Today's Bargain

I couldn't resist this bargain today. Old zippers on clearance for 5 cents each. I bought ten.

They're for my beginner sewing students. At that price they can practice using the zipper foot without any worries.

Bargains

I said yesterday that I need to keep myself under considerable control when I visit the haberdashery warehouse. One place I do allow myself a bit of leeway is the $1 bargain bin--especially when there are items that I might be purchasing anyway.

Here's what I got:

• side cutters for beading wire
• cleaning brush for sewing machine
• itty bitty paper punch
• bag of purple pretties
• blue shell (not plastic) buttons

Total cost: $5--most of these would normally cost more than that each.

Another Purchase

I bought a TV cabinet yesterday. Flat packed, of course. That gives me the prospect of another 3-D assembly puzzle to keep myself occupied today. I couldn't resist the opportunity to spend ten minutes in the store's Bargain Corner. There wasn't anything I needed, but I just had to pick through the shelf of textile items, just in case. What did I find?. . . about three metres of this blue stuff. The back of the label tells me in 31 different languages that it's 100% polyester. Each language is carefully labelled with it's international abbreviation. All but ten actually have the same word, with slight variations in spelling: "polyester", "polyestria", "poliestre" . . . so I'm left in no doubt as to the fibre content. The front of the label tells me what not to do. I'm not generally fond of synthetics. At $1.50 though, I decided to bring it home. Maybe I was just in a contrary mood. After all, the fabric seems innocent enough, despite the extensive warnings and the apparent impossibility of cleaning it in any way. I'm not sure what I'll do with it. For now it can sit with my foil jersey fabrics in the "possibilities" department.

Bargain?

I did a quick trip to my craft superstore the other day to top up my supplies before the quilt working bee for flood relief. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of neutral coloured sewing thread. Denim needles were also on the list. Right on the bottom shelf, I saw these boxes. The label says, "denim footwork kit". When I had a closer look I found that each box contains a walking foot and a seam support attachment. A couple of denim needles and a few plastic bobbins round out the set. The sale sticker said $15. I would normally expect to pay about three times that much for just a walking foot, but I had no way of knowing if this one would fit my machine, or more importantly, my students' machines. I took a box to the counter along with my other items to see if I could negotiate the option of returning it if I couldn't make it work. Imagine my surprise when the cash register brought the price up as $1 rather than $15! The sales assistant couldn't believe it either, so she rushed off to get a manager's ok on the price while I ran back to the shelf to collect the remaining two boxes. We met back at the counter and agreed on $1 each as the price, with the proviso that the option of returning them for my money back was off. I haven't had a chance to test them yet. Either I've paid three dollars for half a dozen jeans needles and a few bobbins or I have the biggest bargain of the year. Obviously I'm hoping for the latter. You may be wondering why I'm keen to have three extra walking feet . . . well, it means I can add them to my class set of equipment and allow my beginner quilting students to try them out before commiting to buying a walking foot of their own. Obviously I'm hesitant to do that at the regular price, but at $1 each it would be a real winner.

Bargains

Dimmeys at Footscray is closing down. Every time I mention it, I get a similar shocked, sad expression from Melbournians. Dimmeys at Footscray is an institution. Apparently the old building is to be converted into apartments and there will be a sleek new store a little further out in the suburbs. A sleek new store is not what Dimmeys is all about.

Dimmeys is all about a bargain! Dimmeys closing down sale means bargain upon bargain. I have all the leftover dyes from the weekend to use up, so I was looking for suitable cotton items to use for samples. I couldn't find anything much in white, but there was a rack of solid colour t-shirts and singlet tops: originally $9.99--75% off. I picked up a few. Well, I picked up quite few. I'm going to have a go at overdyeing them. I might even try some bleach. At less than $3 each, there's not much to lose.

First step--always--is washing. I don't usually use washing powder for pre-washing, but since these have been sitting around on clearance racks being handled by hundred's of people, I decided to err on the side of caution. It doesn't matter if the colour strips back a little and I'll give them a double rinse to make sure all the washing chemicals are gone. Pinks and purples in one load; blues in the next load. I won't have to wait for them to dry before I tackle them with the colour, so it won't be long before I can start to see what I can come up with. Meanwhile, there's lots of clearing up to do. I'd like to put the dyeing materials away in enough order that they'll be ready to go for my next workshop in a couple of months time. And I'm thinking I'll store some of the dye solutions in the fridge for a while to take the pressure off myself. They'll last longer that way and I won't have to be in such a rush to use them up. But to do that I have to make room in the fridge . . .

Bargain

There's no shortage of knitting needles at my house. But when my friend V tipped me off about a bargain at the local supermarket, I went along to have a look. I came home with these:
Eight sets of knitting needles. Each set consists of six sizes: 4mm to 7mm. Cost? $1 per set. They will be perfect as a class set for beginner knitters. All the sizes they're likely to need are there. And with six sizes I can demonstrate and teach about tension squares (swatches) without students having to buy a whole bunch of needles they're not going to use. Then they can go ahead and buy nice needles in the sizes they'll need. For now they're all sitting on my big table. I haven't worked out where to store them--the perennial problem of space--but I'm still pretty proud of my bargain buy, so that's ok.