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The Ribbon Quilt

Once again, I was at my yearly retreat to Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, Illinois.  Right away I wanted to get on to the garage sales, as my spendthriftery was still in full-force and I (sorta) had money burning a hole in my pocket.  One of the first sales I went to had an abundance of vintage textiles, and after glancing over a few nice quilts I discovered something different, and rather spectacular: a ribbon quilt.

It was one of those items that, instead of it being something you've consciously looked for for a long time, is something that has apparently been looking for you, and as you encounter it, instead of thinking of ways to integrate it into your life and style, you find your life and style shifting, changing, and elevating to integrate itself into it.

Such was The Ribbon Quilt.  It had a price tag on it: $200.  I balked at the price, not because I considered $200 to be pricey, but because I didn't have it.  I walked away, reluctantly - but returned the next day, just to see if it was still there, just to get another look at it.

There was no way I could remotely finagle $200 out of my finances, so that was that.  Still, I didn't forget about The Ribbon Quilt.  How could I?

A year later, I was back at Cornerstone, and this time, I brought more money for my proverbial pocket.  I antsily set out for the sales, and lo, the textile lady was there, with her usual set-up - but no Ribbon Quilt.  I browsed amongst her stuff for awhile, and finally spoke to her, "you used to have a quilt made from satin, with sequins on it.  I admired it last year."

"Oh, that's the ribbon quilt (she gave it a name for me, finally).  I think I have that back at the farm.  Do you want me to get it for you?"

"Yes.  (YES!!!)"

"Alright, but I won't be able to get it until tonight--"

"--I can come back tomorrow."

So I pondered the situation.  Would she still want $200 for it?  If so, I would offer her half, and see what would happen.  Even then, I felt pretty uncomfortable.  I hadn't totally expected, a year later, for the quilt to still be available.  And even though I had some money that I could use, that was a lot of money for me then (and really, now).  But I was still going to meet her, and designated my only criteria as thus: I wouldn't spend more than $125 for it.

The next day dawned, and I went to meet her.  She spread out the quilt for me, ever so reticently - and I asked if she had made it, and she told me no, but that her passion was collecting textiles.  She then informed me she would take half for it.  I stuttered out, "Half of what?"  And she gestured to a small price tag, which had $150.  

Sold.

I gave her $80 since I only had 20's.  And after a bit more conversation about the fest, missions, and other things, I walked away with the quilt, feeling both elated and rather sad, to have taken away this lovely thing for really, a cut rate.

She wasn't back at her post again this year, and I remain sad at not being able to tell her that I still have it, still love it, and will always be grateful for her for loving textiles and giving me the opportunity to own it.  But who knows, she might've been gallivanting around the country at auctions, buying a multiplicity of Ribbon Quilts beyond my wildest imaginings.  

Why Vintage?

In the decade plus that I’ve been buying vintage clothing, I’ve had countless thrift-store workers inform me that “vintage is coming back into fashion,” which never ceases to amuse me, mainly because with each worker, their proclamation takes on tones of revelation. Of course, I’m standing in front of them with a pile of vintage garments from a hodgepodge of decades, so for me, it seems rather beside the point, though a fun touchstone for conversation. Still, there is something revelatory to what these women are saying, not only as they watch vintage clothing pass through their checkout lanes, but also as they see young people both in their communities and in the media wearing the clothes of past decades as if it were an entirely new design experience.

The moment has come for vintage fashion. No longer do we turn our noses up at what is used or old, especially as our culture at large is becoming increasingly concerned with re-use of anything and everything for the sake of the planet. Vintage clothing doesn’t mean crusty or useless garments wasting away in an eccentric’s closet; vintage is becoming synonymous with striking and timeless design, quality craftsmanship, and a fairly inexpensive way to add great pieces to an already savvy and stylish wardrobe.

