4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Jillus]

I have just got back from the recycling place where I took all the old rubbish from the attic that I cleared yesterday. I was just about to finish and leave when the lady in the car next to me opened up one of those old cantilever sewing boxes and said she thought it a terrible waste to turf it out. I saw one of those lovely wooden sock darning mushrooms in it and told her my granny had one like that years ago. Well, to cut a long story short she asked me if I would like the box as it had belonged to her aged mother who had gone blind, could no longer sew and who was being moved down to England to live with her .

 

So I am now the proud owner of the most wonderful collection of threads, buttons and seven pairs of scissors plus yards of elastic,needles, darning wool, poppers, things that I have not seen for years ( since I last looked in my grannies box!) there are free gift packs of buttons from magazines long gone, thimbles and bits of lace. It is a treasure trove, goodness only knows what OH is going to say when he gets home, we are supposed to be clearing out ourselves!

[Mrs Frugal]

Oh how lovely !! It sounds like it's full of wonderful treasures! I love old sewing boxes and those darning mushrooms are so useful for little mending jobs. I found one for pennies at a car boot years ago and it gets used a lot!! Enjoy using all those lovely things .

[Blackrocksrock]

I am so glad someone who appreciates it has rescued this box - these old things are wonderful and could tell loads of tales of the past - I have lots of my mums things including the wooden sock darning mushroom - I will not get rid of it.

[The Dogmother]

How lovely Jillus

 

I've ended up with a lot of handed down sewing stuff too, including darning mushrooms, a silver thimble (don't use it, but coudn't throw it away), sock darning wool (yes, I do darn) and the best yet is an old corn plaster tin full of beautiful headed pins.

 

http://claretblog.vox.com/library/photo/6a00ccff898588673100fae8ce76bf000b.html#comment-form

 

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Use your trove with love and hold them dear - they have a lot of memories attached to them.

 

Glad it's not just me Kate - I refuse to throw away anything that I can mend

[Omletina Kyckling]

OOohhh that sounds wondeful, I love sewing boxes and haberdashery and all those kind of things too....

 

Kate - I didn't recognise you without your superpants on!!

[Mrs Frugal]

It's time for a change .

[The Dogmother]

It's time for a change .

 

 

about time those pants had a wash really!

[Mrs Frugal]

Embarrassingly true, Clare .

[MedusA]

It's wonderful when fate makes you litle gifts like this.

 

I got a lovely old sewing cabinet at an auction recently, for peanuts. I still haven't finished sorting out all the bits and bobs inside. It's like a treasure chest. I have always had a sewing mushroom. I thought I was the only person who still darns socks!

 

Maybe Kate's pants needed darning too after all that wear?

[Mrs Frugal]

No, sock darning is lovely!! I never mind seeing spuds in my boys' socks now I've got a darning mushroom . I used to love rootling through my Grandma's button tin when I was a child. It had some gorgeous buttons in. My favourites were 3 big glass ones which looked like giant diamonds which she used to have on a cardigan and had saved when it had seen better days. I recently bought a vintage 1940s Singer treadle sewing machine from a friend of Mum's and before we took it home, Mum secretly put one of these glass buttons in the drawer of the cabinet . It always reminds me of Grandma and her lovely button tin.

 

Darning mushrooms are just the thing for darning Superpants, by the way .

[Jillus]

I even got the grey darning wool too, I think I am going to have to buy some lovely woolly socks for my OH this winter just so I can eventually have a go at darning

 

Some of the buttons are really lovely, as many of you have said just like granny used to have. What a great stroke of fate today indeed!

[The Dogmother]

Don't get me started on button tins Kate.....

 

I was brought up to use an old Singer treadle machine. sadly, my mother couldn't wait to get rid of it!

 

I was left my grandma's electric Singer though - one of the first elec ones and still going strong. The chap who services it for me always says that it's one of the best models they ever made. It's made many a wedding dress for friends and rellies, and loads of curtains too.

[Mrs Frugal]

What a great stroke of fate today indeed!

 

It was obviously meant to be and it's lovely that the lady was able to hand the sewing box on to someone who will appreciate it and get pleasure from using it instead of having to leave such treasure as a piece of rubbish.

 

Clare, I also have Grandma's electric Singer machine! It was converted from a treadle machine in the 50s, I think and I used to do my O level textiles coursework on it and just had to bring it with me when I got married. I've had a modern electric machine but it's not a patch on the old Singer - and doesn't make me curse as much either .

