RSS Feed   Twitter

Archive for the ‘Thrifty Finds’ Category

Thrifty Finds: 2011 NY Summer-Misc

Posted by Jenny Kerr on July 21st, 2011

I ended up having so much stuff to show you that I had to split it into two posts. This is the second one for everything that wasn’t a printed material. in addition to everything that has been shown in these posts, I also have 2 BIG bags of clothes and especially lingerie to be listed in the shop soon. All of these images can be enlarged by clicking on them.

I don’t know what I’ll ever use the paper lace for, but it was so cool that I bought all of it that they had. 3 rolls of the purple and 1 roll of the blue. I think each roll has 12 yards if I remember right and I paid 50 cents a piece for them. I picked up a bunch of great vintage patterns for between 10 and 50 cents each. There is another stack about half this size that are going to be listed in the shop. The ones I’m keeping (shown here) are listed below. Simplicity 2643, 4042, 7954 (’77), 9048 (’70), 7312 (’96), 4622 (’05), 4092, 1390, 2590, 8050 (’77). McCall’s 702, 1705, 7376 (’80), 5214 (’76), 2095 ‘(85), M5358 (’07). Butterick 3113, 3041 (’93), 3358 (’94). Pattern Dept 9349. Stretch & Sew 2065 (’82).


I bought a huge bag of sewing supplies for $3.50 and another one for $2. They contained about 45 buttons, 80 zippers, a button spacer, a seam allowance extender, a card of snaps, 3 packages of seam tape, 2 cards of mending yarn, approx 2y black grosgrain ribbon, a card of blanket binding, 3y vintage polka-dot trim, 15y of pale lavender trim and 16y pale pink trim. So I don’t think I did too bad there for $5.50! lol At a different shop I found cards with 3yof cream lace, 8y of pink and black lace and 5y of white lace for 25 cents each, 4 more zippers for 25 cents each and a bag with 106 brass buttons in it for $1!!!! lol. Now I can make those pirate coats without spending a billion dollars for the buttons!


1.25y floral chiffon 60c, 1.25y light blue flocked 60c, 2XL blue floral pillow cases $2, double flat blue floral stripe sheet $1.50. 2pc/1y blue & white stripe 50c, 5/8y red, white & blue plaid 25c, 4y navy & white polka-dot with red stripe $2, 4y gray herringbone wool $2. Fitted twin sheet with pink florals 75c, double flat multi floral sheet 75c, double flat purple floral sheet 75c. Autumn striped double flat sheet $1, 2 double strawberry flat sheets $1.50, twin flat neon tulip sheet 50c, 2 green leaf pillowcases & matching queen fitted sheet $2.50.

I paid $5 for the vintage yellow pyrex bowl, the fitted sheet straps were something like $1.50 The vintage rose and vintage Santa pillowcases were 75 cents each. The new pierced design wedges were $4, the yard of lace came free tucked into a pattern, the flocked unused vintage hankie was $1 the jar lifter for canning was $3 the buttoneer and the pattern marker were each $1 I think. The 100 vintage shipping labels were 35 cents for the box.

I got this vintage double boiler (it does have the lid but it’s still in the car, lol) for $5. The 12 vintage Irish linen napkins were $7.50. The navy blue tights were $2 and the soccer socks were $1. I had a set of chicken salt and pepper shakers before that got chipped before we ever even got them home so when I saw these I grabbed them. My other ones were plain white and I like these better. I paid 85 cents each for them.


Hubby found some records that he didn’t have and we found a bunch of Sinatra records, which is something we almost never find. We got some other interesting ones that we didn’t have. I think most of these were $1, a couple were maybe $2 and The 2 Beatles albums were $10 each. John Lennon: Shaved Fish, John Lennon: Mind Games, The Beatles: 1962-1966, The Beatles: 1967-1970, JJ Cale: Really, Starlight Express OST, The Strugglers: Two Beers and Everybody Sings, H.M. Scots Guard: Highland Pipes, The Royal Wedding of Charles & Diana, Frank Sinatra: Strangers in the Night, Frank Sinatra: Someone to Watch Over Me, Frank Sinatra: My Way, Frank Sinatra: Greatest Hits, Frank Sinatra: Come Dance With Me, Frank Sinatra: The Main Event, Frank Sinatra: The Nearness of You.

