Oodles and oodles

Goodbye, little clothespin aprons!

Here they are, hanging on the clothesline.



Whoa, it's breezy out here! Action shot!



Today's the day seven of my 11 vintage clothespin aprons find new homes. One I'm keeping, and three were promised to friends who called in favors, made threats, etc. If you do NOT win an apron, keep your chin up, because in my world, everyone who works hard, plays by the rules and has a few basic sewing skills deserves a cute clothespin apron. So here are the winners, but keep reading if you aren't one of them:

1. Vicki
2. Shannon J.
3. Gail
4. Molly V.
5. Colleen
6. Angela
7. Gabrielle

I've e-mailed all of the winners, so if you're one of them, send me your address. I'm happy for you!

Since so many people loved these little aprons, I scanned in a copy of the embroidery pattern, which in a perfect world will appear in the next post. (Or under the "patterns" category.)  Grab yourself half a yard of muslin, cut out an apron, trace the pattern and stitch away. If you'd rather have a full-size pattern to work from, you can cruise over to the world's lamest, thrown-together-over-the-weekend Etsy shop and get one pretty cheap.

This was really fun. And you know what! It's only 31 days - that's one month  - until the yard sale season starts!

Clothesline apron embroidery pattern

There are three images to print out: the girl, the boy and the clothesline. You can align the clothesline with the characters where their hands meet the clothesline. (When you print these out, it will seem pretty obvious.)

On the original apron, the boy and girl are about 6 inches tall. When I print these out on my computer, they're a little less than that but would be the original size if they were enlarged 115 percent.

You can use these on any apron style. The original clothespin apron is essentially a wide, u-shaped pouch that measures 16 1/2 inches long and 18 inches wide. The bottom and top pieces are identical, except the top piece has curved pieces cut away for pockets. The curved areas are finished with seam binding, then the top and bottom are sewn together and finished with seam binding, with more seam binding for the ties.

Have fun!

 

Weekend projects, 32 days to go

The last weekend of winter, and a good weekend for projects.

Made a few pillows. The embroidered part on the pink pillow was a 50-cent yard sale buy. These old embroidered linens are sadly undervalued. I'm always happy (maybe a little too happy!) to give them a good home!

Love those pom-poms! The pom-poms came from a most unlikely source. They'll get their own post soon.

I had a lot of fabric left, so I thought I'd make a clothespin apron like the - oh, you know the one. The same shape, at least.

I used the pleating tool for the first time on fabric - hooked on something new now! What else can I pleat?

Oh, dear. Carson? Were you feeling ignored?

I still had some scraps and some time, so I made a spring shadowbox.
(Nice flash, eh?)

Let's try that with the door open.

So now I've got a coordinating pillow-clothespin apron-shadowbox set - doesn't everyone?

And on the subject of the clothespin apron - I plan to draw the winners Monday night and will post Tuesday IF the weather is sunny on Monday. Why should that matter? Because I am taken with the idea of hanging them all out on the clothesline and snapping their picture, together for one last time (sniff!) before they fly off to their next destination. And I can't do that in the rain. Or the snow, which is what we got Sunday.

And not to give anything away - but since I was maybe a little surprised at how many of you wanted an apron, I've been trying to think of a way to not leave 100 people disappointed.  No, I didn't go to a sale over the weekend and find 100 more - but I think I've got a plan ....

Have a great first-week-of-spring!

Oh happy day! and only 35 days to go*

The Dreadful Dollar Store is open under new management, and I could not be happier!

The Dreadful Dollar Store is located in the bowels of a crumbling brick factory building that is next door to a maximum security state prison. (Do you remember the Preppy Murder guy? Robert Chambers? He used to live there. In the prison, not the dollar store.)

