Vintage Sheet Bunting

I'm sl....ooow...ly, getting some sewing done.  My craft area had been a complete disaster, but now there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  I still got a bit of a mess of items/junk I don't know what to do with, but my vintage sheets are all nice an organized, I can access my sewing machine, and I now have a permanent cutting table in my room. Yay, to no longer cutting on the floor.

I have pictures of what my room was like, and pictures of the complete disaster it turned into once I decided to move things around.  You know how that goes.  You want to organize so you start to pull things out of all the nooks and crannies, and the mess ends up throwing up on itself.  It was AWFUL.  No pictures just yet though.  I'll share when I get my area a bit more picked up and I'll reveal the before and after.  Yikes!

So what have I accomplished sewing wise as of late?  As I mentioned in a previous post I'm looking for my niche.  I'm gonna try a whole bunch of different things and see what sticks.  The last week or so I've been here and there with bunting.  Finally last night I got to assemble a couple.

I'll admit I wasn't too excited by it when I was cutting out the flags.  I wasn't that impressed with what I was seeing.  However, once I got them sewn onto the binding it all came together, and it was soo much nicer than what I expected.

This rainbow bunting from flag to flag is 10 feet with an extra foot of binding at both ends totaling 12 feet.  Twelve flags in all, each flag from a different vintage sheet.  The flags are made with the same fabric on both sides.  Even the binding is made from vintage sheet.

A smaller version was made with 6 flags.

Both buntings are now in my Etsy shop ready for your next party or to cheer up your craft/kids room.  

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Thrift Share Monday - March 26

Boring estate sales this weekend, and really blah garage sales, but I have some small finds from the thrift stores. 

The Goodwill surprised me this week (and it very RARELY does).  I almost passed this (well I did several times) since it was on a top shelf (I'm bad with not looking up).  What a super cute Anchor Hocking retro pitcher.  Love it!

Since I'm mentioning Goodwill let me ask you all a question.  Have you noticed that Goodwill is trashier than most other thrift stores? (At least around here it is)  I usually steer clear of here, for one prices are usually higher than the other thrift stores I shop, I never find vintage sheets here (or the one time I did it was $9 for the sheet compared to the $3-$4 I usually spend), and their shelves are absolute disaster zones.  Stuff is literally just thrown onto the shelves, so messy, cluttered, and just unappealing to look at.

Ok, onto the next items.  These were happy finds, since  I scored them at a shop I've been too only once before (it's a very small thrift store, at a weird traffic spot, but I think I'll need to make the effort to go more often).  I got this great Square Flower Pyrex divided casserole, 

and this glass.  What? A single glass was a find?  Yup!  Especially when you have three already like it, two small and one large.  Now I have two large to complete the set.  Happy dance!

The fourth....

to add to my trio.  :-)

At one of my favorite thrift stores, I scored this super cute, tiny, mid-century, Lane Furniture, side table for $8, but since I was spending a total of $15 (including vintage sheets) I was able to use a $5 off coupon.  Therefore this table was $3.  Wooot!

Got this Fire King McDonald's, milk glass mug.   I looked this up on Ebay and saw a fluctuation in prices based on how many mugs were being sold.  One mug goes anywhere from $1-$6, but if you have multiple mugs the prices go up.  One listing had 6 mugs and sold for almost $70.  I'll hold onto this and see if I bump into any more.  In the meantime it will be a nice mug to have around, McDonald's is very nostalgic for me. 



Now my vintage sheet finds.  I've tried not to buy sheets with white being the primary color, but these were all great so I couldn't pass them up. 

 Some pillow cases

And then these.  These were found at separate thrift stores.  I especially love the daisies with the pink center.  I think it would make a great spring dress.  Now only if I could make dresses.  :-/ 

I'm looking forward to the end of this week.  Got a church around the block from me that will be having a 48 hour garage sale.  Yeah, that's right for 48 hours they'll have their parking lot all decked out garage sale style while they camp out and sell.

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Giveaway Winners!

Happy Friday!

Got some winners to announce for my Etsy Shop Anniversary giveaway.

Picked via Random.org my two winners are

lynaeve

and




















Sunni from Love Affair with my Brother.

Congratulations!  I'll be emailing you soon, so check out my shop to see what item you would like to pick.  Choices are a handmade purse, an apron, or a 10 pack bundle of vintage sheet fat quarters of your choice. 

