Pro tip: Found a hidden goldmine for fabric scraps at the local thrift store

I was in Seattle last weekend and popped into a Goodwill near the university district. Turns out, they have a whole section of leftover fabric rolls and sample swatches from design schools for like $2 each. I grabbed 8 yards of a really cool textured linen that would have cost me $40 at a fabric store. Has anyone else found good cheap materials in unexpected places?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_henry23d agoTop Commenter

Wait, what kind of shape was that linen actually in? I've dug through those design school scraps before and half of them are weird polyester blends or have holes and stains that make them useless for anything but a patchwork project. Plus a lot of those sample swatches are tiny, like a yard or less, so you can't really make anything big with them. I grabbed a roll of what looked like heavy cotton once and it turned out to be some kind of coated upholstery vinyl with a nasty chemical smell that wouldn't come out. Not saying you can't find a good score in there, but I think you got lucky more than anything. The real goldmine for me has always been estate sales where people are basically giving away whole sewing stashes for pocket change.

verafoster22d ago

Oh, you really had that bad of a time with design school scraps @the_henry? I can't say I've ever come across coated vinyl or a chemical smell in those bins myself... maybe it depends on the school or how they clean stuff out. I've actually pulled some pretty decent lengths of linen and cotton from those sales, like a full 3 yard piece of natural colored linen once that had no marks at all. You might just have rotten luck with that particular source, or maybe you're digging in the wrong pile... I always go for the rolls that are still folded neatly and look like they were stored with care. Estate sales are great too, but those design school leftovers have been a goldmine for me more often than not.