I have a weakness for anything with a K on it, lol.. so this cork board at $2 was definitely something I had to get, to spite how dirty it is. I am going to strip it and recover it. I’m probably not going to use it as a message board, but just as a decorative piece. You all know I love Beatrix Potter stuff so when I found this print for $3 I had to get it. I’ll probably change the frame, but I never see Potter pieces in this size. Sometimes on eBay you can buy an 11X17 home printed image for $20, lol, but this is printed right on cardboard and is larger than that so I snatched it up. I also paid $3 for this I ♥ NY Victorian Winter Festival (’86-’87) poster with the high end gallery frame.

Posted in Thrifty Finds Tags: , , , 2 Comments »
Comment >>

Thrifty Finds: 2011 NY Summer-Printed Material

Posted by Jenny Kerr on July 21st, 2011

I had to split this post into two parts to fit all of the items in without having an excessively long post. This post has all of the books and magazines, part two has all of the other items we picked up on our vacation.

I went a little overboard on the books this time, but it’s really not my fault! lol The cottage was about 2 miles down the road from a used and rare book store that was having a going out of business sale and everything was $2.50 unless the original price was $5 or less, then it was $1. You know how I am with my books so I sort of lost it and went crazy! LOL I think I might have spent a total of $80. Hubby got some books, I got some books, everyone got some books. LOL

I LOVE Victoria Magazine, I used to have a ton of them, but when I left home I had limited space and they lost out to my Martha Stewart collection. Now that I have a little bit of room I have been trying to replace the collection by buying them at thriftstores and garage sales whenever I see them. I’ve been lucky twice, once a couple years ago in Pensacola, FL and once this month in a thrift store in Lakewood, NY. I managed to get my hands on a whole stack of them in excellent condition, even the one that is 20 years old looks brand new; I don’t think anyone read it more than once maybe. LOL. I managed to get 18 issues for 10 cents each!

I found these recipies and booklets at an airport flea market for 3 for $1 except for the insignia guide, that was tucked into a 10 cent thrift store book, so I paid nothing for it. I am used to getting these booklets cheap like this, but I noticed lastnight in my August issue of Martha Stewart Living that she has an article about vintage recipe pamphlets, so now the price will shoot to UNREASONABLE like it does with everything else she features! lol. Glad I got some goodones before the magazine was shipped to subscribers. lol Old Farmer’s Almanac Colonial Cookbook (’82), Pennsylvania Gas Holiday Recipes, How To Give Hawaiian Parties by Patricia Collier, Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook of Fine Old recipes (’79), How to Entertain Out of Doors by Lois Dwan (’65 Amy Vanderbilt Success Program for Women), Pocket refference Guide to Army, Navy & Marine Courp Insignia (1943), F.W. McNess Cookbook (’35), 150 Recipes for Apple Dishes by Union Pacific (’24).

All of the gardening books, the 2 maps, the Everyday Food and the bee book were 10 cents each. two of the remaining were $1 and two were $2.50. Trees in Your Community: A Handbook of Selected Trees for NY, Trees for Tomorrow, Introduction to Organic Farming Methods & Organic Markets (’71), The Best Gardening Ideas I Know by Robert Rodale, Best Methods for Growing Fruits & Berries (’63), Organic Guide to Planting & Care of Trees & Shrubs (’60), Stokes Seed Catalog (’77). New York World’s Fair mini-map (’39), Cleveland Arro map (’48), A Hive of Busy Bees by Effie M. Williams (’39), From Williamsburg Kitchens (’68), Colonial Williamsburg Official Guidebook & Map (’81), New England Cook Book: 300 Fine Old recipes (’36), Jane Goes Batty by Michael Thomas Ford, Everyday Food #68 (Dec ’09).