The entire building is sort of a one-stop-shopping/ thrift-store/ horror-show experience. First you've got that whole shadow-of-the-prison/ razor wire/ guard tower vibe in the parking lot. Then you've got the factory building itself, which looks like a monument to our lost industrial heritage. Half of the building is devoted to a conventional thrift store. The other half is occupied by a variety of curious enterprises, including a secondhand store, a shop that specializes in NASCAR memorabilia and incense, and the Dreadful Dollar Store. (The people who run the store don't call it the Dreadful Dollar Store. To them, it's just the Doller Store. That's how it's spelled on the hand-lettered sign.)

It's difficult to describe the business model for the dollar store, but I think it mostly consists of this: The various merchants in the building come across a box full of junk, say to themselves, "Huh. Wonder if anybody'd spend a buck on this?" and throw it in the room. Voila! Dollar Store! A really dreadful one!

The DDS opened last summer, and I knew it was too good to last. Every once in a while, I would stumble across a really wonderful piece of fabric, or a box of apron patterns, or a little bunch of pink forget-me-nots, and I would think, boy, I love this place. But then the woman who was managing it stopped putting out new junk. She cut back on her hours. Then she just didn't show up at all. It was sad. I missed it all - those occasional finds, the employee who wore pajamas to work, the staff fights over cigarette money.

A few weeks ago, it reopened! But nothing had changed. The same merchandise was there, just mustier from its weeks of inattention in a damp, unheated basement. The sadness came washing back.

But Wednesday I went again, and there was new junk! I found a tablecloth embroidered with cross-stitch roses in near-perfect condition, a little Santa with glittery boots and chenille fur, and fun little cardboard stockings that people were supposed to fill with dimes:

 

Where else can you have that kind of fun for $3?

*only 35 days until the start of the yard-sale season ... and just a couple of days until I pick the winners in the fabulous apron giveaway!

Thrift store trio, 36 days to go*

1. There's definitely some clothespin karma out there this week. All of these came home with me yesterday. An apron load for just $1! (You know about the giveaway, right? Comments have mentioned hyperventilating and drooling. Reminders seem unnecessary.)



2. The duck planter waddled home and found a spot with the collection of white vases and planters. It cost whatever half of $1.75 is - half price day at one of the thrift stores. This may do it for the Easter decorations. Just not in the spirit of things.

3. Finally, a report from the Department of Odd Thrift Store Behavior: A woman at another thrift store approached several different customers, holding a doctor's white jacket on a hanger in front of her. To each person she announced, "I'm going to buy this for Irene so she can disguise herself as a doctor and escape!"

It's times like these that it's good to know how to slip away quietly.

*until the glorious Opening Day of Yard Sale Season 2008! The geese are flying. The snow shovels are 30 percent off. I saw baseball scores scrolling along the bottom of the screen as I watched the news reports about our dumb-butt about-to-be-former governor ... oh, spring is almost here!

A dollar or less, 37 days to go*

Every sewing room needs a comfy chair. My chair is about 8 inches tall. When it came home with me from a yard sale, it was covered in tattered red corduroy. (Be grateful I don't have the "before" picture. It was ugly.)


Upholstery projects are not my strong suit, but even I could manage this one. See the little pincushion seat? And the arms that hold the spools of thread?

And the little slot in the back that holds my scissors and 6-inch ruler? Actually I think it's called a seam gauge. Whatever. It's pretty useful. And thanks to my little chair, I can find it when I need it.

If you have keen eyesight (I was just reading an English gardening magazine and now feel the need to use the word "keen" a lot) you'll notice some rickrack and pom-poms in the first picture. Pom-poms are second only to rickrack in my sewing-notion love. They were all waiting for me at the thrift store today, 75 cents for a whole bag of trims. There were black pom-poms, too, which I will love at Halloween. And some other fun things, which I believe the Craft Kitty is currently snuggling with.

Hey, so everybody likes ready-to-embroider vintage clothespin aprons - who knew? There's still plenty of time to enter the giveaway, so leave a comment and say hello!

*counting down the days until the yard sale season begins with finds that cost a dollar or less, like my little sewing chair, which I think was 50 cents.