How can major fashion moments of the past be relevant now, though? For the precise reason that fashion has always been about creating and selling what will fit the human figure in an appealing way. For every person who takes an interest in vintage fashion, there is an era or movement of fashion whose styles will be particularly flattering to his or her figure. As you take on the fun and satisfying task of finding what vintage fashion works for you, you also find yourself digging into a bygone world that had its own intoxicating set of obsessions and needs. Each piece chosen is likely to be rare if not truly one-of-a-kind, made with greater regard for craftsmanship and quality materials (with the exception of a certain decade’s uncomfortable synthetic knits). Finding a well-fitting, striking piece of vintage fashion is akin to finding treasure.

Vintage fashion also need not be about being “retro” or bizarre. Many current designers rely heavily on the fashion of the past to create contemporary lines, and it is perfectly acceptable if not downright required to mix a great vintage find with a newer piece. As luxury style has become standard for the everyday masses, there is more of a clamor to find fascinating clothing that won’t show up, say, on a rival at an important social event. Vintage clothing is the perfect antidote, reflecting a wearer’s personality and intrepid style.

One of the greatest lures of vintage fashion, though, might be the price tag. The shopping options are varied both in selection and price, from thrift and antique stores, consignment and vintage shops, websites, even contemporary boutiques that sell both new and vintage clothing. A major wardrobe overhaul could easily be achieved for the price of a department-store dress, and the occasional fashion misstep can be treated mercifully as it hasn’t broken the budget. Vintage designer finds can be had for a shade of what a new designer garment would cost. The upkeep of vintage, too, is not as daunting as it might seem – as has been mentioned, most of this clothing has been made to last, and the occasional repair or cleaning is all that is required.

Vintage clothing IS a revelation, for all its multi-faceted usefulness and enjoyment. All it takes to become a personal expert on the matter is a few good pointers from somebody in the know, a few good stores with a wide selection, and a spirit of treasure-hunting as you try on everything for size and style, and become a total convert to the wonderful world of vintage fashion.

101: Thrifting and Antiquing (Getting Started)

Getting the goods while the going’s good – the going’s always good at thrift stores, antique stores… as well as junk stores and garage sales. This is a quick primer to getting started.

Mapping Your Route
It doesn’t matter where you live. There are places of Dirt Chicness everywhere. Your first task is to locate these places of Treasure. A good start:
-The Yellow Pages. Look under Resale/Consignment/Thrift/Antique. Map out a route, if you’d like, or craft a makeshift calendar of where you will hit up, when. Don’t neglect small towns, either, or outlying towns from yours. A village that doesn’t have a Wal-Mart isn’t too small to have an antique store!
-Complimentary directories. These booklets/pamphlets/flyers are commonly found at antique stores, usually at the register or by the doors. They list antique stores in regions, sometimes for a whole state. (You can also find these at rest areas with tourist brochures.) Also, check bulletin boards at grocery stores and restaurants (especially mom-n-pop diners).
-The Internet. A good map webpage can be treated like the Yellow Pages – type in “antique store” or “thrift store” et al, as well as your zip code, and it will bring up locations near you. A good search engine is equally handy – type in your state + antiques or thrift stores, and you will find listings galore!
-Word-of-Mouth. Friends and family are a great start – they might know of places you don’t. If you’re already in a place of Treasure, ask the proprietors or workers for other locations – there’s goodwill amongst resale. If you’re really daring and/or social, talk to other shoppers, especially at antique stores. I’ve gotten some good information that way, without even trying (pays to be friendly, huh?).
-Driving Around. Sometimes you just find ‘em. And sometimes you are looking for something else and see ‘em. Take note! And shop!

Search and Vanquish
I could write at length here about developing an Eye for Thrift. That is important, but to start, you have to be ready to participate in the basics:
-Look at each and every thing. It’s important to look at what you’re drawn to, but also what you might ignore – things hide in these places. Plus, you don’t know how something will strike you. Note prices, as well. It’s especially true of antique stores that you will find the same item in different booths for drastically differing prices.
-Look past dirt, look past mess. Have you seen home-buying shows where a perfectly awesome home gets passed over because the furnishings don’t appeal to the potential buyers? Don’t be that potential buyer – envision use for items, envision them in your space.
-Walk away. Come back. Think it over. Come back. Only buy what you are truly going to use, and actually need. Essentially, don’t treat it like a game show where you have to get everything you want/like/can fit in a basket. If you can’t walk away, pick an item up – you’ll still get a rush of ownership, but can mull over the use and possibilities of an item before actually purchasing.