[Ana's flock]

Wow! what an Aladdin's cave! I love that sort of thing! About a month ago I got from freecycle a large bag full of buttons - there must be over 1000 easily, of the most beautiful colours too! I'm using them in jumpers, as eyes of hand-knitted puppets etc and i still haven't finished sorting them out. It's lovely!

[craftyhunnypie]

I've got a wooden cantilever treasure trove too. It was an old ladies & god knows how I managed to have it. I think it was in the buy & sell paper years ago? Buttons galore & nice pincushion etc...

But it doesn't have a darning mushroom.

 

Emma.x

[little cluckers]

When my ex-MIL died in January I rescued her sewing box from the 'throw-it' pile and I love all the bits and bobs inside it, but the greatest treasure was a poem she'd written tucked inside with the reels of cotton and some very old name tags from her childrens school clothes (who are both round 50 now), I can't bring myself to throw the name tags away - silly I know

 

Oh there was also lots lengths of ribbon inside which look so beautiful I can't bear to use them!

[The Dogmother]

You've reminded me Lise - I found this poem tucked into my grandma's jewellry box (goodness knows what an Italian woman was doing with a Sanskrit poem):

 

Look well to this Day -

 

Look well to this day

For it is life...

the very best of life!

In its brief course lie all

the realities and truths of existence

the joy of growth!

the splendour of action!

the ghlory of power!

for yesterday is but a memory

and tomorrow is only a vision

but today IF LIVED WELL makes

every yesterday a memory of happiness

and every tomorrow a vision of hope

LOOK WELL THEREFORE TO THIS DAY!

 

(Ancient Sanskrit Poem)

 

 

There was also a lot of handmade lace, which I used to trim Rosie's baby dresses.

[Egluntyne]

I used to love rootling through my Grandma's button tin when I was a child. It had some gorgeous buttons in.

 

I used to play for hours with the contents of the button tin when I was a child.

 

It was a special treat. I wonder if children nowadays would appreciate the magic?

 

There were three big leather buttons that had come of my Grandad's cardigan, and the smelt of his pipe tobacco......and there were also a few glass buttons cut like flowers which caught the light and were especially beautiful.

 

There were also some silver lace making bobbins which had belonged to my French grandmother's grandmother. No idea where they ended up.

[Redwing]

Lucky you Jillus!

 

What a lovely treasure trove

[Mrs Frugal]

There were three big leather buttons that had come of my Grandad's cardigan, and the smelt of his pipe tobacco......and there were also a few glass buttons cut like flowers which caught the light and were especially beautiful.

 

I remember buttons like that!! Grandad's hand knitted cardigans always had those leather buttons on - I seem to remember the leather being divided into quarters like slices of cake!! I used to love playing with the button tin as a child too when I used to stay at Grandma's and would pretend to be a haberdashery shopkeeper as I also had a red tin letterbox shaped money box there with old pennies and ha'pennies in . Happy days!! Having two boys, I don't know if such simple pleasures would appeal to children today.

[The Dogmother]

Those knotted leather buttons were used on Arrans too; my grandma was an expert Arran knitter; I still have one that's over 60 years old, made with proper arran wool - I've had to darn it a few times though.

 

We had a toy shop Kate, made by a family friend, it fitted on a table top and had a little till with old pennies and ha-pennies in it and fake food... hours of fun! Rosie has played with it in the past, and also my old dolly pram.

[MedusA]

What a trip down memory lane this thread is!

 

My Mum has a lovely button tin too. I remember hours spent looking at them, admiring them, sorting them into piles, using them as treasure or money in games. The permutations were endless. I too wonder if today's "Nownownow" children would get the same enjoyment.

 

When I married, my Mum gave me her old Sunbeam manual sewing machine. It was bought in Singapore and was a Singer copy in every way but the name. It has beautiful decorative details and I wish I had the room to have it on display. I still love it to bits and use it regularly.

 

It's older than me, but works perfectly (unlike me).

[chickencam]

It's funny how memories are stirred. I loved my Mum's button tin too, it had a lovely smell of old leather and metal

 

My children have been through my button tin too and my wool collection, which is rather large and in cardboard boxes in the top of my wardrobe, maybe not as often or as gleefully as I did as a child but the pleasure is still there.

 

When ED had to make her flour baby last year my children had great fun going through the baby clothes that we had kept and hearing the tales attatched to them

 

I inherited a lot of wool, threads and sewing equipment from my Granny.

 

My OH picked up an old Singer electric sewing machine from the local car boot sale last weekend and we have been trying to work out how old it is the model number is 522 he paid £2 for it We gave a good clean and oiled it and it seems to work fine

 

Should help ED with her bag making empire, but she has recently aquired a boyfriend so maybe that will be on hold for a while