A dollar or less, 38 days to go*

The drawing for these aprons has ended - but you can find a pattern for the embroidery design under the "patterns" category on my blog.  Thanks for stopping by!

A week or so ago, I mentioned doing another giveaway because I had discovered that I owned eight of the same thing.

I need to take that back. Not the giveaway part. The eight part.

I don't own eight ready-to-embroider clothespin aprons after all. I own eleven of them.

It's not as if I compulsively went from yard sale to yard sale last year, hunting for clothespin aprons. This all happened at the same sale. Except for the part where I picked up an apron, agreed on the price, paid for it and brought it home, I had almost no part in this whole affair.

Here's what happened: I went to an estate sale at the home of an antique collector. As it turned out, this woman collected everything: books, china cups, linens,  furniture, greeting cards, Christmas ornaments, paintings, picture frames ... it was somewhere between amazing and scary.


Nothing was priced, because there was too much. I found this cute little clothespin apron on top of a stack of linens and asked one of the women running the sale what she wanted for it. A dollar fifty, she said. That seemed reasonable. I added it to my pile.

Wait, the woman said. Aren't you going to take the rest of them? And she reached over and handed me a stack of linens, and sure enough, there was a whole pile of these aprons. She was desperate to get rid of them.

I like to embroider. I collect aprons. And I use a clothesline in the summer (see yesterday's picture - I seem to have a little clothespin theme going this week). Even if I couldn't see me actually wearing this apron out to hang the laundry, I understood my interest in wanting one ready-to-embroider clothespin apron.

Maybe two, in case I wanted a spare. Or three, in case I wanted to put one away for my daughter. Or four or five if I wanted to give them for gifts. But - eleven? Even to me, this seems excessive.




Much as I have enjoyed the secure feeling that comes only in knowing that my family will never experience a clothespin-apron shortage, I need to share the wealth.

So - if it's been a longtime dream of yours to own an authentic vintage ready-to-embroider clothespin apron, leave a comment, and I'll pick some names at random next week. And if you'd like to leave a comment but are sort of horrified at the thought of owning one of these aprons, that's fine, too. I understand. Just say something like, "Just wanted to say hi, but for heaven's sake don't send me one of those aprons." I'll get the idea.

*counting down the days until the start of the yard sale season with finds that cost $1 or less. For those of you who don't want to do the math, the aprons were a little less than 14 cents apiece.

A dollar or less, 39 days to go*

39 days until the yard sale season ... and until we can dry clothes out on the line.

* counting down the days until the beginning of the yard sale season with finds that cost a dollar or less. I don't exactly remember how much these clothespins were, but they've been worth every penny.

An earnest wish for good things in store

Singing birds and hollyhocks at the gate,

A picket fence and an earnest wish.

Is there anything better than an old-fashioned greeting card?

Of course there's something better: a friend to send it to.

Happy birthday, Lillian!

A dollar or less, 43 days to go*

I picked up this bluebird bookend for 10 cents at a yard sale last year. I seemed to pay 10 or 15 cents a lot last year. In my opinion, if something is worth selling, it's worth sellling for at least a quarter, but who am I to argue?

The bookend is holding up the ledger book I got at the thrift store this week. The thrifting was actually not awful, for a change. Not awful, at least, in terms of merchandise. I got a huge, wonderful old suitcase, too, and went back and forth on some lily-of-the-valley print sheer curtains. I couldn't decide, so I didn't buy them. Now I want them. I'm hoping they'll still be there next week.

The rest of the thrifting was the usual unsettling mix of  a screeching toddler, a creepy guy pawing through the women's underwear bin and people smoking indoors in blatant violation of New York's Clean Air law. Midway through my weekly rounds, I question my sanity. Why do I wake up every Wednesday with that joyous-oh-it's-the-thrift-store-day-today feeling? Do I actually enjoy this weekly assault on my sensibilities? Well, no. But every eight weeks or so I find a 99-cent ledger and a $3.99 suitcase, and I'm happy again.

*counting down the days to the yard-sale season with finds that cost a dollar or less