Sunday, September 4, 2011

Ooooooooooh, Dangerous. But Useful!

JoAnn's.  Oh, man, JoAnn's has become so dangerous for me.  I've always been a fan of craft-type stores, The Rag Shop (defunct now), Michael's, and A.C. Moore.

Since I started sewing, I've discovered JoAnn Fabrics.  The nearest one to me was in Ramsey, over 20 miles away.  With traffic.  It was in a strip mall, small and crowded.  Narrow aisles, tough to really see and find what you need.  Still an addiction, of course.  But I could walk out of there with just one or two fabrics easily.

And then one day in July, Eric and I were coming back from the mall and there it was.  A new one.  10.6 miles from our house, a stand-alone store.  We went, and found it to be bright and spacious, with wide aisles and tons more inventory.  Yikes.

We went in, planning to spend $50... and left having spent $100, with coupons.  Oops.  But look what I got!


How adorable are those dinosaurs?  I love that they say what they are in them!  And then there are these smiley monkeys.


Aren't they great?


And these sharks a nod to my sister's first love - she wanted to be a marine biologist and study sharks when she was a kid.  I'll have to make something for my nephew.  Any ideas?

I've got these pawprints too, just 'cause I couldn't leave without them.


I got some stuff for me, too, not just the kids.  This colorful one is for a sewing machine cover.


With this great green on the reverse side.


I love this great yellow batik, which I figured for the interior of a knitting tote or bag for myself.


With this great blue and yellow batik for the outside of the bag.


I have this duffel bag pattern I want to make, and Eric wants me to use these great penguins.


I also got this great purple knit to make a denim/knit skirt for myself from an old pair of jeans.


I don't have any specific plans for this green felt, but figured it'd be handy to have around.  Same for this pretty olive green fabric.



I got this amazingly soft, fluffy yarn with the intent of knitting finger puppets.


And this purple canvas remnant will be perfect for part of the "quiet" books I want to make for the nephews.


Then I also got some generally useful things...




And today?  Today I finally used some of the fabric!  I followed this tutorial and made a holder for all of our supermarket bags!  It was pretty quick and let me remove the smashed-in pile of bags from the shelf of the baker's rack.  Awesome!


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh I know what you mean! I have bolts of fabric from when I still worked at JoAnn's! I am finally whittling away at the stash. I'm sewing doll clothes right now for my store.
I went to JoAnn's today and got some awesome deals. The store here is finally looking good. I still won't work there again though. :)

Unknown said...

Duh, I forgot to say how great your bag looks!

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