Be a Pest
This isn’t straight-up commercial retail. It’s resale. There’s very few places who won’t actually bargain with you. In other words, if the price isn’t right, haggle. Heck, even if the price IS right, haggle. Questions worth asking
-Is it in good shape? Look at the item, and it’s price tag. Are there flaws, breakage, or anything not noted on the price tag? This is worth mentioning in regards to a seller coming down on a price. (I’ve even been able to haggle at thrift stores because of damage, where pricing is a little more staunchly enforced.) Caveat emptor: Don’t buy a damaged good that you can’t readily use. Some flaws are fine, some are a pain to repair, some just ruin the item. Think carefully!
-Why is it so danged expensive? Well, is it too expensive for your budget, or just too expensive? Don’t pay more than it’s truly worth. Of course, if it’s worth less to you than the fair market value, don’t be upset if a seller won’t come down. And “Firm” means firm. Quite a few places offer lay-a-way, if you can’t afford it all now but don’t want someone to snatch it up.
-“Can you do better on this?” It seems like a passive question, but asked with friendliness, it just means that there’s nothing wrong with the price of the item, but you’d be more likely to buy it if it is cheaper. The worst that can happen is that someone will say No. If you are asking a middle-person, such as the owner of an antiques mall with many sellers, they will offer a flat-rate of 10-15% off, but often will call a particular seller about specific prices and questions. When discussing a price directly with a seller, you can adopt “classic” haggling methods – offering less than what you would pay for it so the seller will be more likely to meet you at your ideal price – or just flat-out offer what you will pay. That is my preferred method, because most items I can actually walk away from if the price isn’t right. If you truly want the item, though, be crafty – but nice!

Some 101 Tips (Good for Shopping in General, Really)
-Make lists of what you need, but ALSO of what you have. Duplicates aren’t frugal, are they? Nor is buying more than you need.
-Grab a basket or a cart from the get-go. I hate “thrifting arm”, where one limb gets over-tired from carrying a load of stuff.
-Um, go to the bathroom. It could be a disaster to find a cart of Treasures at a thrift store and have to leave because there are no public restrooms – and come back to a pilfered or empty cart!
-Bring alternate forms of payment – cash, check, debit and credit. Don’t rely on credit cards, because many places don’t take them. Many places will offer you a better deal on cash, as well. Checks are not accepted everywhere, especially out-of-state.
-Dress for ease, especially if you will be trying on garments. Leave your coat in the car. Bring a small bag that can loop over your shoulder, or forego a bag altogether – put money in your pocket or even a fanny pack!
-Bring the right kind of vehicle. This only really applies to furniture purchases or LOADS of bags, but at the same time, you never know what you might find. Once, I found a vintage classroom map that was very large – wouldn’t have fit in a compact car with four people and lots of Treasure!

And Now, Another Trinity (Of a Non-Revelatory Nature)

Artfulness: the practice of art. Art: artifice. Artifice: something made.

Therefore, I am debunking whatever concept you might have of Artful Frugality being a fartsy, mystical kind of practice. If art, basically, is about creation, then artifice can be applied to whatever we want it to. In this case, we will be going about creating frugality where there might be little of it or none at all. But in the spirit of fartsy mysticalness, our quest will most likely lead to revelation upon revelation, beauty, truth, etc.

Here is a triumvirate of artful frugality:
Know everything you have.
Like everything you have.
Make use of everything you have.

Apply at will, tweak at will. I think, though, that all that is there is all that needs to be there. How so? Well –

1. Know Everything You Have.

Dig out. Set up. Take stock. Make list. Figure out. In other words, if you don’t know what your dwelling place consists of in terms of movable goods, find out. Create an open space, preferably with some sorting boxes/tubs/bins/bags/baskets, and sort out those catch-all drawers/boxes/closets/whole rooms. Or even if you aren’t a pack-rat, just look over what you have. All of it. Get a feel for your belongings. Know everything you have.

