Sunday, August 29, 2010

Struck Gold Today!


What a day! One of our elderly neighbors passed away a few months ago (age 95!) and this weekend the family had a sale of some of her things. Amazingly, we actually got out of the house before 2pm to go over and take a look. We were the only ones there.

Ooh, there was this box of wonderful  vintage sewing patterns, Free! I just love those dresses. I drool over them. Goodeness know where I would wear them, but I still love them and I'm actually going to try my hand at making one.
Then, there was this box labled "remnants 10 cents ea. or $4.00 for the whole box"  When we got home I started pulling some of it out to look at and realized that it was sewn up on three sides. I thought she'd maybe started making pillowcases or cushion covers out of it all, but something didn't look right. Then all of a sudden it dawned on me! This isn't a box of remnants, it's a box of vintage feedsacks from the 1930s! All washed and pressed and inside-out. I've read about them, and how farm wives used to make dresses.quilts and aprons or tea towels out of them, but I've never seen them in real life. I was so excited. I looked online and can't believe how much they sell for. Most of these are in very good condition too.
And then, there was this lovely sewing machine! It's a Singer 6105. Not an antique, but vintage and much better quality than the modern machines. It works great and is so quiet. You can hardly hear it. I love it!
I got two more boxes of fabric too. Some really nice stuff in two or three yard lengths. Altogether it came to $38! and  that included an old typewriter Joshua wanted. He also bought himself an old 35mm camera and light meter and a wind-up watch.

Yesterday, someone gave Ken one of those pop-up camping trailors! It's damaged and they didn't want to be bothered with fixing it. It's a bit raggedy but will be quite nice if Ken can fix it. If not, he's just going to tear off the camper and build a box trailor on the axel.

What a weekend! Nothing like "free" :)

2 comments:

maria said...

Wow! I can't believe you got so lucky to be able to get those flour sacks.

I remember my grandma talking about them when I was growing up.

Marie

Polly said...

Hi Maria, yes, I was in shock.

After reading about "poor" kids "having to go to school in feed sack dresses" I imagined ugly, low quality fabric, but this stuff is really pretty and sturdy.