{Thrift Shop Temptations} Come Look at Craft Supplies With Me!

The plan was to do a "Come Thrift With Me" video, but my aging smartphone refused to cooperate. It's a shame because it was the perfect store on the perfect  day, with lots of stuff in the craft section to show you and talk about. We'll have to make do with still pictures.

First, there's this --

I am crazily in love with this vintage crewel kit. Never mind the fat that I've never tried crewel. I'll figure it out. It's so perfectly vintage without having any of the elements that I don't like. And it's a greenhouse. I love greenhouses. And no one else started and then abandoned it. There's not a needle rusting in the fabric. Better yet, it was only a dollar. Next to it was an equally old Irish Blessing needlework kit by the same company for twelve bucks. I don't understand the pricing methods of thrift shops.

I also don't understand this little bag full of cats. They're about the size of a cookie cutter, with white fabric on one side and different calico prints on the other, with zig-zag stitching just inside the raw edges, and a layer of batting between. (Maybe they were made from that prequilted fabric?)

Not intended for applique, because the pretty fabric is on the back and the faces are on the plain side...so what are they? There were probably a couple dozen in there but I didn't investigate too closely. Priced at ten dollars, there was no risk of them coming home to my house.

My best guess is that they were some sort of doll. My sister and I played with paper dolls cut out of department store catalogs, so I can see some little girl with a big community of flat fabric cats. If you know what they really are, please let me know.

My youngest son found, and was horrified by, this doll. She blinks and that's weird. I explained that that's how dolls work, but he's not convinced. My biggest question was whether she had friends there with her, because it seems like these little gals travel in packs. She was alone and she's going to hang out on the shelf in my sewing room while I figure out how awful it would be to make her a new dress. (I've been on a quest for a poorly dressed one to play with, but the ones I found last weekend at a barn sale were so grimy and sad that I couldn't bring myself to rescue them.)

This bag of scraps was on the table outside the front door for fifty cents. It's mostly Christmas scraps and solids, but I figure it was worth buying just to us the big solid pieces and the tiny dotted pieces to line zipper bags.