Lilydale and Vintage finds

Ma and I moseyed along to Lilydale this weekend to check out some fabric she had her eye on in Textile Offcuts. It was my first time to Textile Offcuts - and come to think of it probably my first time to Lilydale ever. I guess it's a good enough reason as any to see a bit more of Victoria.

Ma was in quilter's heaven in the shop - she found a whole array of black, yellow and white cotton fabrics and also got into a deep conversation with a lovely random lady about the best place to get fabric bargains. I eavesdropped while rummaging and came away with a couple of lengths of cotton that I am hoping to make little girl dresses out of using designs from some of the Japanese craft books I recently purchased.

I was also after some plain black material for a skirt and came away a bit disappointed - but that was all to change when we went up the road and round the corner to R & L Knight, which I suspect isn't actually the name of the shop. It has a giant 'Fabric' sign above the shopfront but then again, that could be regarded as a descriptor of some sort. Anyhoo, I managed to get 5 metres of black lining for the sumly price of $5 and also some great fabric for the actual skirt at a bargain price.

I was a happy camper and thought I was done with shopping for the day. Lunch was next on the cards and then we were going to head home - but there was a change of plan when I saw a charity shop next to the lunch venue. 15 minutes later I walked out with a bunch of old sewing patterns and bits and bobs that made me very happy.

Some of the patterns I picked up - a few are a bit dated but I think I could have fun with them.

Inspired by this, I decided to also stop by the local and newly renovated Salvos store on the way home and found more vintage patterns. It was like all my Christmases had come at once! (Is that a bit sad? I don't know, but I *was* very happy at that point in time)

I am sure some of the patterns are going to be missing bits or won't quite fit but I figure that the whole lot was cheaper than one brand new pattern so I can't lose :)

I am so so happy with these gorgeous vintage patterns for little girls - there were some for boys too which I didn't buy since no nephews are in the works at this stage.

So for less than $10, I managed to get my grubby little hands on 14 vintage patterns, several zips and a metre of patterned flannel. HURRAH!