fabric stash purge party

Last week, I happened upon an ad for a Fabric stash purge party. I can't even remember where I saw the ad - most likely on Craigslist. I really wanted to go on Saturday, but ended up going on Sunday instead. And that was okay - I mostly wanted to scout it out to see how it all worked, in the hopes of maybe joining in the next time they had one. It sounds like a GREAT way to unload some fabric without going to the trouble of having a garage sale, or having to do shipping like you would with eBay or etsy.

I was too shy to take many pictures, so here's a quick one I snapped through the doorway on my way out.



As you can see, it was in a big warehouse type place, so there was plenty of room for tons of fabric, and plenty of space to move around. It wasn't too crowded on Sunday morning - I wonder how crazy it was on Saturday? They had a wide variety of fabrics, pretty well sorted by type (cottons, synthetics, flannels, fleece, upholstery, etc.). In the back, they had more tables with all sorts of other crafty supplies - books, trims, stamps, patterns, yarn, etc. And there were also a couple other tables heaped with just fabric scraps (mostly upholstery stuff) - fill a bag for $2 or something like that. My only complaints were that parking sucked (there was some charity fun run next door) and that the checkout was painfully slow, because they had to do so much work to keep track of what was sold. But other than that, it seemed well run, and I think I'll try it out next time.

The individual sellers priced their own goods, and sometimes added extra info like length, width, manufacturer, etc. Some were bagged, and some were not. I thought the pricing was pretty high, but maybe all the more reasonably priced stuff sold the day before? My main purchase was this stack of flannel scraps, each one about 1/2 yard or so, for about $8. I'm always on the lookout for bits of flannel to make scrappy rag quilts with, so I was happy to find a nice variety of small cuts.



And I couldn't pass up this ginormous (12000 yards!!!) cone of white cotton thread. I put a normal 1200 yard spool of thread next to it for scale. And actually, it wasn't just one spool, it was four spools, for $4. I haven't tried a cone this big with the cone thread holder I have for my sewing machine - I sure hope it works!



And finally, I picked up this sweet little trim for $1. It's little girlies with fringe dresses - how cute!