I skipped the Thursday garage sales today because I’m planning on checking out Goodwill’s 99 cent day tomorrow. There’s nothing like some good 99 cent retail therapy and I haven’t been to the sale in a few months.

Since I didn’t have anything thrifty to report today, I took a look around my creative space, which is filled with thrifty goodness, and noticed a theme. Some may say that Nebraska has infected my taste in colors or I could be subconsciously planning for the holidays. I think maybe I spend too much time looking at cabbage roses and vintage French linen.

There’s a story behind the fabric. When one of my readers realized that we both live in Lincoln, she emailed me about a big box and big bag of fabric that she no longer wanted. Was there anything I could do with it? I picked it up that evening (small world: she practically lives in my neighborhood!) and started spreading the word.

First I met two friends for coffee and they left with almost half of it! Then I took what was left to knitting group to give to my friend who helps out with Sewing for Babies. I kind of feel sorry for those babies, because the knitters went to town on what was left. However, I’m happy that we kept a lot of fabric out of the landfill and bypassed the thrift store grab bags.* Everyone left with something they really wanted and the rest is going to a good cause.

Of course I picked out a few little pieces for myself. Right now I’m spending more time with yarn, so I can’t overdo it on my stash.

thrifting: The buttons and ribbon are thrifted from all over the place: Goodwill, church sales and garage sales.

* Don’t you hate it when you find one or two things you love at the thrift store and they’re packaged in a “grab bag” with a bunch of things you don’t want? Have you ever just bought the bag, taken out what you want and then immediately donated back the rest? Me, too.

I love when I can make something totally out of recycled and thrifted materials. I whipped up this wine bag one afternoon—the serger makes some projects so darn fast! Free fabric from way back. (Don’t you love the little bird houses?) Thrifted yarn from the big spool of wool. Gift tag made from upcycled thank you note. Personally, I think it’s much cuter than anything you could buy at Hallmark, but that’s just me.

My latest gift-giving obsession continues: fancy soap and washcloths. I know so many people who deserve a little bit of pampering, but are too busy to take time for themselves. Hopefully these will help them relax and wash their stress away. They are crocheted out of the super soft Aunt Lydia’s cotton.

Want to make some yourself? Here are the patterns.

Note: You’ll notice that I don’t chain at the beginning of each row. I’ve started using faux double crochets instead. They really make your edges much neater.

Basket Weave
gauge: 4 stitches per inch, blocked to 10 inches
first stitch in each row is a faux double crochet instead of chain 3

• Row 1: chain 40
• Row 2: dc across
• Row 3-6: *5 dc through the front post, 5 dc through the back post* repeat until 5 stitches left, 5 dc through the front post
• Row 7-10: *5 dc through the back post, 5 dc through the front post* repeat until 5 stitches left, 5 dc through the back post
• Repeat rows 3-10 four more times.

Columns
gauge: 4 stitches per inch, blocked to 10 inches
first stitch in each row is a faux double crochet instead of chain 3

• Row 1: chain 39
• Row 2: dc across
• Row 3: *4 dc, dc through front post* repeat until 4 stitches left, 4 dc
• Row 4: *4 dc, dc through back post* repeat until 4 stitches left, 4 dc
• Repeat rows 3-4 until you have a square.

Last weekend I hit a few church sales that turned out to be a total bust. I decided to stop by Goodwill on the way home just to window shop. (Hey, I was in the neighborhood!) It was half price clothing day and I found this great sweater for only $2.

I have been thinking of making some Nebraska football inspired (i.e., red, red and more red) accessories for my shop in the Fall. I really like the black and red plied yarn for Husker Blackshirts fans.

recycle: The sweater is a super soft cotton/acrylic blend with perfect seams for unraveling. Score!

Remember these pajamas? They are from Simplicity 3935. I’m pretty sure I made them a size too big, but even still, they’re kind of baggy around the tummy. I’m hoping to give them a little makeover soon.

Next are the lounge pants from Sewing Green. I love these pants, especially the little curve in the leg and the small boot cut flare. I was so excited to make a muslin and so disappointed when they didn’t work out. Great pattern, just not the right pattern for me.

Just as I was about to give up, I was looking around online and found an easy straight leg pattern — a style that works well for me. Better yet, Hancock was having a 99 cent pattern sale over the weekend. I drove up Saturday and purchased it on the spot. Success! Finally!

Now I’m planning an assembly line of production. I’ve been squirreling away thrifted sheets for jammies. I’ve also got some thrifted pants that I’ve been dying to refashion. They’re the real reason I wanted to find a non-bunchy pattern. I’d like to actually wear them outside of the house!

sales: Have you ever paid full price for a pattern? Whenever I find something I like, I stalk the fabric store flyers until 99 cent pattern day. Such a bargain!

I decided to pull out my bread machine and we’ve been eating homemade ever since. When I bake bread in the oven, I use the Artisan Bread recipe and make small loaves. It’s too hot in my kitchen during the summer months to use the oven, and the bread machine makes such large loaves. It’s hard to finish it before it goes stale.

