Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Hunting Vintage Fabrics in the South

Wednesday, August 24, 2011
I've just returned from a week in North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia! While the purpose of the trip was spending some time with my parents, David and I took some extra time to visit antique shops from Asheville, NC and northward on our trip home, with stops in Erwin, Tennessee, and Bristol, Wytheville, Lexington and Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Although the Internet has certainly made hunting for vintage items more convenient, I think it has also made it more difficult to find bargains. It seemed wherever we went, the prices were pretty uniform. We found one shop with the most amazing collection of feedsack material I have ever seen; sadly each piece of fabric was either $12.50 or $14.00 (for about a yard of material)! Vintage printed tablecloths run between $18 and $30 pretty much everywhere too. And that's just too much money when I know I'm going to be cutting it up and using it for projects!

But, I did make some discoveries! A great shop in Asheville with piles and piles of stuff to dig through (my favorite!), and the owner just said, "Make me an offer!" I got a wonderful lap quilt in great shape:














 a cute apron (which I think had been made from an old tablecloth originally),


some feedsack fabric,














and the sweetest little baby pillowcase.


A tiny little shop in Erwin, Tennessee had an entire 6-drawer cabinet of vintage sewing patterns... for 50 cents each! To be honest, many of them were from the 1980s... not my favorite time period for clothing... but I snagged a bunch from the 1960s that I think will be fun to experiment with!


David and I were amazed by the number of advertising signs that we saw--reminded us of one of our favorite shows, American Pickers. We couldn't resist this little coffee sign for the kitchen:


So the lesson for us: Head for some of the little tucked away places where you can dig through the dirt and find some treasures!

Back to the sewing machine for me! Let me know if I can make something special for you!


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