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Thrift Store Fabrics for Sewing

Two twin-sized bed sheets ($6)

I was reading some of the blogs that I follow after the kids got up from their nap, and Emmmy Lizzzy’s post about vintage pillowcases stuck in my head (go there! She’s also having a giveaway!). So tonight when my husband suggested we go out for dinner, instead of a sit-down restaurant, I asked if we could just get fast food and stop at the thrift store (we actually went to 2…there’s one on just about every street in Chicago, it seems).

King-size teal blue flat sheet ($2), 4 yards purple cotton solid ($2), vintage floral tablecloth ($3)

I got some amazing and useful stuff! I spent $20 in all. The fabric in the first photo is already earmarked for a Colette Patterns Parfait dress (the 2nd photo, a pale blue dress); I’m making the Colette Eclair dress right now, and I’m almost finished! When I cut into this rainbow-striped fabric, I am going to fussy-cut it so that I can make the dress look chevron-striped!

In the last photo, the purple fabric is also earmarked for another Colette dress, the Ceylon, which is the last dress pictured (the vintage-inspired one with the short sleeves). I can picture the dress looking super-cute in this bright purple! And wouldn’t that be amazing…making such a tailored dress with a $5 piece of fabric!

2-yard green knit ($1), vintage XL pillowcase (.30), large purple decor-weight curtain ($5)

I was really surprised to see that two of the things that I bought were actually fabric that had once been on a bolt (you can see the raw edges on each end from where it was cut). One was a 2-yard piece and another a 4-yard piece…4 yards, the perfect backing for a quilt! I also thought that the king-sized blue bed sheet would make great backing for a quilt as well. The floral tablecloth in the second picture, I thought would make an excellent fabric for a bag.

I’m really excited with what I found…everything very useful for sewing. I’m sure I can find tons more things in the future, but I think I’m going to set my mind to at least sew up the 2 dresses that I intended two of these fabrics to go toward, before I do anymore thrift shopping (because I can see myself getting carried away). 🙂

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6 thoughts on “Thrift Store Fabrics for Sewing

  1. Okay, so this is one sewing realm I have not ventured into yet, but I’m quite curious to see how your dresses turn out!

  2. Bry says:

    This post is awesome! Although I must admit that first picture terrified me. My parents had THOSE sheets on their bed when I was a tiny kid, like 1 or 2, and there are several pictures of me jumping on their bed on them or sleeping in the middle of the bed on them. So yeah, that picture basically just blew my mind a little and threw me down memory lane!

  3. Yay! Awesome finds and thanks for the shout out. I just hit up a truly amazing estate sale today and I’ll be back next week to blog about what I picked up (probably the best find of my life 🙂

  4. Bree says:

    Look like some great finds! I always forget about looking for fabric at thrift shops, I know where I need to go over lunch one of these days!

  5. Reina Azteca says:

    Do you remember the name & address of the store?

  6. Molly says:

    Oh my gosh! I just today made this messenger bag out of a thrift store pillowcase that matches those sheets!
    http://i.imgur.com/lGoxj.jpg

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