Thank you, everyone who entered, and welcome to my new followers.

I'm coming close to 100 followers.  So keep an eye out for another giveaway (hopefully soon).  

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Crafting Voodoo?

A little over a week ago while thrifting I was browsing the crafting section, and spotted this....

I thought to myself "What The!  What is this doing in the crafting section?" Then I laughed to myself.  Ha!  Craft.  I guess practicing Voodoo could be considered a craft to some. 

However, that's not a craft I'd want to partake in,  maybe witchcraft, but not voodoo.  So I left the kit for someone else to buy.  Good luck to them, and sorry to those who will be "picked" on. 

I'm having an Etsy anniversary giveaway going on until tomorrow night, March 22.  Go check it out.

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Thrift Share Monday - March 19

I currently have a Etsy shop giveaway ending March 22.  Click here for more info.

Sheesh!  It seems like forever since I've done any garage sale hopping.  I've tended to stick to estate sales and thrift stores, mainly due to the lack of good garage sales.  I don't clothes dive, I don't have the patience to sort through clothes, pretty much at any venue, and it seemed like most garage sales towards the end of last year were just that...clothes.

It's early in the year, and warming up,  therefore people are getting out of their slumber and are spring cleaning.  Hopefully meaning good goods.  On Saturday, my garage sales hopping wasn't planned, at the last minute 10 a.m. (I know late on garage sale time)  I decided to head out.  I didn't find a ton, but I think I found a few good things.  

These two almost perfect Corning Ware coffee/tea pots, were scored.  During my year of thrifting you learn certain patterns of certain items.  Like with Corning Ware you see all-the-time the "Blue cornflower" pattern and "Spice of Life".  I've purchased some of these items and learned yeah they could sell, but not at a big profit.  So when I saw these two patterns they were foreign to me.  I hadn't seen them anywhere before, not even during my research while looking up other patterns.  So I was intrigued, and bought them.

My digging (research) showed the blue flowered pattern is called "Canterbury" and the other soft faint iris pattern is called "Shadow Iris".  On Ebay I found two of the "Canterbury" patterned pots sold back in January for $40+ each.  Yeah! That's what I like to see.  The "Shadow Iris" doesn't have any completed listings on Ebay, but I found one listed on Ruby lane for $23.  Hmmm....I think I'll post "Canterbury" on Ebay and "Shadow Iris" on Etsy.

Now onto what might be my treasure find. This typeset drawer, for $5. 

Isn't if fantastic?  In my year plus of thrifting I haven't seen one yet.  The second I saw it I knew what I wanted it for, but wasn't quiet sure my wanna-be use for it would fit.  I bought it anyway, it was just too good to pass up.  I was even proud that I was able to say 'thank you' when I bought it.  Huh?  Yes, I always say thank you ..... for everything, but here I noticed the "money takers" were signing to each other (sign language).  I've always wanted to learn to sign, and I've taught myself very minimal signs (mainly the alphabet), and the thank you is a sign I knew.  So that made me happy, or proud of myself to sign "thank you" once I paid....very silly I know.

Oh! So it looks like this score will meet it's purpose.  A place to put my thread.  The plastic thread containers I had were just not cutting it.  How cute is this gonna be?  I need more thread.  :-)

I love to paint everything black, but for some reason that urge is not here for this.  Think I'll leave it as is,  whatcha think?

Now earlier in the week I bought this shelf, at a thrift store, with the intent to use for my thread and other small objects, since these shelves are deeper, but now I got my old new typeset drawer for that, and I'm out of walls.  Ugh!  I'm gonna have to figure out what to do with this.  I know it'll look great black.  ;-)

Sunday, I went to the other side of town.  Mainly for a friends, daughters birthday, but during the week I saw there was gonna be a Sunday sale up in her neck of the woods.  So of course I might as well kill two birds with one stone.  I hit up this sale prior to the party, and I'm glad I did. 

This wasn't the usual garage/estate sale. I didn't ask too many questions, however I did talk with the seller quiet a bit.  From what I got she hunts for things, I don't know if she has the intent to sell, but she buys and if it doesn't work for her home then she sells.  I'm guessing.  The sale was inside her home, and she showed me what was for sale.  She had some very cute furniture for sale and not for sale.  Either way she had a retro vintage eye.  She asked me what I was looking for and I mentioned the Corning Ware that was in her post (no title, item description or pictures), so I was curious to see what she had. 

