kerry-litka.com|small things considered

Last Friday I went on a mission to find old/used/vintage linens to use in sewing projects. This was mainly inspired by so many of my fellow vintage sewers in Australia who seem to have a knack for finding things like vintage tablecloths and curtain panels at thrift stores for $.50 and end up making really cute dresses out of them. They must have much better thrift stores down under than they do in NH, because my first attempt at finding used linens was at the Salvation Army in Nashua. That was an exercise in futility if there ever was one. The linens section was limited to one water stained threadbare comforter and a new-in-package white brocade pillowcase set from Linens N Things for $5. Now, had the brocade set include the sheets I would have scooped it up because 1 sheet = way more than enough fabric for me to make an entire wardrobe, so the price per yard ends up fairly low. But apparently no one was donating tablecloths, curtains or sheet sets to the local Salvation Army. I browsed the clothing to see if maybe I could find a plus size skirt that would provide me with another 2+ yards of reusable fabric, but the prices were a bit hefty – $11 for a skirt? Umm…hello, I can buy one new at Old Navy in the clearance section for the same price. WTF?

I expanded my search into the Concord area, but never made it to either Goodwill or Salvation Army in the capitol city because I had an early breakfast date with some friends (like 6 am early) and by the time we finished breakfast I still had 2+ hours to kill before anything was opened. I stopped at the grocery store, bought some $1/pack of 300 crappy ‘cotton swabs’ that were made in China and were roughly the equivalent of plastic drinks stirs in terms of comfort level while in use. This is something that intrigues me – there is a distinct shortage or embargo or moratorium of sorts on Q tips/cotton swabs/call them what you like. Specifically, I cannot find them in stores anymore. Shaw’s Supermarkets does not carry them at all. I normally shop at Trader Joes and they don’t carry them. I have a hard time finding them in drugstores. What’s the deal? I know that technically we aren’t supposed to clean our ears with them but I have suffered for an entire lifetime with hyperactive ceruminous glands and I need to clean my ears, like, several times a day. And when there are no Q Tips available I have no choice but to resort to using my fingernails and that is just gross.

The $1 Made In China ‘swabs’ (I use that term loosely) had approximately one thread of cottons tightly packed around the tip in a manner that made the ends sharp and abrasive. Awesome. Unfortunately I only discovered the poor quality of said swabs after returning home, having purchased three packages of 300 swabs a piece. It’s going to be a long summer of ear cleaning, I can already tell.

So, driving back south I decided to abandon my plan of shopping at thrift stores for linens-to-be-made-into-clothes (or at least serve as muslin material) and take the ‘long way’ (ie: not the highway) to Manchester and stop instead at Fabric Fix, who opens at 9:30. I am trying to learn to sew T shirt knits and it’s tricky, and JoAnns has nothing interesting for knit fabrics and they are too expensive for practice. Fabric Fix has a big dump bin of assorted knit remnants for $2/lb and I figured I might find something there.

As I was making my way through Hooksett I found myself in the right hand Turn Only lane at a lighted intersection. Forced to take the right, I pulled into a parking lot of a strip mall only to see myself in front of another Goodwill store. And this one was open at 9am. I decided to go inside and see if they had anything.

SCORE.

I scooped up 10 brand new plastic coat hangers for $1. I am in desperate need of coat hangers, because every time I make a new garment I have to double hang it with something else in my closet. I never had a lot to start with, and add to that that Andy has this thing for hanging his cycling jerseys instead of stuffing them in a drawer like I do, we are always functioning at a level of about 5 less coat hangers than we need. When we were in South Africa in March I was amazed at how the people there insist on selling things on the side of the road. You cannot stop at a single light in the Cape Town area without hoards of guys approaching your car, eager to peddle their wares of dollar store items and daily editions of the Cape Argus. They sell the most bizarre assortment of items – in addition to the newspaper and touristy souvenirs they also sell sunglasses, cell phone chargers, and coat hangers. I remember asking Andy why on earth would anyone buy coat hangers from a peddler at an intersection while they were out driving?

Fast forward to now when on a daily basis I find myself in need for more coat hangers and keep thinking “damn, if I were in Cape Town right now I wouldn’t even have to leave my neighborhood to buy more, this sucks”.

In addition to my coat hangers, I also found a nice selection of linens. Not everything was suitable for sewing, but I did mange to find a variety of useful items.
– one brand new table cloth – some sort of printed cotton with a paisley tonal design and lace trim in a mustardy orange. I am not sure what to use this for – the color is not exactly me and just does not seem right for a dress. I am leaning towards making these capris and leaving the lace on for the hem:

- one brand new white 100% cotton percale flat sheet, 84×108″ (perfect for a shirt muslin for Andy, as I have another pattern to try out)
- one gold brocade curtain panel that is seriously about 2 yards long and lined with muslin. When I remove the stitches I will end up with enough brocade to make a a variety of items and enough muslin to last a couple of projects. I already have an idea for the brocade:

I see another F*$& You J Crew project in my near future:

I also just realized while watching the Tour of Switzerland last night (I consider watching Cancellera time trial a vital part of my master’s research, since I am examining how physiological and biomechanical variables contribute to the optimized time trial position in cyclists) and I had totally spaced that the Tour starts in two weeks and I don’t yet have any fabric to make my podium girl dress. This is a problem. Everyone indicated that I should make a KOM dress since I am a climber, but honestly I have had no luck in finding white fabric with large red polka dots. The dots have to be large like they are on the jersey or it will just look stupid. So, if anyone can track down fabric (at this point any type will do, even quilting cotton I suppose) that looks like this, let me know about it: