People often ask us here at Lucky Find Salvage Company where we unearth our treasures. One answer is Smurf Malls.
That’s what we call them around the office, anyway. They’re basically that lower echelon of “antique” mall where you won’t find Art Pottery, Victorian falderals, barkcloth curtains, Bakelite brooches, or anything much older than 1968. Unless you know where to look.
You’ll find Smurfs galore, of course, but restrain yourself, and step away from their cute blue dazzle. Move on down the aisle and start poking around all those boxes full of our favorite thing: miscellany. If you spy tangled grey thread and seam binding, you know you’re in the right place. Keep digging. Sure, you’ll get your hands scratched by some ferociously stiff polyester lace, but the bloodletting will be worth it when you root out a needle book with fabulous old timey graphics like the ones featured on this page.
Most women are taught to sew by their grandmas. And when grandma dies, someone’s got to inherit her stash of snaps, buttons, and yes, needle books. So in a pile of notions from say, the blah early eighties, you can find items from fifty years earlier, courtesy of Granny.
Celluloid buttons, cotton lace, millinery fruit, silk ribbon, and needle books.
So get your hands off that little blue imp, and start looking! (Another plus for you sewing fiends: these books almost always have most of their needles, and the crucial threader.)
To read a freaky fact about Smurfs, click any of the little guys above.
Page Eleven, Issue One
Needle Books
