Have you ever been to a rag market? If not, and you are a fellow crafter, I suggest you get yourself to one as soon as you can. A rag market is a crafter's dream, full of wool, thread, ribbon, material, buttons, felt, feathers, beads, books and patterns. It has everything you need to get making stuff, whatever kind of stuff it is that you like to make. It is a thing of beauty and is full of fellow addicts ready to top up their stash. Many stallholders are clearing out their hoard and end up buying other items at the market to replace it with.
It is like being part of a secret club, one that understands why you walk around stroking fabric, or let out a squeak of excitement when something gorgeous catches your eye, or why you plunge your hand into a bowl of buttons and let them run through your fingers, or run across the room to a stall that is a sea of colour or hold balls of wool up to your face so that you can feel them, or talk to the people on the patterns as you choose which ones to have. There is a bubbling up of creativity, a faraway look in people's eyes as they are planning what to make, a little guilty smile as you decide to ignore the 'but where will you put it?' comment and buy it anyway because you love it. Or want it. Or need it. Everyone there understands that need, you do not have to explain yourself, you can just get on with looking at things that you love.
Here are some gorgeous things to look at.
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| Refreshments were served in beautiful vintage tea cups. |
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| Bunting - great decoration and good for using up oddments of fabric. |
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| Tapestry thread in fantastic colours. |
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Doilles - can be made into brooches and used to embellish
bags, cusions and cardigans. |
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| Wonderful mix of vintage haberdashery. |
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| I love wooden hangers, the older the better. |
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| More intersesting vintage haberdashery. |
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Patchwork - perfect for those special pieces of fabric that you
love but don't quite know what to do with. |
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| Close-up of a vintage sewing box. |
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| Look at the labels on old reels of thread. |
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| Wonderful mixture of patterns and colours. |
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| Kenyan beads. I love how the blue ones add a colour pop. |
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| Who doesn't love a bit of Liberty print? |
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| Modern and vintage fabrics. |
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| A tin of bright and beautiful embroidery thread. |
