I find more and more joy working with vintage linens/found and rescued fabrics and there are so many of them out there gathering dust in the backs of drawers, linen closets and in rarely opened Hope Chests that there is little worry that the supply will dry up any time soon.
I source my linens everywhere from estate sales to thrift shops to Ebay with the prices varying wildly between all of them.
Now that the Shabby-Chic aesthetic has died down they are a bit more plentiful, and generally the prices are better with my best buys at thrift shops and estate sales.
But like most things over all prices are up but good deals still abound.
I scored this vintage table cloth today for $3. It will first get a bath and stain treating then it will hang on my wall for a while as I consider a design for it.
Put the word out that you are looking for some and it is amazing what will come your way!
Tablecloths, toppers, vintage sheets, quilt tops, dresser scarves, dead stock fabric and even fabric harvested from vintage clothing are all fair game when it comes to taking what has languished for years and turning it into art. This vintage quilt top just came to me from a long time BadAss Quilter and I look forward to giving it a next life!
I am currently working on two different original pieces using vintage textiles. The first is a piece with the working title of “The Scarab” and I am using linens and mostly cast off shot silk remnants to create an original Art Nouveau inspired piece featuring a large scarab in the center.
I mock many of my pieces using online software like Canva and will be doing a mini-class about this over in the BadAss Quilter Community of Patreon.
The second piece is also an original but this time a whole cloth design call Four Friendly Frogs which is being done on a vintage table topper interlined with a light weight vintage cotton to help boost the strength of the vintage topper which has a slightly looser weave than is ideal for quilting detail work.
Here I am using “blue pen” to trace my images to the fabric in order to know what and where to quilt
I am sharing process videos weekly, and talking through the challenges over on my Patreon if you are interested in knowing more. ( And Hint- hint.. each week I am giving away a BAQS t-shirt to members of my Patreon community... so come over and join… Supporting the community starts at just $3 a month and there is even a free option! )
