Charity Shop Finds

At the weekend we had a walk around town, by that I mean the city centre.  It is not something we do very often as I am not one for wandering around shops but we were going for a bit of lunch so I had a look in a few charity shops. (Those shops I like.)

I am always on the lookout for inexpensive fabric and these days I tend to look at the duvet sets as I have a few good purchases in the past, I made the napkins for Christmas day from a pillow slip and pyjama bottoms from a duvet set previously.  I always look but I don't always find anything, I don't want anything too worn and of course it has to be a pattern I like. So when I saw this red duvet cover for just £3.25 it was perfect, I love the colour and the pattern.

The beauty of this is you get so much fabric for such a good price.

Here it is on the line after being washed on a hot temperature, I always do this as things are often sat around in bags in the back room in a charity shop and I like to wash all purchases on hot.   My usual wash is on a normal temperature that's better for the environment.

Then in another shop I spotted this dress...

Now this is a size 14 and I am an 8 but that's not a problem it can be easily taken in.  The fabric is lovely for the summer and will be ideal for work, I may need to take it up a little as well as it is a bit long. It was £6, the items were from 'Mind' and 'Cancer Research'.

I think I would quite like to make a dress with the red duvet fabric, although there will still probably be lots left for other projects, the duvet is 142cm wide by 200cm so if you factor in both sides that is 4 metres of fabric. It will probably be popping up in cushion covers, make up bags and patchwork for quite some time.

Some people don't like to buy used items but I really don't see problem as long as you wash things thoroughly as you don't know how they were stored but then when people buy new they don't know how things have been  stored either.  Many items come from factories over seas or in the UK where fabric may have been stacked in  a warehouse, they don't know what may have crawled on these fabric stacks and yet still they wear items unwashed because they are new.  This in my mind makes all argument for not buying used invalid, you decide on the cleanliness of your items when they come into your possession.

Today I will be repairing the sleeves on a shirt and resizing it for my son, I will take a few pictures and share tomorrow.