Thrifting spree

Last Friday I had a day off. That doesn't happen often for me so I decided to celebrate it by going sale shopping and thrifting in Uppsala, the town that's closest to me (I live in the countryside). I went to the lingerie shop, five thrift stores, the fabric shop, my favourite clothing chain Indiska and IKEA. A busy day but I found lots of treasures.

Like this little gem, curious to know what it is? Find out after the jump:


First stop of the day was the lingerie shop,(but I'm not posting pictures of my knickers). After that I went to the fabric store and managed to only buy the thing I came in for, cotton sewing thread. I'm very proud of my self, they had a mega sale and everything ;)

With the boring stuff out of the way I headed to Indiska, a swedish clothing/home accessories store that sa a retro/bohemian/ethnic style on their goods. I dont't find things that fit and that I like there very often but those few I've found I'd love to bits and pieces. And I always shop when they are on sale ;)
this time I found two things, a white cotton lawn skirt, perfect for layering under short skirts and a white embroidered dress that I plan to dye next spring. Both on 50% of sale price.

The skirt, doesn't look too inspiring on this picture but it is soft, breezy and has good drape.
I've already removed the bottom ruffle and replaced it with a very wide vintage lace.
Cost 89,5 SEK  (≈ 10 USD)

The dress. Super cute, 100% cotton. Perfect for hot summer days, after I've decided wich color to dye it.
Cost 174,5 SEK  (≈ 20 USD)

The I went to the first thrift store, Myrorna (translation, The ants), their smaller store in the center of Uppsala. This chain of stores is a bit pricey, both in  Uppsala and Stockholm, but occasionally I find good stuff there. This day I scored two things:

This is a 2,5 metre lenght of an amazing cotton fabric from a swedish manufacturer called Strömma, I paid 110 SEK (≈13 USD) for it. It has wowen stripes in fuschia, soft turqoise and light blue on a sky blue background, my mobile camera is totally amping up the blue here it's not so bright IRL. I'm planning to make a dress/tunic from it with pintucks down the front, with inspiration from this apron dress. My dress will no be so wide at the hem though:

This doesn't look like much of a treasure, I know. But I bought it only for salvaging the lovely  lace. It's roughly one meter of each kind on the skirt and for 85 SEK  (≈10 USD) , it's totally worth it since on meter of this kind of lace reatils for c.a 50-60 SEK.

The next shop on my tour was Kupan (The hive), this chain of stores is run by the Swedish red cross and this is a place of bargains. Oh, dear It's very seldom I walk out of a Kupan-store without buying any thing. This time I made quite a haul:

Some artificial flowers, for head dress/hat making, 20 SEK (≈ 2,3 USD)

A doily for mending one of my favourite dresses, 5 SEK (≈0,5 USD)

A dress made of silk noile, 100 SEK. (≈12 USD), it's some where between a midi and maxi length, has good width in he skirt. I've already shortened the sleeves because they were to tight in the bottom and ended right below the elbow wich makes my long arms look even longer.  It has a kind of fairy tail/medieval thing going on so I'm planning to make a pair of loose under sleeves (inspired from 1300's cotehardies) of some antique gold dupion I have in my stash and some kind of  bodice with inspiration from swedish folk costumes out of the silk and/or green velvet (also from stash).

Close up of the dress that shows the colour somewhat more accurately.  My mobile camera really likes to amp up the colors....You can also see that this was quite a bargain, the dress original price was 900 SEK!
I tried to find out more about the designer, she is based in Knivsta which is a very small town that's close to were I live, but maybe she has to close shop or something since here stuff ended up att the red cross and no information about her is to be found...

And finally this little dress clip, for 20 SEK (≈ 2,3 USD)
I love dress clips, I use them in my hair, on my clothing, on my necklaces...they're so versatile and add instant glamout to anything :)

By now, my shopping bag had started to get pretty full and heavy but that did'nt stop my for going to the next store, Myrornas bigger store located in an commercial area in the outskirts of Uppsala called Boländerna.
there I scored something for my darling, an item he's been searching for quite some time:

Yup, it's a jeans vest, for 70 SEK (≈ 2,3 USD).  My darling has a chopper and you can't ride a chopper without a ripped jeans vest ;) It was a wee bit wide over the shoulders but I've fixed it for him and made fringes in the armholes so now he can go chopper riding with style ;)

With my shopping bag weigh a ton, I hit the last thrift store, called Helping Hand. I was tired, and feeling overwhelmed of all the colours I've seen all day and I was just kind of  aimlessly cruising the huge store and about to leave when I caught a glimpse of something "unicorny" in the corner of my eye. I stopped, turned around and saw this 70's maxi hanging at the end of a big clothing rack filled with some more glitsy and disco 70's creations.The true crown jewel of this thrifting spree. It has a busted zipper and it's too small for me in it's current state but I have great plans for it.
It has quite a lot of width below the waist so if I make a bodice for it I will be able to keep it floor lenght. The colour is totally of in the pictures below, it's a perfect muted light blue with darker blue print. I have a piece of velvet that has been waiting for the right project for over a decade (another thrift store find actually) in a matching shade so I think this dress is going to be awesome.

Awesome unicorn maxi dress of cotton 50 SEK (≈ 5,9 USD)

Close up of the print, with  somewhat more accurate colours

 You would have thought that after this I would be tired of shopping. Well, I was. But I had some thing that I had to pick up at IKEA for me and My darlings home so through the doors of doom I went. I managed to keep to the list (the first time for me) and on the list were a pair of Matilda curtains:

 I had a gift card so they were free. So why am I writing about those curtains here? Well, they are made of 100% cotton voile with slubby stripes wowen into them. Perfect for sewing breezy, comfortable clothing! Since I got a pair I have 2x 2,5 meters of fabric. So far I've only have plans for one of the lengths, a pair of Plinka pants, I'm planning to add some lace at the bottom off the ruffle:

Plinka pants from Tina Givens, pdf patern, can be downloaded for free:
http://www.sewtinagivens.com/#!free-bee-patterns/c20vk

You know what? After IKEA, I was so tired that I almost feel asleep on the bus ride home :)
Now I've finshed washing everything and on my next day off, I'm going to start working on the unicorn dress.

Thank you for reading!

/L