Finds - For the Sewing Box

Hello there - I hope you had a nice weekend. Mine was filled with knitting, sewing, sanding, painting, cleaning, shopping and watching Mad Men box sets. The shopping was of the charity shop and antique fair variety, and I thought I'd share some of the things I purchased....

Always handy to have and only 25p each (from a local charity shop)

 And from the monthly antique fair:

 Selection of fastenings and needles, only £1

 

 Belt buckles at 50p for the lot - the result of digging around in a button tin. This is usually a rewarding activity, and I find that stall holders and shop owners are surprised that anyone has bothered to have a look, and confused at what price to charge, often resulting in a bargain.

 

I liked the look of the buttons in this £1 bag 

Even better than they looked in the bag! Pretty turquoise hexagonal glass buttons for a blouse, patterned red glass buttons and other assorted small shell/mother of pearl buttons

 Some needles, including massive ones, which I presume are for upholstery?

 I didn't expect to find more buttons in the same bag, hidden inside an old Elastoplast tin. Most are black but there are a few interesting ones

On another stall, the stallholder tried in vain to interest me in a pair of vintage electric scissors, however I only had eyes for the folders of knitting patterns, in which I found some beauties:

Isn't this set adorable?

(Does this pattern cover show the beginnings of an argument over what music to play?)

Classic cardigan with lovely detail at the neckline

At a cost of £3 for 4 patterns, all the above finds set me back a mere £6.50. Bargain!

I had also been on the knitting pattern hunt in the charity shops, but most were of 1980s/90s era. Apart from the brightly coloured mohair sweaters and similar, there were quite a few short-sleeved lace jumpers, which were in fact very similar to the ones pictured above. It is the hideous styling that always puts me off patterns of this era, but I really should take time to look at them properly and assess how they might look in a different context.

K x