Chest of Treasures

Be careful what you thrift for is my new mantra. I bid on and won this storage chest of sewing supplies, which I wanted to use for my own needles and sewing things. It arrived leaking pins, beads and buttons, with several drawers jammed by the same. I spent an entire day unloading it, sorting out the contents, and then unsticking the drawers. To my relief nothing was broken or permanently damaged by the poor packing job. Let's look inside some of the drawers while I tell you about it.

The original owner knew what was good thread, and kept a colorful supply of Sulky and Gütermann on hand. These spools run between $1.24 to $3.99 depending on the type of thread.

Like me the maker also saved old thread, bought thread on sale and otherwise practiced thrifty purchasing. There might be a few spools in this drawer that belonged to an older family member, as they date back to the 70's.

Lots of buttons. The little collection was mostly for repair purposes, and extra buttons saved from new garments, but there were also three cute Christmas decorative buttons.

Rubber thimbles, all well-used and actually pretty comfortable. Two are large enough for a thumb. I might have to reuse these while I can still hand sew.

The original owner's made-by tags, and some Girl Scout patches. Did you know I was a Girl Scout? Yep.

There were laces, piping and even a big zipper that I sorted through, all still usable.

Binding and seam ribbon, still wound around their original holders. I like how this maker saved every little bit of supplies.

The straight pins I collected and bagged, about a thousand of them. There were also machine needles for a Bernina, and a 7" hand sewing needle that was for sashiko or maybe big stitch, and a dozen enamel pins that the original owner had saved over the years from church and different organizations (I have a collection of those, too.) It was like seeing a mirror of my sewing habits in this maker's supplies -- a bit chaotic, thrifty, and obviously cherished.

I paid $24.00 for this chest, which was a decent price for it. I'm not going to put a resale price on it or its contents. I will try to reuse as much of the supplies as I can, and once I empty the chest I'll store my own supplies in it. There's no better way to preserve and pass along this bit of sewing history.