She had some Butterfly Gold plates, cups, AND Pyrex bowls in this same print.  OMG!!!  I looked at them and kept on walking.  Ekk! I didn't want to seem too excited, besides I was the only one shopping.

We talked about thrifting, where she finds her stuff (up in her neck of the woods of course where I almost never venture out to), and talked about her boyfriends art work.  Very cool funky stuff.  He makes stuff out of old rusty metal, like wall hangings and little plaques with nut and bolt little robot people.  It reminded me of that movie "Robots", a really cute movie. (sorry no photos my daughter was playing with my phone in the car while waiting for me) 

Then I browsed some more at what I might want to buy.  Then she showed me this melamine set, still in it's original box.  I couldn't pass it up.

At my max, or what should be way over my max, to spend I decided to walk out with the Pyrex bowls, all 5, and the 34 piece melamine set.  I'm gonna have to keep this Pyrex set, I already have 8 hook cups to match it, and how could I sell the melamine set?  Ugh!

Sooo, you might want to know how much I spent on these two items.  Garage sale wise a little pricey, estate sale wise maybe below their cost,  $30 for the 5 Pyrex bowls, and $20 for the 34 piece melamine set.  In your thrifty opinion did I do good with these prices?  I did talk down prices, the Pyrex was originally $40 and the melamine $25, so I knocked off $15.  

Sometimes my thrifting doesn't seem thrifty...even though it is, but then when I think to buy for myself instead of resell I start second guessing my purchases.  Ay!  Maybe the melamine might go up for sale, but I'm not too sure about the Pyrex.  Ugh!

Don't forget to check out my Etsy shop giveaway

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My Etsy Anniversary, and Giveaway.

This giveaway has ended

So this week is my 1 year Etsy shop anniversary.  I will admit I didn't think I would stick with it this long.  Wow, where did the year go?

Rainbow 6 pack fat quarter bundle

In my year I think I've sold a "good" amount of items.  Not enough to make a living out of it, but in a way enough to encourage my thrifting habit.  I've learned, somewhat, what sells and what's too much of a bother to buy to attempt to sell, but the temptation is just too great sometimes.  I love buying glass kitchen goods, but most of the time it seems like shipping is the same cost, if not more, than what is being sold.  So this is a big deterrent for me to list these items.  I can't stand buying items with high shipping costs, and it's hard to justify selling items with high shipping cost.  So most of these items live in storage, and are pulled out for the markets I attempt.

Key fobs

Aprons

During my year on Etsy I've sold 56 items.  Out of those 56 sales 62.5% have been vintage sheet fat quarters/scraps, 25% vintage items, and 12.5% handmade.   This is interesting.  I wouldn't have initially guessed my vintage sheets would be over half of what I sell.  However, thinking about it my sheet listings are more frequently changing/listing since that supply changes soo much, then next my vintage items.  My handmade items, I guess, have tended to get stale because if I'm not selling I'm not making/listing new items, therefore probably being my problem.  I need to keep on listing handmade items to give a variety to choose from.  Right?

There I have a goal.  TRY to list new handmade items more frequently.  I've done this already, kinda.  Within the past month I've added aprons to my handmade goods, and if I do say so myself they are pretty cute.  Yesterday I listed some key fobs.  Next, maybe some bunting or baby kimono shoes.  :-)

So, since my shop is now 1 year old, I want to celebrate.  It's a feat to last this long on Etsy, for me at least, especially since I had no idea how long I'd keep it up.  I've been a part of some great treasuries.  I have a good amount of admirers, and it's nice to see when someone "favorites" an item you've listed.   Ugh! I'm starting to ramble again.

So anyways!  For my 1 year Etsy shop anniversary I have up for grabs, the winners can pick one, a handmade purse/apron or 10 pack vintage sheet fat quarter bundle of your choice from my shop.

Yes, I did say winners above.  There will be two winners.  :-) 

Also, for all you lovely readers you get 20% off your purchase, use discount code EtsyAnniversary at checkout. 



To enter just leave any comment for one entry,  if you have an Etsy shop tell me how long you've been open.  You could even add your link to your comment so I (and others) can visit.

