Good To the Last Drop...

Probably not a good idea to come to my garage sales.  By the time I'm through with something, it is really done.  It's probably been morphed into something twice.  Or more. And then I still think about it as I put the sticker on it.  Then wonder as the new owner carts it down the driveway. So far, I have not chased after someone for something that I had second thoughts but I have had lingering 'what ifs'.  Today was a work day, meaning I have a deadline and a goal to reach and a number to create by those other numbers.  I needed quantity to my quality and I needed cheap.  Time to go through the mama's collection 'Cannot Throw Away, But Is It Really Good Enough To Keep' bag.  And here's what I came up.  Pieces of 50's toweling that a lady in a cafe that I was remodeling, had brought in for rags.  I calmly suggested that if I brought in some other rags, could I have the pile that she brought in?  Looking at me incredulously, wondering why I was lathering over a pile of old cotton rags, shrugged her questioning shoulders and responded,' Sure, why not?'  Why not, indeed!  Could she not see the value in these historic pieces?  Printed linen/cotton from from a pre dishwasher generation, when a towel had to perform lintlessly and absorbingly.  No, she did not get it and I quickly squirrelled my trade off to my pick up truck.  Today that treasure became a pocket on a market bag.

And the bag itself?  Crazy Dee was going through extra things while I was redecorating her living room last fall.  She hands me a pile of sheets and pillowcases and pronounces them, mine.  Won't you need them?  Won't you want to make them into something else?  Of course not!  That's what she has me around for!  So today, snip, snip!  Cut, Cut!  Sew, Sew! and so far, two new market bags are made from throwaways.  Not one dime was spent in the production of these useful products.  Even the interfacing was bought at a yard sale, three abundant yards for a mere 50 cents! Could that even be considered a cost?  Thread?  Negligible.  Electricity? By not using my television, I save more than most.  I proclaim it a Free Market Bag and I'm off to produce nine more!

It's exciting looking through my fourth time usables to see what zany inspiration these scraps of history will  become.  A pocket?  Trim?  Lining?

I cannot wait.....