A Goodwill Gamble Part One

The best way to purchase vintage textiles is in person, of course, but aside from thrift stores it's hard to find a brick and mortar dealing in such fabric, at least in my area. That's why I often shop online at Etsy, eBay and other sites.

The biggest problem I've found with buying vintage fabric online it's sometimes hard to tell exactly what you're going to get. Sellers often stage their lots so they look attractive, and hide obvious defects that might put off buyers. There are ways to analyze the available pictures, however, and let them give you an idea of the true worth of what you might get.

I recently bid in a ShopGoodWill.com auction for this big lot of miscellaneous fabric. The title of the lot was "16lb Lot of Fabric/Material, Precut Pieces & Projects, Quilting, Fleece, Variety". The photos from the auction listing also gave me some good clues. In this pic, which shows the entire lot, you can see a variety of prints and solids. In the back of the photo is a red and black piece that looks like patchwork to me, hinting that it actually could be a quilter's stash.

There's definitely a pile of precut rectangles in this pic, which don't make sense for anything but a quilt. The white and purple polka dot piece looks like at least two or three yards of fabric, which would serve nicely as a lap quilt backing. I see more folded fabric that looks like yardage, too.

The pink camo piece at the top is fleece, which quilters sometimes use as backing or to make rag quilts. Next to it is some light green minky, an expensive plush fabric that quilters use as backing for baby quilts these days. Also, look at all the selvages. It's easy to pick out a JoAnns fabric (the cat print) and lots of quilter cottons.

Now, a disclaimer: it's difficult to tell the condition of fabrics online, but I see only minimal fraying and no staining. Quilters tend to take good care of their stashes, so I'm confident it will all be in usable shape. I won it for the minimum $10.00 plus shipping (I was not going to increase my bid, either, so I got lucky that no one else wanted it.) When it arrives we'll see if I was right.

Image Credit: all of the above images came from the auction listing at ShopGoodWill.com.