What a difference a couple of weeks makes!

I think all the thrifty mavens (except me obviously!) must be away on holiday. Or else too busy dealing with holidaying offspring to go bargain hunting.

Because after the utter dearth of anything worth looking twice at before I went on holiday, I struck total and absolute gold yesterday in the local charity shops.

Let’s start gently shall we, little things first. Like opening birthday presents.

Notions. Haberdashery. Namely, some nice plastic buttons – 1960s vintage I think – and thread.

After that comes a bit of 1960s nylon…

Well, when I say a bit…

I really mean a lot. A whole lot. Over eight metres of the stuff, actually.

I won’t tell you how little I paid for it, because it might make you feel a bit queasy at the thought.

It did me. I know it’s nylon (think 1960s negligées) and therefore not to everyone’s taste.

But isn’t it pretty?

I wonder… can you have a nylon kitchen tablecloth?

Would nylon curtains be out of the question?

Next up, a bit of a mixed bag. Bits and bobs.

Pillowcases, scraps and what looks like a table runner with half of it missing.

Ridiculously cheap.

It’s funny, the thread I’d already bought almost perfectly matches those sagey-green pillowcases!

It was obviously meant to be.

And then, I spotted this…

I thought it was a soft cotton tablecloth when I picked it up. I didn’t unfold it in the shop, I just scooped it up.

It was only when I got home that I realised it wasn’t a tablecloth at all. It was another huge length of fabric – metres and metres of it.

It has a border print. And a very fine weave, thin and almost see-through (that’s my floorboards you can see through it!) like a voile, so it also may not be that easy to find a use for.

It is hemmed at both ends, with hand stitching. Goodness knows what it used to be – there’s no header tape, so it’s not a curtain. There are some brown marks, so we’ll see how it fares in the wash.

I hope it survives ok, because I love it!

Finally, the pièce de résistance, the true thrift of the day…

Again, there is acres of it.

The picture below gives some idea… but there wasn’t nearly enough room to show all of it!

As with the previous piece, it is both marked, and hemmed at each end.

But this stuff is proper, not thin and flimsy like the other piece.

Ironically, I almost bought some fabric like this on ebay a while back, with a summer frock in mind.

But it was sold by the yard and worked out too expensive.

So I’m doubly chuffed with my lucky find.

In fact, I’m pretty darn chuffed with all of my finds.

I always thought that Christmas was the best time for bargains.

But it seems the secret of securing the juiciest of thrifty pickings remains true at any time of year…

Go shopping when everyone else is busy doing something else. ♥