I declare!

It wasn’t my intention when I set out, but my Minneapolis sojournthis past weekend ended up being an impromptu buying-trip of sorts. Two stops at “Savers” (the US version of Value Village) in Fargo, ND and Burnsville, MN netted me 30 (yes, THIRTY) t-shirts to upcycle and 22 vintage patterns for my stationary line and collage art. Talk about a haul!

The t-shirts are too numerous to list (plus, I don’t want to spoil the surprise), but off the top of my head, I can say that there’s Star Wars, Mario Bros, SPAM, Bruce Lee (another one!), and vintage Winnipeg Jets in there. The discovery of the Jets shirt can be credited to my awesome and ever-patient fella, R, but the rest were the result of flipping through racks of literally hundreds of shirts. Ah, it’s a labour of love, that’s for sure.

As for the patterns, I am STILL pinching myself. Had I bought them on Ebay or Etsy, they would have cost me upwards of $150 plus shipping; not to mention the hours of searching, watching, bidding, waiting. These ones, however, were in my cart within minutes seconds and cost me about a tenth of that. I have barely looked at them, but two that stand out for me are “two dudes in robes” (always a favourite) and a very odd 70s wrap-jumpsuit that oddly reminded me of Andee from Sew Dandee. She’s getting the second one, but the rest are for meeeee. And you, eventually. ;-)



Footnote: can you believe that all 30 t-shirts fit in my front-load Kenmore washing machine??? Just sayin’.