One day last week I made a big batch of hummus and realized I had nothing for dipping. Then I thought: stale end of bread = croutons! I made mine really big and now I’ve also eliminated store-bought pita chips for snacks.

Thrifty Crispies (or just really big croutons)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Using a serrated knife, cut that stale hunk of bread into dipping-sized pieces. Watch your fingers! Depending on how much bread you have, put 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a bowl and add some seasonings. I use a little salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. Add the bread to the bowl and toss until lightly coated.

Place them single layer in a baking pan or cookie sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes. Stir once and then bake the other side for 3-4 minutes. The time will depend on how big you cut your pieces. Don’t let them burn!

Cool and store in an air tight container.

These don’t last very long in our house. I like them with hummus, but my husband and daughter snack on them straight out of the container.

thrifting: I got my first bread machine on freecycle. It was a little dusty, but with some elbow grease, it cleaned up nicely. Plus, it was free! My current machine came from a garage sale and was a little pricey relatively speaking, but it matches my kitchen appliances. You can usually find them “as-is” at the thrift store for around $10.

I looked and looked for cotton yarn from every thrifty means available to me and finally caved and bought some from a craft store. Now, all I see is cotton! I got a nice sweater that’s in the unravel pile and the above lovelies for a buck each at a garage sale. I may have gotten a little out of control and bought a pink and purple, too. Oh, well. You can never have too much dishcloth yarn, right?

A few weeks ago my husband was looking for some shoe polish and I told him to check the pink wicker basket in the linen closet. Yeah, I know. A pink wicker basket doesn’t seem appropriate for black, brown and cordovan polish, wooden brushes and buffing rags. Then last week, while I was wandering around a church sale not really looking for anything in particular I saw this:

Now that’s proper shoe supply storage! I checked it over briefly. It looked ok from the outside. The inside appeared to be filled with old polish tins. I figured I’d throw them out and clean it up later. When I got home and had a closer look, guess what I found!

Not only was everything there, but it worked! I was pretty excited. I think for once I actually surprised my husband and he seems to really like it. Now the question is: how well does it work?

church sales: This year church sales have been mostly a bust for me. Usually they are filled with garage sale leftovers. I don’t know if people are holding on to things longer or they are selling more at their sales. I still go to them because they’re inside and it’s much easier to keep an eye on my daughter while I look around. Plus, there’s always such a wide assortment of things that get donated. You never know what you’ll find!

I love going to garage sales. Having them is another story. Every May my neighborhood has garage sale weekend. My first one was very organized: everything was tagged, I had tables, there were signs. I spent all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday sitting in my least favorite room of the house. It was exhausting. I swore I’d never have another one.

Then the 2010 Spring Cleaning began. I found a lot of big items that I wanted to get out of the house. Big, heavy items that weren’t quite big and heavy enough to ask the Mission truck to come pick them up, but too big and heavy for me to pile in my car and make a few trips to donate. When I realized that the neighborhood sales were this weekend, I decided to put them out and beg people to take them away try to sell them.

Earlier in the week I had taken a lot of my daughter’s clothes and toys up to Once Upon a Child. This place is awesome. You drop off your bins of stuff, come back a few hours later and pick up a check. So I really didn’t have a lot to put out. My goal was to close shop once all of the big, heavy stuff was gone. If I sold any kid stuff in the process, it was icing on the cake.

Not much was tagged. My biggest signs were, “Make me and offer” and “Free.” I’m happy to report that I met my goal and closed the garage door after lunch on Friday (with a few hours to spare for my favorite church sale, which was this weekend, too).

The weirdest thing: I made almost the same amount of money with my Once Upon a Child visit and loosey-goosey garage sale as I made with the long, tiring and involved garage sale. Plus, I had A LOT LESS left over. Is this a recipe for success? Maybe I’ll test it out next year and see!

the string: Yes, it’s kind of weird, but I had to block off my garage. People kept wandering in and looking for stuff on sale. I had to tell them, really, what’s in the driveway is all. Our lawn mower and my daughter’s bike are not for sale!

Did you have a Dressy Bessy (or Dapper Dan?) when you were little? I did and I loved her! My daughter is learning to button/snap/tie and I really wanted to get her one. However, the dolls from the last few decades look very different than the one I had. This one isn’t so bad. I don’t even recognize this one!

Here is the Dressy Bessy I had. I’ve been searching on ebay for the past few months and these girls are hard to come by in nice condition. (New in the box went for $84!) Then I started to see dolls like the one above. She looks like the doll I remember, but doesn’t have the vinyl shoes and vest. I figured I could live without them if I could get something similar and clean.

I was so happy to win her! I’m also happy that my daughter likes her, although she’s not a fan of the buttons and snaps. I guess she’s officially a member of the Velcro generation. I’m going to keep working on her, though. Sooner or later she’s got to learn how to button/snap her own pants!

Do you have a favorite doll or toy from your past that you really wanted for your kids? When you gave it to them, they like it as much as you did?