Sunday 1 March 2015

Scraptastic Fabric

When we moved here Pooch told me the names of some neighbourhoods I should avoid. Naturally I listened carefully and instantly forgot these because I am second only to goldfish when it comes to memory and lack thereof. It turns out, hilariously, that the moment I was left on my own, once Pooch had started work, I travelled straight to one of these, called the delightful sounding "Bayview". Bayview is where you end up if you travel due South from our flat, through the neighbourhood of Dogpatch (not making these names up), and on further. The place I was actually aiming for was called "Scrap - a source for the resourceful" and is between Bayview and Bernal Heights - the latter being ok to go to during the day but not so much after dark.

To cut a long story short, no one died and I duly arrived at Scrap.
Scrap in San Francisco.
This place was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!
Scrap in San Francisco.
I'd been to two UK scrap stores and they were fun but...meh. This one was a crafter's paradise - regardless of the craft but especially for fabric users. The guy at the till actually thanked me for taking a huge bag of fabric and assured me they never ran out so I should come back again soon.
Scrap in San Francisco.
See the sign at the top? "Small rolls, 15 for $1". Ha. I'm not going to say it's worth the risk of being shot because that would be flippant. It is pretty awesome though. Plus there were books and patterns.
Scrap in San Francisco.
Endless amounts of everything - including used and virgin cine film, slides, offcuts of every wood, plastic, metal you can name, frames, paints, glass...just everything.
Scrap in San Francisco.
I liked this jar - "$8 including green thingies - $5 without".
Scrap in San Francisco.
What are the green thingies? I have no idea. Who cares. The only thing I couldn't see was knitting yarn. The reason for this was apparent at check out.
Scrap in San Francisco.
Looks good though. When I got there the man asked me if $8 would be all right for my shopping basket full. A lot of the fabric there would be more than that for 50cm. I insisted on $10. My fabric haul...
Rolls of Fabric
Later divided into blue, green, red and yellow.
My creation
Special mention for the two cat prints.
Cat fabric
A vintage pattern for a dress I had and used to wear all the time when I was 19ish (the red model but full length).
Vintage Pattern
Plus a few vintage pattern books for a certain friend I'll be seeing on a certain knitting holiday in a month's time.

My new sewing machine - a Singer - arrived yesterday so I have used the fabric to cut out some coasters. I thought they would be a good small project to try out the machine on. I will report back on progress!


3 comments:

Tomomi McElwee said...

oh that's nice!

Alison said...

You just found craft nirvana! What an amazing place. I think you should try and go weekly, at least. You might miss something otherwise!

Franchise Your Business said...

First time reading this blog thanks for sharing