2. Like Everything You Have.

Beauty is its own reason, remember. If you have things just because you think you should have them, or have been told you should have them, or the worst – feel guilted into having them, look at your stuff again. If it doesn’t really make sense to keep it (even if, yes, this means replacing it with something else), ditch it.

But – beauty is its own reason, remember? If you have gotten rid of things because you think you should’ve or have been told you should’ve or have been GUILTED into doing so, make up your mind right this second to never be swayed in this way again, unless you’ve thought long and hard about it and have your very own reasons to get rid of something. If you like it already, by all means, keep it.

3. Make Use of Everything You Have.

Let us define use in terms of stuff: something that has a purpose. In this sense, what of your stuff is useful? Computer? Check. Soap? Check. Can opener? Check. Knick-knack?

Gotcha! Check – if you want it to. In this, #3 closely follows #2. Of course, we know certain things have very specific uses, and how great this is, to have gadgetry and practicality at our fingertips!

Remember, though, what the purpose is of what you own. Which is worse: to have a moderate collection of beloved tchotchkes that bring you great feelings of joy, warmth and place or a drawerful of kitchen utensils that serve only one use apiece? It’s easy to feel goaded into thinking that practicality (productivity) equals usefulness. In this, look at all your stuff again. What is truly useful? Not just in general, but to you, specifically? Of course, it’s easy to talk yourself into keeping things, and there are tricks and tips to deal with yourself in this area. But don’t let anyone or anything tell you what has value to you until you’ve firmly defined what purpose it has in your own life.

My Trinity of Revelation

How nice of my epiphanies to come in threes.

I call them revelations because they changed the course of my entire life. In their own fashion.

1. The Great Thrift Challenge

My frugality has been a long time maturing. When I was 19 and living 2,000 miles away from home in a spider-centric attic in Los Angeles County, my only truly thrifty strategy was to go to a particular library that sold magazines for a quarter each, buy them, and take them home to cut up and paste into “idea books,” which I still have (and love) to this day. It was a vastly absorbing activity founded upon dire finances and boredom. It’s also a serious hobby of mine, still.

It wasn’t until a few years later, as a freshly-transferred university student that I realized that I had to have certain things – particular grooming supplies, especially, to tame my finicky haircut and various serums and creams to soothe my finicky skin. Oh, and of course, specific lip gloss. The essence of life.

To have certain things stuck me in the uncomfortable position of having to pay what was asked of for these certain items. Of course, an alternative would be to not buy them. This, I deemed then and now, was irrational on most counts, as I do not choose to be an ascetic and as a human being, enjoy the ritual of looking presentable.

It didn’t take all that long to come up with what I now call (in hushed tones of reverence) The Great Thrift Challenge. This challenge was simple (and didn’t necessarily involve thrift stores): take stock of everything I normally bought, and find the cheapest way to procure it. Voila. I was transformed into a woman on a mission - a crafty, fascinating mission to seek out the treasure of Savings.

It was very effective. To this day, I still practice the Challenge, to the point where I won’t even buy something at full retail if I know I can get it for a chunk less from some other establishment. An ounce of prevention, in the case of buying something cheaper, is worth a pound of cure especially when that pound can be metaphorically exchanged for actual currency in my bank account. It led me into all sorts of strategic practices – finding sales, clipping coupons, using the internet, negotiating, buying in bulk, and on. It was an adventure for me, and still is.

2. Re-Eureka! Thrift Store Pt. 2

I am extremely thankful for parents who never had a problem with buying used or aged goods – in fact, my mom, in her early married years, acquired various still-treasured items at flea markets and garage sales. Perhaps it was her influence that led my older sister to drag me to one of our town’s hospital-auxiliary thrift stores, to search for a variety of men’s clothing that would suit the unfortunate style of the time: grunge. Still, the bug bit. The bug infested, as it were. The bug reproduced. We remained steadfast thrifting devotees through high school, college, and on.

