OSF 7: OSF Nominated for Small Business Award

You love us!  You really love us!

Eternal gratitude to the anonymous OSF fan who nominated us for a Small Business BC award in the category of "Best Concept"! Thank you for loving us!

Being involved with OSF is the most exciting, fulfilling, inspiring experience I've ever had. The members of the board; our faithful volunteers; our less frequent, but equally appreciated volunteers; our wonderful donors who are so happy it's going to someone who can use it: our customers who take the pains to find out when our next sale will be, send us real estate listings, hang out on the sidewalk waiting for the door to open, cheerfully drag out the free boxes, and help spread the word to anyone who creates: we are all a part of this wonderful movement, and together we make it happen. Yay to us!  Let's get OSF the exposure we deserve by voting for us and winning us this award!

How being part of OSF makes me feel

The nominations close November 30.  That's tomorrow! I hope everyone who reads this clicks right away on http://sbbcawards.ca/award/concept/our-social-fabric/ and votes for us.  No checking the rest of your email first! Do it right away! (Thanks!)

Also, see the article where I don't quite answer the question: "What does being a small business in Vancouver mean to you?" You can see where I was going with it...  200 characters!  That's not a whole lot!
http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2014/11/small-business-vancouver-mean/

OSF 6: The Pink Elastic Club

Are you a member of the Pink Elastic Club? Do you save those lovely little bits of pink elastic that hold your OSF fabric bundles together, just in case? What do you keep them in? Are they all a-jumble with other bits of trim, elastic, buttons and bias tape? Or do they have a place of honour in a special sugar tin that used to belong to a man selling his house across the street from the elementary school your son's grade 1 teacher strongly recommended he attend in the summer before grade 2? Have you used them for anything? Send pictures! I'd love to know what's happening with them.

When I first started volunteering with OSF, back when we were in the Frogbox building and still hauling out every box before the sale and packing it all up again at the end, we had been donated many boxes of the stuff. At the time we tried to sell it by the metre. Ha! My feeling was, "Curse you, never-ending boxes of pink elastic!" Then, some time after moving to our current location, and adopting the protocol of measuring and rolling our cut fabric for the sake of tidiness, in a moment of brilliant side-ways thinking, we started using the cursed stuff for keeping the bundles together. And now my feeling is, "Eep! One day we will run out, and then what are we going to do?" So hang on to those little bits. Use them! And if you don't want them, return them to us and we will gladly reuse them. Personally, I'm waiting for them to tell me what they want to be next.

And yes, that is my disgusting-looking ironing board. It's actually clean. Ish. Or has been clean at times. Made many years ago out of a piece of muslin, padded with a folded flannel sheet that once belonged to my grandmother, and secured with a length of kitchen string (the kind you wrap a roast with), it's a testament to hard use and utilitarianism and I love it. I keep toying with the idea of a fresh, clean, purpose-made ironing board cover but can't quite make the leap. This one works fine.

Speaking of ironing, may I introduce my iron? I'm embarrassed to admit it, but a photocopied article taped to the display model proclaiming it to be endorsed by Oprah (!) was what tipped me in favour of buying this baby. And I don't regret it for a minute! Not so much an iron as a powerful steam generator, this is the best I've ever used: heats quickly, erupts with massive steam on demand - even on low temp, never spits, doesn't leak.  And it's orange! What could be better?!

OSF 5: Fabric Sale-Cum-Sorting-Bee

Judging by the reaction of the treasure-hunters at the last sale, I would say changing out the fabric in the green bins was a mighty big hit. Now why didn't I think of it before? Actually, I did. But the amount of hefting it entailed made it a daunting prospect. Happily, the three students using OSF as a case study on circular economies were eager to volunteer in thanks. (Thanks to you, Ralph, Bob and Terry!) The point is: now that the hard work has been done, we're going to try to keep the treasures in the green boxes fresh. "How?" you may ask.

OSF 4: Knit Collar Update

Audrey on her Knit Collar Braided Carpet

Remember all those knit cuffs and collars I've been trying to flog (to no avail) over the past months? Our wonderful volunteer and artist-in-residence, Audrey, has solved the puzzle of what to do with them: braid a carpet! Audrey was commissioned to make this spectacular, one-of-a-kind rug for a customer who saw her fiddling around with the idea at an OSF sale.

I was so excited about it I had to have a lesson. She uses no thread or needle, but simply braids the tails right into the previous row of braid. It's easy to learn, works up quickly, and is very satisfying. Almost addicting, you might say. A perfect project to work on in front of the TV on a drizzly evening. Feels good under the feet, too.

We still have enough knit collars for a few lucky OSF customers to braid themselves a good-sized area rug. $40 for the materials, including a lesson from Audrey to get you started. Ask for Leah at our next sale and use the code phrase: "The collar braids at midnight."

These rolls of waistband facing braid up nicely, too. There's a sample rug-lette in the store, hanging on the wall near the cutting table. $2/roll. Now that's a bargain.

Or, if you suffer from cold floors and unvented frustrations, address both by braiding a carpet from ripped fabric strips. Most therapeutic. Many, many suitable fabrics available: $10-$60/bolt.

Choose your fibre and get in on the lesson for $20.  Lesson date and time to be determined, but early enough for you to whip up a rug or set of placemats in plenty of time for gift-giving season. I'm thinking October. Watch our website for details.

OSF 3: Small Improvements, Big Change

I'm not so good with change. You can verify this with my husband. Even a lovely, brand new - but unexpected - washer and dryer set caused me a fair bit of sheepish unease and adjustment. At least until I got used to the idea.

I do, however, like improvements. Over the last months we've made a number of small improvements at OSF that have resulted in a big CHANGE.

Cut fabric is now priced by the piece!

(No more $25 Fill-a-Bag option)

The resulting OSF Shopping Adventure should be:

Easier!  Most of the cut pieces are now rolled and marked with an approximate (erring on the generous!) measurement. No need now to guess, unfold or pull apart bundles.

More efficient!  The rolls of fabric are neatly arranged in the green bins so the contents are visible at once. No more endless digging and searching. (To those who miss the thrill of the hunt: volunteer to sort and roll. You'll never know such excitement!) Easier for us to keep the place tidy, too.

More clear!  The cut fabric is all either:

1. Marked with its measurement, in which case it costs $2/m.
2. Not marked with its measurement, in which case it is less than a metre long, or is cut strangely.  These unmarked pieces are $1 each.
3. Otherwise marked.  Usually silk, linen, or something special.

As you may know, the bolts of fabric are now grouped along the walls according to price: $10-$60 per roll. The shelves at the back hold only the drapery sheers and the obvious upholstery fabric. No need to track down a volunteer to figure out the price. Almost like a real store, you might say.

More Eonomical!  Selling the fabric by the piece means you no longer have to fill a whole bag. Just pay for the pieces you want.

After a period of grumbling and discomfort I generally, grudgingly, admit that any change is for the best. I hope our dear customers will eventually agree. If it helps, you can think of it as little improvements, rather than a big change. Works for me.

What else is new this sale?

We had a big donation of large, 100% cotton swatches from local bedding company, Bed. $5 each. Very high quality, beautiful coordinating cotton, perfect for quilting. I'm sure it will sell quickly.

Under the tables you will find boxes of cut pieces, all alike, priced by the box. These come from a factory that produces bedding and draperies for hotels. $4 to $20 per box.

Once again, there is a lot of free fabric to be had. A whole lot.

OSF 2: Good Notion #4

Phew!  A lot is on the go at OSF. In an effort to clear out inventory in anticipation of our upcoming move, last Wednesday we had a sorting bee. (Thank you to the many supporters who came out to heave and hoist bolts of fabric!) Fabric bolts can now be found all grouped according to price and each price marked with a different coloured band:

• $10 bolts sport black twill tape
• $20 bolts are wrapped with blue ribbing
• $40 bolts wear black knit collars (!!!!)
• and the large $60 bolts are identified by their bands of waistband facing.  

Go to town!  (Please!  We need your support now more than ever!)

Waistband facing: $60/bolt

Blue ribbing: $20/bolt

Knit collars: $40/bolt

We've also unearthed most of the stash that's been hiding at the back of the store since we moved in. Yes!  It's the moment I know many of our devotees have been waiting for! Believe me, there was never any strategy involved in holding it back; we just never got around to sorting it!

Seriously, it's a big - but if you're sewweird like me, satisfying - job to sort through the many donations we receive.  In fact, even with the frequent assistance of Carol, Erika and a few faithful others, I can barely keep it all from smothering us, let alone actually get on top if it! So I ask for your help: 

• if you crave the thrill of emptying mystery boxes full of who-knows-what sort of delicious - or occasionally, disgusting - fabrics and who-knows-what sort of notions lovingly saved by someone who just knew "someone will use this" 
• if you sleep better after rolling cuts of fabric into tidy little bundles and then grouping it by colour, and arranging it in boxes so it can be easily located
• send me an email and I'll put you on my list of special people to call when I'm feeling suffocated oursocialfabric@gmail.com

'Cause even organizing fabric can lose its appeal when it's done on demand, under pressure of time, and we're faced with an unanticipated 9 boxes of polyester hotel upholstery fabric that needs to be sorted, 90% of which will end up in the free box!

BUT! even those 9 daunting boxes contain some goodies: professionally made draperies; sheets and bolts of black-out fabric; lengths of cotton sheeting - not enough for a queen size bed, but big enough for a crib sheet, white button-down shirt, or pin-tucked sundress with release pleats forming the skirt, tiny buttons on the left shoulder and three rows of horizontal tucks at the hem, or perhaps a piece of hand-crochet cotton inset lace that was found in a box of Grandma's sewing room contents donated by her family.

This coming Wednesday, August 6, 5-9 PM we will meet again for a sorting bee.  Having finished the less inspiring bolts, we're going to begin now on the cut pieces, which almost invariably come in the form of bags and boxes of personal donations, and often come with stories.  When was this bought, and why?  What was the plan? Why didn't it happen?  Or was it just plain ol' fabric lust?  We all can relate to that.

Sometimes we receive small bags filled with everything needed for a specific project: fabric, pattern, thread, zipper, buttons, trim. Occassionally there will be fitting or design notes. I love trying to piece together the back story from the clues in the bag, and I can become quite attached to the resulting garment.  Taking up the Sewing Baton from an unknown kindred spirit gives me a sense of connection to the Flow of the Earth, (a flow I believe OSF itself is propelled by, and the same one the Beatles rode).  (Don't get me started).  I love wearing the stories, adding my own chapter and being part of the flow.

The bags containing the never-started projects usually come from the store where the materials were purchased.  More often than not these same fabric stores no longer exist.  They are the same kind of place I used to haunt as a high school student when I first seriously became gripped by the need to sew: a tiny, non-descript, suburban fabric store in the strip mall near my home. Just 10 or 12 racks of poly/cotton prints, some broadcloth and a few other useful fabrics. I would stop in on my way home from school for a treat: just touching and meditating on fabric.  I would stand and stare through it and cast my mind sideways and make judgements, vaguely planning a never-ending series of garments I might or might not attempt.  A rack of thread, a rotating stand of buttons, a few sizes and colours of zippers.  The impossibility of matching the zipper colour perfectly to the garment marked it forever as "home made".  Not cool at all, but I loved it.

More often than not I bought nothing. The ladies behind the counter were always the same ones.  I never spoke to them - I guess out of a sense of perceived sewing skill inferiority (I was still ripping out every other seam I sewed, and I was too eager to get a project started to take the time to pre-shrink). I would silently study the goods, weighing in my mind and hand the properties of the fabrics, debating inwardly the merits of one type of closure over another, the utility of the notions, the purpose of some roll of mystery stuff.  Then I would leave. They rarely acknowledged either my arrival or my departure. At the time I didn't question why they never spoke to me. Surely they knew I was gripped.

Sewing was so fringey a pastime, so other-than-cool, and very solitary. I had many questions, and not a lot of information handily available. Most of the answers came from my own experiments sewing from patterns I bought with my babysitting money: hours and hours and Friday nights and all day Saturday and Sunday if there was no game on (the sewing machine interfered with the TV reception and pissed off my dad.  He never complained or made me stop, but I knew it really bugged him.  But sometimes I just couldn't refrain myself.  I HAD to sew!) Sitting at the dining room table until I could no longer stay awake enough to avoid irreparable mistakes.  Vaguely worried that I might never find a boyfriend if I spent every night at the sewing machine. But I really didn't care.

By day the TV was almost always on, one of the three adults in the home was almost always smoking, and every activity had to stop if my younger sister needed to have a 25 minute silent telephone argument with her boyfriend.  She would lie on the orange and brown wall-to-wall carpet a few meters away from me, glaring, tethered to the telephone by its short-range curly cord, giving him the silent treatment while he ignored her back, on the other end.

But long after everyone went to bed: stitch stitch stitch, rip, rip, whrr whrr, shoosh shoosh, crinch crinch the scissors sliding along the carpet, the fabric spread clear across the living room, in front of the cream, brown and orange floral couch with matching arm covers.  Sore knees from crawling across the carpet to lay out and cut the pattern. Critch critch the scissors, the static and crinkle of the pattern.

Aw man, I loved it.  Sewing was one big bowl of sliced strawberries.  Now, volunteering for OSF is the real whipped cream on top.  Sewing can be a very isolating and lonely pursuit, but through OSF I get to touch and meditate on as much fabric as I can stand, right along with people who understand.  I couldn't be any more fortunate!

Half our wooden rack is now $10/bolt

So, in conclusion:

• OSF needs to move so we need to clear everything out 
• nearly all our bolts of fabric are now out on the floor and cost $10, $20, $40 or $60 each
• we have 90% of the contents of 9 boxes worth of free fabric to poke through
• we have plenty of curtain sheers and black-out fabric
• we have a number of sets of decent-looking, lined draperies
• if you want to help out at this Wednesday's sorting bee, August 6 from 5-9, please RSVP
• if you want to be on a list for sorting, please email me at oursocialfabric@gmail.com

See you at the next sale on August 9,

Leah

OSF 1: Good Notion #3

OSF and Evelyn Roth

I'm very excited to report that OSF will be providing visual artist, Evelyn Roth, with a bolt of fabric for a project she's doing at Wreck Beach July 12 and 13.

Back in the mid 80s (can't remember the exact year) when I was a student teacher at a Vancouver school (can't remember which one), I got friendly with the art teacher (can't remember her name). She told me about her friend, Evelyn Roth, who was looking for someone to do some sewing on an inflatable project she was working on, and encouraged me to give her a call.  Evelyn Roth was well-known for making audacious items out of discarded video tape, such as crocheted car cozies or awnings.  I thought she was an excellent sort of kooky, and was thrilled by the idea.

I had gone tree planting the previous summer (Yes, me! I can hardly believe it myself) and spent all the money I'd made on a lovely, basic little Pfaff sewing machine, which I still use to this day.  And a bottle of perfume.  Hard to explain on my student loan application, but still the best purchase I've every made.  I'm referring to the sewing machine; the perfume's long abandoned.

Anyhow, I kept the scrap of paper with her phone number on it, but never got up the nerve to call her.  One of the major regrets in my life.  Then two weeks ago I got an email introduction from my dear friend, Sheila (who, incidentally, introduced me to OSF in the first place), who had met Evelyn Roth through their mutual involvement with Kitsilano Neighbourbood House and had been telling her about OSF.  A perfect match, wouldn't  you say?

This time I was not shy about calling.  On the phone she told me about the giant inflatable sculpture of a woman she has made for the event - or in her words, "boobie, boobie, bum, bum" - complete with large zipper opening where you might expect.  Yes!  Most excellently kooky.  The OSF fabric will be used for an interactive part of the experience at the beach involving body henna.  I'll be at our sale on the 13th, but if you go to Wreck Beach, please send me some pictures!

What's Free This Time?

I've been doing a lot of pruning lately, in the garden and at OSF.  Thank goodness for neighbours with extra space in their yard waste bins.  And the FREE! box outside the store.

Bits of Bra Elastic

Cursed Cuffs and Collars

• Opened some boxes under a table to see what might be in there and discovered more of those cursed knit collars and cuffs!  4 boxes full!  Into the FREE! box with you!
• Sorted a tray of pre-cut bra elastic that has been with OSF longer than I have: white, beige or black, some pieces with bra hardware attached.  Then came to my senses and chucked it in the FREE! box.  Be gone!
• Despite all the puppet and potholder activity that's been going on (Thank you for the potholders!  I just wish I could remember who you are! Forgive me.), there are still shoulder pads to be had. 
• This month there is a fresh supply of fabric that is too small for us to sell, but big enough for small projects.  Take it away!

OSF Good Notion #2

Curated sewing notions, plus free stuff that needs to go

Were you one of the helpful many who ridded us last sale of excess serger thread, knit cuffs, collars and shoulder pads? Thanks! Did you make anything interesting? Send us a picture!

Here's how some of the shoulder pads got used:

• The OSF volunteers indulged me by wearing new name tags made of covered shoulder pads, Sharpie and a safety pin.  The trick is in the correct placement on the body.  
• Someone took a bunch to make into potholders for gifts.
• A puppet-maker from Calgary took as many as she could fit in her luggage for use inside her puppet heads.

Knit Collars and Cuffs

Now, how about those knit cuffs and collars? One edge is finished, but the other edge will unravel if you pull it.  My first-ever OSF Board Member task was to check out an offer from a Richmond company that makes personalized swag for businesses. They used to make the clothing, too, but now get that stuff made overseas. They had a whack of left-over cuffs, collars, plastic separating zippers, and several bolts of tan synthetic micro-fiber-ish fabric to dispose of. It took many emails, phone calls and several months to organize the donation. We paid a delivery company to move it, and now it's clogging up our store.

Part of the Donation

You have to help me get rid of it!

We're offering the following:

• Knit Cuffs, Collars: free 
• Plastic Separating Zippers: $0.25 each 
• Huge Bolts of Synthetic Microfiber-ish Fabric: $10/bolt.

Disappointing Sweater of Knit Collars

Here is a picture of the sweater I attempted out of the collars.  I suppose you could call it "Mummy Wear".  Most uncomfortable under the pits.  Surely you could come up with something better!

The next thing we are flogging is rolls of waist band facing.  Was $5/roll, now $2/roll.  It's serious-looking stuff, though it's going to take a serious lot of pant-making to use up a whole roll.  Or perhaps you have a completely different use for it? (insert wiggly eyebrows here)

"I'm so glad it's going to someone who can use it."

Almost everyone who donates to us tells us this.  It's my favourite part of being involved in OSF: moving along useful, but unwanted, notions to "someone who can use it".  This involves hours of sorting through the donations and putting together goodie bags of useful - and often unexpected - notions.  You'll find these curated treasure bags in drawers on the wire racks. At the moment we have: pinking shears, lovely vintage glass buttons, hat foundations (fascinator, anyone?), upholstery trimmings, quilting templates, a whole bag of fabric rose petals, some quilling supplies...  Lots of good notions.

Wanted

Some items you may have lying around that we constantly need.  Feel free to drop off at any sale your donations of:

• Zippered plastic bags, such as sheet sets come in.  We use them to hold partially-completed projects and other goodie bags
• Sticky labels, any size
• Ziploc bags - used are fine, as long as they're clean and still transparent

Thanks!

Leah