Everything here except the Dwell and the cookbooks were 10 cents. the Dwell was $1 and the cookbooks were $2.50. Attractive Houses plan book, cabinet brochures (both from the 50′s), Popular Home Craft (June ’44), Car Classics (Aug ’73), Illustrated Ranch Houses (plans ’60), New Duplex Designs, Dwell (Jul/Aug ’10 -Vol10 #8). Martha Stewart Living (Nov ’10 #204), Cookbook of Breads, Bake Your Own Bread.

These were all $1 each. Calling All Girls (Apr ’46, Aug ’46, Jul ’46), Miss America (Mar ’46). Modern Screen (Jan ’46, Jun ’45), Screenland (Oct ’43).

I Paid $2.50 for the Martha Washington Cookbook and the three issues of “The Farmer’s Wife” (Dec ’29, Jun ’31, oct ’31). The 1936 copy of Deliniatior was $1. The three issues of Jack and Jill from ’48, ’49 & ’53. I LOVE these magazines and I WISH we had kids to share them with. They all have beautiful illustrations, paperdolls of various styles, stories, lessons, activities, poems and more.

The Ernie Pyle, 1940 copy of Bluejackets manual, Charles Dickens in Swedish and Abandon Ship! were things that caught hubby’s eye! each one was $2.50. Not sure what the brown book is, a stranger handed it to my aunt who handed it to me, lol so it was free. The red Oscar Wilde and the two kiplings were each $2.50.

The three George Eliot books were $2.50 each as was the beautiful copy of Lorna Doone. The two Thomas Hardy volumes were $18 combined. The Pride & Prejudice and the 5 pretty little kiplings were $2.50 each. Somehow the cookbook made it into two different photos. That’s the same one shown above.

Posted in Reading, Thrifty Finds Tags: , No Comments »
Comment >>

Thrifty Finds: Textiles Spring 2011

Posted by Jenny Kerr on July 9th, 2011

At an auction I bought an entire box of vintage linens JUST to get this drapery panel (about 2.5 yards long) made out of vintage Beatrix Potter fabric. I bought some Beatrix Potter fabric new about 2 years ago and it was expensive. I paid about $10 a yard, but most places were selling it for $15+ a yard. That fabric is nice, but no where near as pretty and BRIGHT as this piece. I ended up paying $7 for the entire box and to me this ONE piece was well worth it! All items are able to be enlarged by clicking.

These are two of my favorite pieces that came in the same box I mentioned above. Hand embroidered vintage pieces are always so cool, especially if they are well done and still in good shape like these.

These are both medium sized round table clothes that were also in the box. They have the same style of lace applique/cutout detailing but they are different designs.

More from the box! lol Both are items printed for you to do your own embroidery work on. On the left is a small square table cloth and on the right is a tea towel.

The hand crocheted pot holder is pretty cute I thought! There is hand crochet trim on the pillow case and I LOVE the hand embroidered little desk cloth. All from the box again. The beautiful blue and white Laura Ashley pillowcase came from a salvation army and I paid $1 for it.

The eyelet table runner and doily thingy were in the box. The first six pieces of fabric at the bottom of the stack were free from a woman that works with Hubby. She got them from her grandmother and she doesn’t sew so she passed them on to me. Each one as at least 2 yards, some as many as 4 or 5 yards.  The yellow floral flannel is about 2.5-3 yards and cost me $2 at Salvos. The top floral is a draper pannel and extra matching piece totaling about 2.5 yards, it cost me $3 I think.


All of these beautiful vintage embroidered hankies came in the box of linens. They are all in mint conditions and I don’t even think they were ever used, most still have the stickers on them. Not a bad haul for a $7 box of old linens!

Posted in Thrifty Finds Tags: No Comments »
Comment >>

Thrifty Finds: Misc Spring 2011

Posted by Jenny Kerr on July 8th, 2011

This post is about some more of the thrifty finds I’ve recently made. My last post was about the jewelry I bought at an auction, this one is about misc items.