Still, for various idiotic reasons I found myself in my first semester of graduate school having a bit of a block towards aspects of thrifting. I still would frequent my various stores for specific items, such as furniture, books, photo albums, mugs. My taste in clothing, however, had veered from the funkydom of my high school days into something more… expensive. Commericial. Yes – boring. The only clothes that semester I bought were from chain stores.

The long winter break rolled around and I found myself required to meet my best friend and her young daughter at that same auxiliary thrift store in my hometown. After browsing my prerequisite areas I sauntered over to the dress racks in an effort to kill time while my companions searched for toddler clothes. I flipped through the rack (thankfully and wonderfully organized by size) and Lo, I had found something I now refer to as Treasure: a stunning, obnoxious, fantastic rayon dress smack from the 80’s. It was majestic. I kept flipping down the line of garments and found one outrageous item after the other. I stuffed all of them in the dressing room and really, the rest is history.

I had re-discovered the wonder of the thrift store. I could chalk up my expensive, blander taste of the previous semester to a lot of things, but mainly my problem was this: the essence of a person’s style might stay the same, but tastes change. Apparently, I had subliminally and discreetly moved on from older tastes and unknownst to even myself developed a taste for totally garish apparel that is in total cheap abundance at thrift stores. All it took was a forced trip and a bit of browsing. Like my Great Thrift Challenge, I have never looked back. I still occasionally buy certain key (and on-sale) items from traditional retailers, but my heart is in places where I can buy things that either cheap, one-of-a-kind, or both.

3. What Goes Around Comes Around

Our culture likes to look at things in terms of the eventual pay-off. Debt, of course, is de riguer. Car debt, house debt, credit card debt are all looked on with various degrees of acceptability. School debt, on the other hand, is almost always, at least in my experience, looked on as an investment.

It’s easy to look at school debt as an investment if looked at in those pay-off terms. Meaning, if I get a stellar or at least decent job as a result of my education, I’ve obviously locked myself into debt as a security in making money. That’s fine. Everybody needs to have something to do, and everybody needs to earn their keep. For a person of a more “artistic temperament” i.e. has a degree in something less than readily bankable, the investment analogy can break down.

At least, those were my thoughts after graduating with a master’s and a heftier load of debt. Not that I was sitting around, feeling bitter about what were certainly my own choices to take out school loans. It was just becoming apparent to me that to think in such productive terms wasn’t necessarily… productive. I knew what my bottom line was for income, and I was in tune with and working toward my professional goals.

So it made sense that one day, after thinking various thoughts on the subject matter, that I stopped, and surveyed what was around me. Books, music, movies, clothes. My husband, pug, and the evidence of deep friendships and close family ties. And two framed degrees, which I realized exemplified a different kind of investment: I had bought growth of my mind, and had expanded my world through my education. Paltry and inadequate sentiments, really, for I am utterly grateful for my education. From that point on, I stopped looking at my education in terms of school loans that needed to be paid off, begrudgingly and groaningly.

What made all the difference was making that survey. Potential cheesiness aside about the warmth and fulfillment of a (ahem) warm and fulfilling interpersonal life, I had noted that I had all I really wanted, in terms of stuff. Sure, a lot of the furniture was given to me by family, or bought cut-rate. Sure, our mattresses were on the floor. Sure, our tv wasn’t flat. But everything I had then, and still have, was stuff I liked. Stuff I wanted to keep around. Stuff I would use. So what if I was going to spend the next 10 years paying off school loans? The bottom line was I knew I wasn’t concerned with constantly upgrading into bigger (and more expensive, though not necessarily better) things. Instead, I would spend the next 10 years enjoying the fruits of my educational labor, achieving satisfaction of another kind. Those school bills are my discretionary income, because even if I had that money to spend again, I would still spend it on my brain.

I think it might be safe to say that the benefit of such revelatory munificence is obvious. To sum it up, though, the reality is that my life as an adult, living in America, is bound to certain cultural ways, and I don’t pretend to be some sort of anarchist. Still. Quality of life is not something to be taken lightly. Quantity of stuff – well, it is to be taken lightly. Being frugal is a quest, a journey, that feeds into a greater road, I hope. For everybody.