Tuesday, December 30, 2008

sew groovy

The event that sort of kicked off our string of bad luck was the passing of Lee's maternal grandmother back in October. Since then, we have been making trips to Montgomery to help clear out her house. I believe it's safe to say that this woman kept everything. EVERYthing. I spent a good hour tossing items from the pantry that were not from this decade (or this century, for that matter). Some of the canned goods were oozing black from the bottom (can you say botulism?). My hour of labor yielded no visible results; the pantry is still packed.

So when I was asked whether I might be interested in a closet full of fabric, I was inclined to say no. I am trying to get rid of stuff, not collect it. And when I say a closet full, I mean that she could have started a small fabric store. But once I started going through it, I just couldn't help myself. There was some really good stuff in there:



Those are just a couple of samples of the HUGE and HEAVY bag full of fabric I must now wash. (It's kinda old and stale.) Once it's all ready, I can get to it using this:


Time to start making things for next Christmas....

11 comments:

Rurality said...

Nice fabric! Don't you just love it when something stops being just "old" or "dated" and becomes "vintage"!

P.S. I love the new google words too. Mine here was "thingera".

countrypeapie said...

Yes! Although I get tickled every time I hear the word vintage. A while back, a cousin-in-law attempted to make a living by selling "vintage" clothing on ebay. We always kinda figured it was just her ratty old bathrobes and stuff.

Ohhh, I like thingera -- it's like Chimera, only inanimate, if that's possible.

The Country Experience said...

I agree, how could you turn down such neat fabric? Was the sewing machine hers as well? I enjoy things with "history" to them.

countrypeapie said...

The sewing machine was my grandmother's. Lee's grandmother had a similar one that was built into a table, which in some ways would have been easier to work with, but we don't need two, and we don't have room for another table, so I'm hanging on to this one.

The Country Experience said...

I have my husband's grandmother's old sewing machine, one built into a table.

Julia said...

Very cool! If my 7 year old memories serve me right, I'm a rotten sewer, but every time I see a project online involving cloth I think about borrowing a sewing machine and giving it a whirl. Then I think, is this possible with a glue gun ;-)?

countrypeapie said...

Ha - yeah - I made a Peter Pan outfit for Neal one year. Materials: felt, stapler. Whatever works!

Allison said...

Love the fabric! And the machine is cool too--does it take the bullet-shaped bobbins?

countrypeapie said...

Hey Allison -- I'm doing some email housekeeping and just realized I never answered your question. It's a Singer 99K portable electric, and the bobbins are more traditionally shaped. Does yours have the others? I've never dealt with a machine that uses those before.

Tara said...

love love love the fabrics. I have too many pieces as it is, but I can't resist looking and touching. And smelling - even if it is thrifted (I know - ew.) I'm having a severe moment of regret about giving away one yellow and one blue chenille bedspread when we moved across the pond - both cutter spreads - SO old!! Ah, the love and loss.

countrypeapie said...

Hey Tara! Perhaps someone else is enjoying your bedspreads now. I have a feeling I'll end up giving away a lot of the fabric -- there's just so much of it! Now that I've got it in my house, I can take a leisurely second pass and cull only the grooviest.