Sewing supplies from surprise sources

I have a limited selection of shops that I can visit in my lunch hour if I need sewing supplies. Luckily (or unluckily for my purse) one is Abakhan, but the others are discount shops, however, I’ve found a range of bargain items that are useful for sewing in the two discount shops .

In the gardening section of B&M I found some items ideal for quilting.  I went looking for large bulldog clips (to secure a quilt sandwich to a table when pin tacking) but couldn’t find any in the stationery department. As I needed the clips to use at Liverpool Sewing Club that evening, a little bit of improvisation was needed and I found plant clips at a bargain price of 89p.  The large clips open 1” wide and were ideal to hold the quilt layers taut while pinning. The smaller clips open ½” wide and will come in useful for bag making when the fabric is too thick or tough for pins.  I also spotted in the gardening section a three-pair pack of thin gloves with a grip finish on the fingers and palms. I’ve seen similar gloves sold for in sewing shops to use when doing free motion quilting.

From Branded Bargains (very similar to Home Bargains), I have got several storage boxes of various types and sizes.  The smallest size of zipped boxes is ideal for storing fat quarters (similar boxes are also available in B&M). I use a medium box for scraps and a large box holding pieces of quilting fabric over half a metre in size. As my versions of these boxes are mainly clear and less colourful than the ones in the links it is easy to see which fabrics are in which box.

In the DIY section they have a range of plastic storage boxes with adjustable compartments.  The smallest of these I use for sewing machine feet, the medium size is ideal for sorting and storing buttons, and the large size I use for threads.  They are also very useful for organising my fabric and papers for a long-term English paper piecing project. Branded/Home Bargains was also where I found my small cutting mat (approximately A3 size and which appears in many of my photos). This was in the stationery/arts section and was only a few pounds and seems to have quite good self-healing properties.

If you’ve found sewing supplies (especially bargains) in unexpected shops, do let me know.