I LOVE, LOVE, LVOE these glasses! I’ve been contemplating buying some replica vintage sunglasses, but I never find the right ones. These are authentic vintage aluminum and rhinestones made by Art Craft. The lot these came in also had 2 vintage purses and another set of glasses which will be available int he shop after vacation. All together I paid $7 I think.

I don’t know if I have these hats on correctly, but with the way my hair was, they sort of lent themselves to this way. I paid $2.50 each for them and I love them!

This chair is great and it only cost me $3! I want to change the color of the seat, but other than that it’s great.

<

all of these items above were included in the box lot with the sunglasses. I love the little sailors, the birds, the shamrock charm and the old lighter. The dog is a perfume bottle and its head pops off. lol. I adore the packaging on the needles and the snaps. I’ll be scanning them sometime after vacation and sharing them here with everyone.


Hubby got the Beck’s mirror for $3 and the salt and pepper shakers were $2.

This set I actually found at the Goodwill for $7. There are no chips or scratching, after a good scrubbing they are good as new!

I love this old enamel cookware. I found all of this at the same estate sale. The refrigerator storage boxes were $6, the pitcher was $9 and the double boiler was $5.


These furs all came in one box for $5 I think. Some of the pieces I’ll use myself and some are going to be to make Brooni a fur coat. LOL.

Of course if I see Victoria magazines I snatch them up. These were 50 cents each at an estate sale.

Posted in Thrifty Finds Tags: 1 Comment »
Comment >>

Thrifty Finds: Jewelry Spring 2011

Posted by Jenny Kerr on July 7th, 2011

I usually don’t buy jewelry other than a vintage pin here and there. However, we were at an auction and they were selling boxes full for $2 so I bought two of the boxes. After I picked out the pieces that I myself wanted to keep I am left with a HUGE bag that I intend to sell as a lot in my Etsy shop. I’m not into jewelry making, but they might be useful to someone who is. A few of the pieces need a little bit of repair, but I have the stones that came out of them and will put them back in after vacation when I have more time. I’m going to figure the total cost of the pieces below at the $4 that I paid for both boxes. Images can be enlarged by clicking on them.





The Heart and the Love charm are silver and need polishing.


I love this beaded piece. It’s not really long enough to be a necklace, but it’s too long to be a bracelet.

The beads are coral, I used to have a big reef tank, so I recognized the “graining” on them. The chain is 12 karat gold. I really love the little blue and white china heart charm!

The black cufflinks are wood and super cool I thought. The single one is mother of pearl, the round ones are gold faced. The long strand of pearls are cultured, but still useful.



The red “crown” is actually a dress clip. The reason that I originally bought the whole box was the anchor pin above.


Posted in Thrifty Finds Tags: , 1 Comment »
Comment >>

London Bedroom Makeover: Shield Wall Art Revamp

Posted by Jenny Kerr on May 27th, 2011

I know this project isn’t specifically British themed, but when you think of England, you often think of crests and heraldry and that is why I am including these pieces in our room makeover. The are two medium sized fiberglass molded shields by a company called Finesse’ Originals. They were filthy and the paint was chipping off of them like crazy. We acquired them from a garage sale last summer for the combined sum of $8 if I remember correctly. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them at that time, I figured maybe I would wash them and put them in hubby’s Man Room or something. I was also a little iffy about paying so much for them, but they are decent sized (approx. in X in) and I had never seen anything like them. We brought them home, sprayed them down, but since they were still greasy dirty we put them in the garage. They have lived in our garage for almost a year now. I remembered we had them so I went out there and got them, sat down next to the shower, turned it on them and started scrubbing with a toothbrush. LOL. hey eventually did come clean, but much of the already separated and chipping paint was lost in the process.

While they were drying I decided to look them up online to see if I could find out more about the company and to get an approximate date that they were made. I found that the company was active in the 60′s and 70′s as I had suspected and that they were known for these sort of over the top fiberglass wall art pieces. While I didn’t find any that were at all similar to mine or any that were a coordinating set, I did find a few of their pieces on Ebay. I was completely shocked to see them listed in a range from $300 to $2,600 each! I couldn’t believe it! While I doubted mine were worth that much because of paint loss, I was relieved to see that at least I didn’t overpay for them.


