Thrift Store Crafting

When I tell people that I get most of my craft supplies at thrift stores, they start to look at me like I've got a screw loose. Some people just can't quite wrap their heads around how a) treasure could come from trash, and b) how I can reliably find craft supplies at a place that hardly specializes in them.

I suppose that when it comes to the latter objection, the truth is that I can't reliably find supplies there. I can't go into a thrift store with a beading project in mind and be guaranteed to find the beads or material that I need, and if I can find beads at all, there's no guarantee that they'll be the colours or sizes that I want.

Most of the time I don't bother to explain my reasons behind thrift store crafting. Most people aren't interested, to be honest. They shake their head and don't say another word about it, and then go away and leave me to whatever I was doing. But the rare few who are interested in sharing tips and finding info, well, I love to get into good conversations with them about thrift store adventures of the crafty kind!

Not all the supplies you can buy at thrift stores will be in some of of craft supply section. If you know what to look for, the entire store is your craft supply warehouse!

Most of my yarn for knitting I get by buying sweaters and unraveling them. I can spend the same amount for a sweater's worth of cashmere as I can for a scarf's worth of unused acrylic yarn. Personally, I think taking apart sweaters gives me a much better deal.

Animal fibres like wool or angora can also be dyed with something as simple and cheap as Kool-Aid, too, so you're not even limited to the colour of yarn already in the sweater.

Some thrift stores also have fabric remnants lying around for an incredibly low price. I bought enough cotton fabric once to make 4 pillowcases for only $2. So long as I don't mind hemming a little, $3 bought me enough material to make curtains for the three windows of my apartment. Material to make 2 pairs of dress pants also only cost me $3.

And if making big projects isn't your thing and/or you can't get your hands on cheap remnants like that, you can always repurpose clothing. Old pants or skirts can be cut up, sewn, and embroidered to become many different decorative pouches. I once talked to someone who used to buy old velvet dresses and skirts second-hand and turn them into embroidered and beaded pouches for tourists. A $10 old dress could turn into $50 profit when selling those pouches.

Taking the sequins off an ugly sequined shirt can add to that decoration, too.

Some people enjoy buying old furniture and giving it a new paint job, and turning it into something than looks like it could have come straight from a specialty store.

But second-hand books and turn them into hollow books to hide little treasures and trinkets.

I read about a woman who would take the old fur coats she found at thrift stores and turn them into teddy bears.

With a bit of creativity and ingenuity, there are a ton of crafty ideas to be found in thrift stores, and by getting your supplies there instead of at chain craft stores, not only are you saving yourself a bundle of cash, you're also helping to rescue items that may otherwise just end up in a landfill if they don't get sold quickly enough.

Giving new life to old items is one of the great joys of thrift store crafting. Turning something old into something new and beautiful, seeing where it started and where it ends up, is a kind of thrill I never get tired of experiencing. It's a testament to the crafter and the artist, and isn't a thing to be mocked. Big deal if I got this yarn from a sweater nobody else wanted. Now it's a beautiful lace shawl that people compliment everywhere I go.

A lot of larger thrift stores will have a specific section for craft supplies, and that's usually the first place I go. I never go with a specific project in mind, of course, because in all likelihood I won't find what I need. But I go with an open mind and an eye to potential future projects.

In the craft supply section of the store I usually shop at, I can find a variety of things. Beads, glue, bags of yarn balls half used up, fat quarters for quilting, cross-stitch or needlework kits that have been abandonned, knitting needles and crochet hooks. I may not reliably find things there, but I have to admit that I've come away with some spectacular deals. a 5-pound cone of white cotton sewing thread, guaranteeing that it'll be a long time before I need to buy sewing thread again! Enough seed beads to last me through 20 beaded bracelets or so. Huge bags of embroidery floss.

I may not have had projects in mind when I went there, but I certainly came away with plenty of ideas. And even if I didn't have ideas when I left, I had the supplies in stock for when the ideas finally came.