Fabric Score!!!

 

my haul!

This has been a very long week for a variety of reasons most of which are way toooo boring to mention here. I will say that if the weather this last week is an indicator I think we are in for a very nasty winter.

Anyway I decided that on Friday since I had to make 3 trips to town I was going to at least do something fun on one of those trips.

Since the sewing theme this month for my doll sewing group sew-along is coats I decided this would be a good time to visit the Pendleton Wool store. If you aren't familiar with this company they make beautiful wool items of many kinds and are an iconic Oregon company. They have a store that is fairly close to my destination on Friday so I decided it was time to make a visit.

The front of the store is filled with many of their wonderful items and they have tables with yard goods that start at around $20 a yard and go way higher.

I knew what I was looking for would be further back in the store and I was right. In the back of the store they have a line of bins on wheels and these bins are filled with some wonderful things. Two or three of the bins were of paricular interest to me because they contained what the sign refered to as either Blanket ends or blanket headers (I can't remember the exact name) Basically these are pieces of fabric that are the ends left when the clothing and blankets the company makes are cut out. There were pieces of all types of the wonderful wool fabric in many weights. Some were too heavy for doll clothes or had designs that were too large to use. But I grabbed one of the large plastic bags and proceeded to dig through the bins. I was able to find 8 pieces that will work wonderfully for various doll clothing. Oh, did I mention the price?? These bins are priced at $5 per pound! My bag of wooly goodness only cost me $15.95! I can get at least a garment out of each piece and most the of the pieces will make more than one so that is a true bargain.

Here is a closer look at the individual pieces I got:

Piece #1 is brown and a medium weight, I would say about the thickness polar fleece. I think it was probably a used for coats or blankets. The piece I got has a usable section of at least 27” by 36” plus a bit more on the edges.This one is cut oddly on both sides as you can see in the photos.

Piece #2 is a cream/ off white color (absolutely gorgeous) and is the same weight as the first piece. The usable area is a bit over 23” by 32”

Piece #3 is the same fabric as #2 but is a completely straight piece that measures 9 ½” by 96”!

Piece #4 is black and a bit lighter weight I would say about the same thickness as the felt that comes in the squares at the craft store. It (and the remaining pieces) has an interesting shape. It is overall a rectangle but with a chunk cut out. I have a feeling all these pieces were used to make the same type of garment and this explains the shape. The shape gives 2 very usable pieces plus a small bit over the chunk that is cut out. I only measured the larger pieces on each side. This one has a piece that is 10” by 35” and a piece that is 10” by 13”.

Piece #5 is black and in what I would refer to as a suit-weight the two usable pieces are 14” by 35” and 14” by 18” plus of course the bit in the middle.

Piece #6 is brown and also a suit-weight with the sides being 17” by 15” and 17” by 35”

 

Piece #7 is a red suit-weight fabric with the usable areas being 13” by 28” and 13” by 18”.

And finally #8 is a blue suit-weight that has usable areas measuring 9” by 18” and 9” by 29”

So you can see there is a lot of fabric that I can use for doll clothes. Now all I need is the time actually sit down and sew.