I thought about leaving them entirely beaten up and just hanging them on the wall that way, but I didn’t like the heavy and “dirty” look that I was getting from all of the black background showing through. A little bit would have been okay, but it was too much. i thought about painting them completely all one color like you see with so many accent pieces now, but I felt like some of the details would be lost. I wanted more color pops and more of the metallic shine. Now that they were dry I went digging through my paint reserves. I came up with a small can of Rustoleum American Accents silver metallic (not shown), a small can of Olympic admiral blue, a tube of Liduitex Basics cadmium red and a bottle of Plaid Folk Art warm white. The tube was left over from college, the blue can was bought as oops paint for $1 and the bottle was bought for 50 cents on clearance. The silver was bought at full price, but was left over from another project as was the paint brush. I used under $1 worth of paint and so I’m figuring the grand total cost for this project to be around $9.

I repainted the red parts red, the white parts white and any of the gold or silver parts that had chipped away I painted silver, blending into the gold where needed. I also painted the black background with the blue paint. I didn’t paint heavily so that things wouldn’t look almost cartoonish, but I allowed the background and brush strokes to show. It gives them that aged appearance without looking like they had been used as oil pans (like they did when we got them). We hung them staggered on the wall to the right of the larger window. They are so different and unique; we are very happy with them!



This post is part of Southern Hospitality’s Thrifty Treasures Blog Party. To see what other bloggers posted, click HERE or the image below.

Posted in DIY Craftiness, Home Sweet Home, Thrifty Finds Tags: 2 Comments »
Comment >>

New Vintage Items Listed In the Etsy Shop

Posted by Jenny Kerr on May 2nd, 2011

I thought I’d post a quick update to let  the readers know that I have new vintage items, a couple of vintage handmade and handmade from vintage pieces now listed in the Etsy shop! You can also see these items (and maybe a few designer non-vintage pieces) via the SHOP page here on this blog.



Posted in Fashion & Style, Thrifty Finds Tags: , No Comments »
Comment >>

Thrifty Finds: OOoooOO! Shiny!

Posted by Jenny Kerr on April 2nd, 2011

It was another great week at the estate sales and thrift stores! I have some really AWESOME stuff to show you, most of it new (to me), but some of it is old stuff that just neverwas posted.

The vintage copy of Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr was $2. The book about soccer, The Country House Guide by Robin Fedden and Founding Mothers by Cookie Roberts were 10 cents each. The three vintage photos were 50 cents each. I wish they were marked so that I knew who they were, but they aren’t. I’ll be scanning and posting them soon.

The milk glass strawberry dish was $2 and the wooden frame with the blue velvet mat was 25 cents. I plan to put glass in it and paint the frame. The teal hand painted scarf and the red polka dot tie/scarf were $1 each. The vintage purse was $2 and the plaid thermos was $1. I have been searching for one of these vintage red plaid “picnic” bags forEVER and I was overjoyed when I found this one for $4! It doesn’t have the thermos with it anymore, but I’ll take whatever parts of it that I can get! lol

I found this old silver plate platter with embossing and cut work a while ago for $2 (I think). It works great for small cakes. I love the early 1900′s design around the lip.

This reproduction “mercury glass” bird was $4 at the Target 75% off after Christmas sale, he’s small but I love him. The dark pink and white striped rayon-type fabric is from the 80′s I believe and cost me $3, there are about 5 yards there. The navy and white dot design is a poly blend from the 60′s or 70′s; I bought about 3 yards of that for $1.50.


