantastic to tote to wherever I need to work.

From the scraps, there are a few things that I have done. First, I made a fun headband. I cut out circles from the wool and used a stippling foot on my machine to sew them together. The same foot I use in my free motion quilting.
Here are the modern forms of a wool penny. It is fun to create with things little joys.
I cut a strip from the black sweater for the body of the headband and handstitched the pennies to it.

I am so happy with this. With not alot of time to spend on my hair, at least this little wonder will help dress my doo up.

Using the same concept, I worked on a brooch for the first time. I am hooked!
I did cheat a bit on this and the hairband, I dug into my scraps for the reds. So in all honesty I used more than three sweaters in these projects.

Here are the steps for the brooch...

Oops, that is not wool! But they sure do help! My Coleman made up a batch of chocolate chip cookies for us...YUM! Nothing better to spur on the imagination.
Play around with the pennies and figure out how you want them arranged. I hand stitch them together.
Here is a picture of the back. Now even though you will not see the back of the brooch, it is still a good idea to back it with one solid piece of fabric. Not only does it give it a cohesive look to it, it also stabalizes the entire piece.
I pinned the brooch to a scrap piece of the back wool and top stitched it. I also added some leaves to the brooch in this step.
Next cut off the excess black wool.
Here is the finished back. Last you just need to sew on a brooch pin. Yeah!

Of course there are a few other goodies that can be made from felted wool, pillows, coffee cozies, coasters, etc. Happy felting!!!!