I'm in buttony, soapy heaven

Aren’t weekends wonderful?

I use mine to catch up on all the sewing projects I’ve neglected during the week, when my hands are cuffed to the corporate wheel and there’s little time to relax and sew.

This Sunday I took the opportunity to go to a local weekly trash-and-treasure market on the other side of town.

The Amateur Actress volunteered to drive, so along with L’Auteur and The Renovators, we all squeezed into her tiny car (well, it was tiny with five of us inside it) and headed out for a morning of poking through stuff.

And what stuff there was to be had! I could not be-LIEVE how much rubbish there was. People seemed to have piled up all their old crap out of their garage and brought it along to sell. But what’s more amazing was that people were buying it.

I knocked around for half an hour before stumbling across the gold mine, which was a stall of vintage buttons run by a buttony old lady.

It was magnificent. I was delirious with happiness. I could have bought the lot.

Instead, I got four sets of matching buttons (red glass shanks, orange flowers, huge mustard velvet sofa cushion buttons and a quartet of glazed grey ones) for the grand total of $13. If I’d bought them in a real shop it would have cost me at least double.

She had so many buttons I could have happily filled up the bathtub with them and splashed around in them like some sort of habadashery dolphin.

As I wandered away feeling quite pleased with myself, I picked up a length of scarlet cotton velvet, a vintage orange and white checked tablecloth, and some cream suiting with a light pink pinstripe - for the grand total of seven dollars.

Then I rounded the corner and found a lovely little soap stall, where I picked up ten individual scented soaps for ten dollars.

This was PERFECT! I’ve been wanting to make some little soapy gifty things for my stall for a while now - fabric envelopes for soaps, tied with ribbon at the top – I think they’d look bright and colourful and they’re a perfect size for presents. Plus they’re a good way to use up my offcuts, as I don’t like to chuck anything out wastefully.

And these soaps were beautifully fragranced – I got frangipani, rose, olive, lemongrass, aloe vera, mango, patchouli, sandalwood, ocean and orange. Not to mention MUCH cheaper than buying them retail.

Then I scooted home and whizzed up some fabric envelopes using some of my scraps. I think they look really cheerful.

And now I’ve got the perfect source for all my buttony, soapy requirements – fantastic! I’m in buttony, soapy heaven.