The first pile of vintage sheets (the pink floral is new made to look old) are all queens except for the two purple and white florals on the bottom. Those are both twin duvet covers so it’s still alot of fabric and came as a set for $3. The second pile starts with a curtain (again made to look old), a queen sheet, a twin and another queen. The bird fabric above is the twin sheet in that second pile. The tag is too faded to identify the maker, but I think the design is awesome! I’m not sure what to make out of this, I thought maybe a curtain or a divider screen? Then again, that would be lovely across the back and down the arm of a vintage style jacket! Who knows? I was able to research the second fabric (the bottom sheet in that second pile) because I could read the tag which said “Grace Kelly Springmaid”. I had no idea that she designed bedding, but apparently it was a line carried by Dillard’s in 1979-1981 and this particular pattern is called “Selia”. If you would like to know more about Grace Kelly for Springmaid you can check out my info source, The Little Round Table and Tablecloths From the Little Round Table.


I was SO happy when I found this lone piece of vintage (I’d guess late 40′s, 50′s or early 60′s maybe?) awesomeness hanging in the back of a closet at an estate sale, not only because it looked gorgeous, but because it was also a larger size (I’d give it about a modern 14/16). I paid my $1 for it and happily went home. When I got it home I started cleaning it because it was filthy! I managed to get all of the stains out of the skirt half and some out of the top. Unfortunately, The top would not come completely clean. There are a lot of orange stains (like rust) on the embroidery at the sleeves and neck as well as underarm sweat stains that just WOULD NOT come out. I hand washed and spot treated it several times. Because it is netting and embroidery you can only scrub so hard. The fabric underneath the beautifully embroidered tulle is a VERY thick satin; I love it! I also love the really faint sea-foam color of the dress. I decided to at least salvage the bottom half so that it wouldn’t all go to waste because of some stains. I hated to slice it up, but now it can live on in another form and I WILL find uses for what was cut off, I am thinking of either trimming a blouse or shrug to match or maybe making a clutch bag. The other photos so a GORGEOUS, mint condition Brooks Brothers formal skirt. I paid $3 for this, it is full length (actually I’ll have to take about a foot off the bottom to even be able to walk in it), fully lined 100% silk tartan skirt. I LOVE it! The skirt is pleated and has a long side tie sash. It is a size 16, so this will be my goal skirt that I will hopefully be able to fit into by next Christmas! I found one similar to this (different color) that said that it cost $980 new. To think I almost left it because I wasn’t sure if $3 was pushing it on value or not, but I figured there had to be more than $3 worth of silk there. LOL



This is one of my greatest finds to date! We bought a set of 1921 Grosvenor silver plate by Community Plate. The flash makes the patina wear show as scratches, but all the pieces are in excellent condition. We bought them from a lovely couple that actually only live about 3/4 of a mile away and who were having a garage/antique sale last weekend. Out of the four antique plate sets they had, I felt this was not only the best condition-wise, but also the prettiest. I love the deco drape feel to the pattern and I also LOVE that it has a space on the handles made for monogramming! I’ve always wanted a set of antique silver, but they are always WAY out of our price range. We paid… guess, guess…. $40 for this set! It has 6 dinner forks, 6 salad/dessert forks, 6 french knives, 6 individual saber blade butter knives, 6 fruit/orange spoons, 14 teaspoons, 1 sugar spoon, 1 olive/relish spoon, 1 pickle fork, 1 master butter knife, 2 gravy ladles, 1 serving spoon, 1 large berry spoon, and of course the Naken’s of Chicago tarnish proof silverware chest. Another great thing about this set is that you can find a piece here or there pretty frequently online and the replacement sites seem to have a decent (although pricey) supply as well. There are so many pieces that were made for this pattern, it’s crazy. Have a look here to see them all! Not only are there a million place setting pieces and servingware pieces, but there is also matching silver plate hollow-ware (bottom of the page linked to above). I always have a hard time matching silverware to dishes. Now if I so choose, that doesn’t have to be so hard because there is also a Grosvenor china set by Community China in beautiful blue and white with gold accents. Anything else? Yes! Grosvenor pattern etched crystal by Community Crystal. LOL Now I have a specific pattern to be on the look out for when we are thrifting across the country!

Posted in Thrifty Finds Tags: , No Comments »
Comment >>

Lame Frame -> Linen Looker!

