I’ve had a few thrift store wins lately, after taking a break from thrifting. One of our thrift stores sells donated fabric in a careful manner, they measure and note the size and sell pieces individually, rather than than the fabric grab bags at another store and our Goodwill not bothering with fabric at all. I chose several high quality quilting cottons (quilt shop quality), vintage from the 1990s, for $3 per yard. I also bought a Baby Lock Embellisher 12 needle felting machine for $35 — they sell for $200 and up used. I’ll play with it and decide if I want to keep it or sell it. It could be fun to use to add designs to felted bags.
The same store had a dollar rack out front. I picked up a 100% cotton sweater (Tommy Bahama and I was surprised at what they sell for used online), a 1990s vintage 100% wool skirt, and a set of 3 heavy placemats ($1 for all 3).
At the big local thrift I bought a stainless steel 1 cup measuring cup for 99¢, a set of stainless steel measuring spoons for 1.98 (which I mostly wanted for the 1 tablespoon), a 12 ounce Hydro Flask with coffee lid for $2.97, and a Starbucks insulated ceramic tumbler for $3.98. I always grab the Starbucks ceramic tumblers, as they are DH’s preferred cup for making loose tea, and they do get broken every now and then. The Hydroflask needed a good clean — I found myself wondering if someone donated it just because they didn’t know how to get the coffee residue out, which is an absolute shame. The interior is gleaming now, and the only part still stained is the silicone ring, but it’s in good shape. We did realize we probably need to order some generic silicone rings since we have a quite a few thrifted Hydro Flasks.
As for grab bags, I bought 3 large yarn grab bags last week at $6 each, only to be slightly disappointed over all, as I ended up wanting less than 1/3 of the yarn. The shop had split 6 matching skeins of organic cotton yarn that I did want between the 3 bags, which was rather tricky I think. The person who donated the yarn had wound most of it into cakes, and the fiber content was uncertain until I could actually get my hands on it. Whoever wound the yarn had put the labels in the middle of the cakes, so after I bought the grab bags I realized the cakes were all synthetic yarn, despite the organic cotton yarn in the bags, which had led me to think maybe the previous owner had liked using natural fibers. One bag did have some super bulky 85% wool yarn I can use to try out the needle felting machines. Luckily I have a friend who was happy to take the yarn I didn’t want.