For additional entries
Be a follower of Sleeping or Sewing, if you already are let me know (1 entry)
Like me on Facebook, if you already do let me know too (1 entry)

That's a total of 3 entries.  Yay!

Entries close next Thursday, March 22 at midnight CST, and the winners will be announced the following Friday, March 23.  Winners will be selected using Random.org.

Good luck!

This giveaway has ended 

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Thrift Share Monday- March 12

This week it appears I went way off the beaten path, as in I've made some thrifted purchases that are not my norm....and one well...I don't think is a frequent thrifted norm in general.

Last weekend at a monthly market I had seen an old vintage ironing table, wooden top with thin metal legs for $30.  I had debated about asking to lower the price, but even at a lowered price it wasn't something I really wanted to spend money on.  So I left with it on my mind.  :-/   Then my week starts and I run by my regular thrift shop.  I see a worker place down a small table top ironing board in a area I usually don't look at, so I go see what there is.  Then low and behold I see this.  A wooden ironing table for $4.  Yeah, I want it.  It would be a great/cute table/display for my markets, and it is very sturdy  Awesome!

The same day I see an other item at a very low price, but an extremely impractical purchase.  So I walk away.  However, I go back the next day, and it's still there.  Ugh!  It is soo inexpensive I know at one point down the line I'm gonna be kicking myself for not buying it....so I did.  A  7' sled, for $5  (OMG! as I'm typing this I decide to look it up and it's worth $150)  This purchase is far from practical since I live in Austin, and we don't get snow, aside from the single flurry once every few years, but my kids grandparents have a house in Ruidoso, NM where they plan to retire (I think this year), and they get snow.  Yay!  I'm soo happy with this purchase.  :-)

Photo of sled at thrift shop before I made my purchase.

The rest of the week was quiet, until Friday.  I had been eying an Estate sale, the photos really didn't show much of anything I'd be interested in buying, but because it was in a high end neighborhood, 5,000+ square feet, and on the lake I just had to check it out.

Me and mom my got their early and waited in line, in the 40 degree weather (burrr!). 

Holy cow!  This house was ridiculous.   The estate photos doesn't do this sale justice.  This place was crammed packed with toys, dolls, knick knacks. Here are a few generic photos I took with my phone, plus a quick wobbly video of one of the rooms that was cased with dolls.  I know for one I would be scared to be in this house at night.  Who knows what all these dolls do after midnight.   

There were 6 shelves, in one room, on one wall just filled with little things.  Much more shelves throughout the house

1/10 of the Christmas room

Small section of a table covered in more toys. 

As usual I bee line to the kitchen  to see what I could find, and found two lovely lime green Pyrex bowls.

This place was overwhelming with dolls EVERY-WHERE. So it seemed like I roamed and roamed and roamed.  I keep thinking I was missing something.  Little baggies of grouped toys and knick knacks all over.  This was a little high priced, but it's seamed like Matryoshka dolls have done well for me, and it did appear that the tags at the bottom of these ornaments were Russian, so I bought them.  They really are pretty,  who knows I might just keep them for myself.  Can you pick out which one of these things doesn't belong here?

Don't know how that little old man got packed with these beautiful girls.

This one is my favorite.

This one I thought was different.  She has hair.  Is this common?  I haven't seen too many of these, but the ones I have seen don't have hair.

 They are all so pretty.

I'm getting ready to check out, and there is a long line (like 20 people deep).  I get in line then once again I feel like I am missing something.  So I start walking some more, and what did I miss?  The master bedroom, duh.  The floor plan to this house was really strange, and apparently I keep on missing the master bedroom since there were so many people in this house.  The bedroom wasn't huge, and it was filled with racks of clothes, but then I go into the bathroom.  Nothing too exciting at first, but then I start strolling the closet. Yes, I said strolling the closet.  It was a U shaped closet in the bathroom.  Picture the bathtub in the center of the room as you walk in.  To the right was a hall of closet, then it wrapped around and back up to the other side of the bathtub.  This bathroom/closet was as large as our living room, dining room, kitchen combined.  Ugh!

At the back of the closet was a table of scarves.  I usually don't look through clothing and stuff like this, but did just because.  I found a cute scarf that I though would look good as a hair wrap.

Chiffon, hand rolled, hand printed scarf. 