Posted by Jenny Kerr on March 24th, 2011

Earlier in the week I posted some great estate sale finds we recently made and two of them were this awesome 1950′s travel poster and this HORRID 1993 picture frame. Between the two we spent $8. The poster is an original Northwest Orient Airlines lithograph. It was a little banged up and the airline logo was cut off the bottom. Even so, I am ecstatic that we were able to score it for $2! We’ve been looking for a friend for it so that we would have a pair. During my research I’ve found out that this poster in good condition runs between $800 & $1200! I would guess that even in this condition, because the main artwork is still in great shape, that it is still worth a few hundred dollars. The frame was $6 and was not only ugly, shiny plastic mauve but parts of the ugly was coming off showing the raw glue spotted wood underneath. I bought it because I felt that I would end up paying way more for a heavy duty frame of this size if I passed this one up, so I went ahead and got it. We needed a big awesome frame to protect our new treasure, so I thought for a few minutes and come up with a great solution!

The first thing I did to the frame was to break off as much of the loose plastic as I could so that whatever I did to it next would have a solid base. Then I cut the paper off the back and removed the cardboard backing, the old Monet poster and the glass. I had to take out the glaziers points and unscrew the hanging hooks to do this and I set those aside. I decided to do a simple fabric covered frame, but I had to find something that I felt would match the poster, but wouldn’t be too crazy to fit in somewhere in the house. The paper has yellowed a little over the years and the bright white of the buildings is now a light ecru color, so that is the color I chose to go with. I went to my fabric shelves and looked for something similar and I pulled out and unbleached linen that I had. I measured how far around the frame (as in each piece of it, not the circumference) it was and then how long each side was. I cut pieces of the linen 1/4 inch wider and 3 inches longer than my measurements were. So now I had 4 pieces of linen and a frame.

I wrapped the fabric around the sides of the frame lengthwise and sewed it with a simple stitch along the back of the frame. I made it tight but not TOO tight because once you put the glass back in it will take out the slack. You want the fabric to be centered in both directions. I started about 1.5 inches in from the corners and sewed to the other end, stopping about 1.5 inches away from it because the corners take a little configuring and you want a little mobility for that. Once I had all four sides sewn on I folded and cut the corners to make two angled edges on each that would fit together like the corner of a blanket. When I was happy with how they looked I sewed them from underneath, or inside some people call it, so that you couldn’t see the stitches when I was done. I repeated this on all four corners and completed stitching up the ends on the back as well. We cleaned the glass really good, put it back into the frame and reattached the hanging hardware. To spruce up the poster itself I took a white plastic art eraser which is good for cleaning up artwork and won’t smudge or spread stains. This immediately got rid of 3/4 of the marks of the piece like they had never been there. I straightened the one rip and smoothed it out and folded about 1/8 of an inch on the edges where it was too big for the frame. We laid the poster face down on the glass and hubby held it while I arranged it and made sure it was flat. Next I put the cardboard back over the back of it and hubby reinserted the points to secure it in the frame.

All I can say is that I am extremely pleased with the finished project and the frame is perfect. It fits in with our decor, matches the poster and doesn’t detract from it at all! One expert I spoke to about the poster said that we were lucky to find one at all, and it is unbelievable that we got it for $2! Right now it is hanging in our bedroom but when we move next I will hang it in our dining room for all our visitors to enjoy!

Posted in DIY Craftiness, Thrifty Finds, Upcycling 1 Comment »
Comment >>

Thrifty Finds: Why I Love Estate Sales

Posted by Jenny Kerr on March 21st, 2011

This past weekend Hubby found an estate sale for us to go to that was absolutely awesome! When we got there there was a line and we waited about 30 minutes for our number to be called up to go ahead and go inside, but it was well worth it! The owner had been 100 when she died and she was a glamorous fashionista and life long collector of cool! There were so many things in the house that I would have loved, but they were already reserved by others or I felt we just didn’t have the room for them. I bought what I could and although several of the pieces are going into the shop with the next batch of postings, I am saving a couple things back for myself and wanted to share them with you as always! A couple of the items were misc finds that I never did post from a while ago and as always you can click and make the images larger for a closer look, which I encourage!

