Fabric Piggy!

 

Parting with my any of my beloved vintage plisse yardage will be painful, but it  has to happen.

 Sister-in-law Claudia and I were discussing our love of vintage fabric the other day. We both have masses of fabric, rarely sew anything of consequence with any of it, and anguish over actually cutting into any piece of those beautiful lengths. 

Sounds like plain old hoarding, but I think we finally hit the nail on the head when we realized it's the appreciation of fabric as art that fuels our collecting--the delightful graphics, the play of color, the variety of textures. I almost think I'd like to do nothing more with fabric than make a giant scrapbook of my favorites, much like a bundle of upholstery samples, and just flip through it now and then to run my fingers over and sigh with appreciation at each lovely pattern.

However...

There is only so much space. And I'm afraid I'm getting downright piggy. So if I want to obtain more fabric, I first have to use or get rid of some. So I've been going through my stash and pulling out some to give away and some to sell. It's painful!

Here are a few samples of cloth I'll soon be listing in MelmacParadise, kicking and screaming to be sure, but it is going to happen.

I'm not sure, but I think this is old feedsack fabric. Unbleached muslin background; great "sampler" graphics.

 

A gorgeous, gorgeous marigold/daylily-colored synthetic knit fabric. Rayon? Nylon?

Fun Mexican motif border print fabric. Not sure if this is vintage, but the style sure is.

Dimity! And an unusual type of dimity, too. I'll mourn when this goes, though I'm keeping enough for a little girl's dress.

These two lovely semi-cheer cotton voile fabrics came from the estate of a 90-year-old woman who apparently loved fabric as much as I do. I've got 4 or 5 yards of each.

Does this destashing know no limits? Unfortunately, no. This is some vintage knit single fold bias tape...

...and this is a knit trim with a sort of slight ribbed texture.

Oh, and I forgot to show you the one I already listed:

www.etsy.com/listing/224246093/vintage-double-bar-dimity-pastel-floral

AND I HAVE NOT YET BEGUN TO DESTASH!!! This is, as it were, the "dust on the scales"--a simile from my morning Bible reading that I found particularly apt . (It's Isaiah 40:15.)
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Okay, enough about my fabric woes. 

Let me show you some of my latest vintage finds. (Like I need more, right? But you'd be proud of me; I've reined myself in to quite reasonable limits so far this year.)

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This cool wooden block sorting toy was made by an American firm named Holgate, which is still in business today. Not sure how old this particular toy is, but mid-century, certainly. Most of the blocks are missing, but I want this just for display so that's okay. This was a "higher end" splurge for me--I spent a whopping $7.50 for this treasure.

On the cheaper side of cheap, here are some 10 cent goodies I acquired last weekend:

Vintage  "PEZ" truck-shaped candy dispenser; nifty all metal made-in-Japan jalopy.

Large folded sheet of 1977 American Greetings wrapping paper with cute kids on a playground

And some real gems I acquired for a quarter apiece:

Great vintage coffee mugs in bright patterns! Keeping these, at least for now.

I was actually on the lookout for vintage Fire King/Anchor Hocking milk glass cups, but apparently so is everyone else, because I rarely find one. (Actually I did see one, but it was one of the dull boring type so I decided to leave it and let some other picker have the thrill of nabbing it.) These brightly colored mod cups are pretty cool, though, even if they're china/ceramic and not milk glass.

Now here's one that may surprise you. 

If you guessed that this was a mid-century wire magazine rack, you'd be right--sort of--and wrong!

Let me put it into perspective:

This mini wire rack is only 7 inches tall and 8 1/2 inches long. It's just like the full-size racks, but oh-so-cute and little! I've never seen another one like it, and I'm so pleased to have found it. I have a "thing" for mid-century wire tables and racks, and they're starting to sell for surprisingly high sums now, so apparently I'm not alone in my fan-dom. But this one stays here with me! 

Okay, I will close for now and give you all the richly deserved break you deserve for plowing through all this. Next time, I hope to show you some vintage contributions from my husband, as I begin to branch out into the industrial/steampunk side of Etsy.