Then I bumped into scarf that I recognized it's mark, Vera.  I grabbed it and looked for some more.  I saw one other, but it had a hole.  So I strolled out of the closet, and back into the master bedroom (sheesh all this walking is making me tired). (Research on this scarf shows the signature is from the early 1950's, and looks to be in perfect condition.  Wow!  I saw another scarf similar to this listed on Ebay, but with different colors for $99.  Does anyone have any suggestions or experience in selling Vera scarves, and what should I list this for?)

Early 1950's Vera silk scarf

On, Esty, I see a lot of vintage purses, and it looks like they sell.  So while in the master bedroom I see this sleek purse (Bags by Nicholas Reich).  I'm not much of a purse person, but its simple, sleek lines make me want to get it.  If it sells it sells, if it doesn't then I'll have a nice dress up purse for that day I ever go out someplace nice.  Or you know what?  This purse would probably look fabulous if you're just dressing up your jeans.

There weren't any other purses in the master bedroom that caught my eye,  so I started hiked my hike to the other end of the house looking for the never ending checkout line, and did some more browsing along the way.  Then laying on the floor with some dolls were these super cute purses.  The wine colored one, unmarked, caught my eye since this is one of my favorite colors.  The purse if very simple, but unique.  A zippered pocket on one side, flip up the flap and you have your standard purse interior with a small zippered interior pocket, but as I had the flap up I noticed the flap it's self was also another opening.  This sold me.

Lift up flap to get access to an interior pocket.

Flap its self is a huge pocket. 

Then we have this gorgeous camel colored purse (Genuine Leather by Morris Moskowitz).  This purse would look so nice with jeans,  and like the other purses it is simple.  My thing with purses, and why I'm not a purse person is because what I always see at the store are purses with a dozen zippers, belt buckles, chains, loops, hooks, and whistles (ok...maybe not the whistles).  So these purses are the perfect purses, in my eyes.  What's even better?  They are like new.  This one, the camel colored one, does not look like it's ever been used.  It's in absolute perfect condition. 

You know, this estate sale and week was really fun.  I love my out of the norm purchases.

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Looking for a Niche

I'm all over the place with my ideas, and wants.  Sometimes you hear that you need to focus on one thing and just go with it, but according to a fabulous blog and book I'm gonna do what I want.  At least for now.

The blog/book I'm referencing is Austin Kleon, and his brand spanking new book is "How to Steal Like an Artist".  I absolutely love it.  It is based on a blog post of his, which has now blossomed into a book.  In his book, at one point, he mentions what happens when you focus on one thing, leaving other things behind.  When you do this you end up feeling an ache, because you miss/long to do the other things you want, that you have pushed aside.  Therefore, in the long run you're not happy doing the one thing your doing.  (He refers more to things you love, but I'm gonna translate this to things I want to try.)

I'm not doing anything drastic I'm just saying I want to do a variety of handmade items.  At first I wanted to focus on purses, but as of now those are just sitting there, and at this point in time they haven't done much for me.  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my bags that I've made, they just haven't satisfied that feeling... yet.  I think making my own pattern, might help, but that's down the line. 

Recently I got an itch and made some aprons.  Now I'm gonna do a few key fobs.  I placed an order for a few supplies on Wednesday and got them Saturday.  So super fast.  Thank you A Graff Supplies.

I'm really happy with my color choices.  The webbing colors I chose are with the intent to be accented with vintage sheets, of course, plus I got some hardware to match some black webbing I've been hoarding. 

Next, out of the blue, while roaming Etsy I saw some super cute baby fabric shoes, and figured they'd look super cute, also in vintage sheets.  Plus they'd be fantastic scrap busters.  So I bought the pattern.  Thank you LenasShoePatterns for the super fast email PDF delivery.   I can't wait to make these.  I don't have any baby tryer-oners in my circle, and I don't plan on making any more babies.  So if you have some little one's who could sport some cute fabric shoes I'd love to have them test some.  So keep an eye out for when I'll need some testers.

These are smalls addition to my large array of things I want to make, baby steps.  Will these sell or just sit here?  I'll never know until I try.  Bottom line, you'll never know until you try, and you'll ALWAYS wonder.  I'll do these, then go onto the next thing.  Then back and forth, or just forward. 

Maybe along this array of things I'll find my niche.  Have you found your niche? 
  

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