The blue hat is from an antique barn and was $12. The large rose hat is from a street fair and was $6 and the smaller rose hat is from the estate sale and it was $10. The Ben Sherman bag was from Salvo’s and was $1.55. The black flats with rhinestone embellishment are Very Vera and were $2 from Salvo’s.

The Benetton messenger bag was $2 from Salvos, the belts were 50 cents each at an estate sale and the vintage fabric (about 1.5 yrds) was $2 at Salvos. The vintage (50′s or early 60′s) lace pumps are MY size and cost me $3 at the estate sale. Really excited about these!

The book is heavily embossed and guilt copy of The Wonder’s of Italy for $2, the purse was $3 and is like new, the metal thingy was $5 and it lets you make individual puddings or jellies in the fridge while using minimal space, It is new in the box from the 50′s. The silk scarves were $1 each and so was the skinny belt. All from the estate sale.

FUR! FUR, FUR, FUR! The Mink collars were only $3 each! I bought the entire box because I am usually seeing these around for $13-20 at the stores. The small iridescent white fabric scrap, the mink pom-pom belt, and the embroidered chiffon trim (about 3 yrds) were $1 each and the bags worth of mink scraps was $5. All from the estate sale.

The vintage pj patterns and the transfer monograms were $1 each. The mink tails were part of the bag lot from above, the collar was $3, the shell flower beads were 75 cents and each jewelry piece was 50 cents; all from the estate sale. The etched gold pendent  in close up was 50 cents, it exactly matches a bracelet that hubby bought for me in Spain!

The 1/2 of a mink coat (for sewing) was $6 and feels awesome! The pink and silver vintage fabric is about 2 yrds and the white and gold vintage fabric is about 3 yrds, each were $3 and all in this photo came from the estate sale. I urge you to enlarge on that one, they are pretty awesome! The table runner, blue napkins and embroidered place-mats came from post Christmas sales at Pier 1 and World Market, I don’t think any of the items were more than $5. The vintage Christmas table cloth is from Salvo’s and was $3.

This is a huge embroidered cut-work table cloth in pale pink and is gorgeous! It cost me $3 at Salvos.

This fabric is awesome! I’m so sad that there isn’t very much of it, a little less than a yard. It is a white chiffon type fabric with silver and gold threads running though it that “puff out” this floral design. I’m not even sure what I’m going to use it for yet, but it will come to me. From the estate sale for $1!

We got this mirror last summer at a garage sale and it went right into the garage and I never did get photos of it. It was $10. I bought this $6 frame at the SVDP the other day because it was the perfect size for a project I had in mind.

We got this window at an estate auction last summer for $50. It perfectly matches the windows in our house back in Indiana and we are replacing some double doors with a window so this will be perfect for the top half!

I saw these at a garage sale last summer and got her talked down to $8 for the pair. I intended to refinish them for hubby, but after I scrubbed them they STILL looked like this so I don’t know what to do other than go ahead with the spray can! lol

I didn’t know what I would do with this stand, but it was $1 at a yard sale so I bought it. The brand new printed vintage linen souvenir towel was $3 at Salvos.

The two copies of English Home were 75 cents (a drop from $7 originally!) at SVDP. The plastic bag has 45 XL white Tyvek envelopes which I usually see for about $3.50 each, but here I got the entire stack for 50 cents at an estate sale. The Washington, DC poster is pretty beat up, but the artwork on this 1950′s litho print is amazing! I had to have it, even though I had to remove it from the tool cabinet that it was on myself. It cost me $2 at the estate sale. If it had been in better shape, it would have been worth around $800! One of my favorite finds ever reguardless of worth, but in this shape from what I can gather it would still be worth a few hundred dollars.

Posted in Fashion & Style, Thrifty Finds Tags: , , , 5 Comments »
Comment >>
« Older Entries
Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More
Powered by WordPress