 |
| Linen sheets from Dollarama... |
Our Dollaramas have long ago exceeded the original intent of their name by stocking products that are now priced up to $4. I haven't done much purchasing at that price point but on a visit this week, I found something at the relatively low price of $1.50 that I felt compelled to pick up... two of them, in fact.
Did you know that Dollarama sells fabric? It's not high quality fabric or attractive fabric, but they do sell it. It's usually open to touch in mini "bolts".
But this particular package that caught my eye was wrapped in cellophane and situated away from the other textiles. It's an 18" square of linen. Well, actually it's mostly not linen, since it's 60% cotton. But what an interesting piece of fabric no matter what, huh?
 |
| All sorts of interesting imagery on this square of fabric... |
I'm a fan of text fabric, but I'm even a bigger fan of "newspaper-y" fabric.
From a very young age, I was an avid newspaper reader. Over my lifetime, I've kept newspaper clippings of various things, and even entire editions of significant days (e.g., Diana's passing and funeral, 9-11 and its aftermath, the death of Pierre Elliott Trudeau and the subsequent election of his eldest son as Canada's Prime Minister). Old newspapers are like time capsules (just like my old diaries), capable of transporting me back in time like it was just yesterday.
Not only that, it's quite entertaining to unfold a clipping and check out the advertisements that appear alongside whatever news item I deemed worthy enough of keeping for posterity. Funny how often it's the surrounding content that's the most interesting... like bank ads for interest bearing certificates offering 16% returns!
The overall look of newspaper ads has certainly evolved over the years, but if you're like me, you have an appreciation for the simple line drawings of days gone by.
In 2005, my home province celebrated its centennial. The current daily ran a copy of the paper that was put out one hundred years ago, which of course, I kept. Here is the bottom half of the front page.
 |
| Ads from the September 2, 1905 edition of The Evening Journal... |
Among the items of interest are a dozen ears of corn or two pounds of tomatoes for twenty-five cents. Real estate was going for $200 per acre.
Here is an ad from inside this edition...
 |
| The last Belding Brothers & Company silk mill closed in 1932... |
Like today's proliferation of technology ads, clothing and textiles ads were the order of the day back then.
Are you a figure skating fan? I'd forgotten that our city hosted the 1996 World Figure Skating Championships until I came across a special insert that I'd saved from March 1996. Here's an ad from it...
 |
| In 1996 dollars, is this cheap or very expensive? |
Central Sewing Machines is still around today, even at that same address on the south side. But as I have no knowledge of sergers, I have no idea of how good that pricing was/is. (It strikes me as expensive.)
It's unfortunate that in today's digital (and political) age, newspapers are becoming obsolete as you read this. I have a digital as well as physical subscription to my city's daily and while I can save copies of the electronic version onto my tablet, I won't ever be able to handle them, to see the yellowing of the pages or smell the paper as it ages. Or be aware of the "shrinkage" over the decades... newspapers have become much smaller and narrower over the years and you wouldn't know that without old editions to compare against.
All I know is that that one of these days — perhaps sooner than I think — I'll likely be saving that last paper edition of my local newspaper.
I'm already sad about that.
Back to my pieces of "linen", however, here is an apropos close-up...
 |
| Sewing machine for sale... |
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what "POX" refers to/translates into in this situation? Or is it strictly nonsensical?
Here is another detail shot...
 |
| Mannequin anyone? |
And yet another...
 |
| An assortment of scissors... |
I have an idea about what I want to do with these squares of fabric (and I want to be able to make full use of all of it), but I'm not going to commit by sharing just yet.
Any suggestions?
Oh, I don't know what I'd do with that fabric, but I'd definitely have bought some. I'm with you - love text fabric, and if it's newspapery, even better. Great find!
ReplyDelete