I always keep an eye out for vintage Tootal scarves as they seem to be perenially good sellers on ebay. Often they have been 'got at' by moths or, if they've got a wool backing to the silky material, have been washed incorrectly and have got all shrunken and mis-shaped. Having managed to ruin a few of these scarves by mis-washing them myself in the past, I now always list them without trying to launder them first.
Years ago these sorts of scarves were two-a-penny at jumble sales (or so it seems) and I always bought them up and would sell them on again to a second-hand clothes dealer in the Bartlett Street Antiques Market in Bath. The Antiques Market was a fantastic place which I used to love mooching around when I lived in Bath - that and the one at the start of Walcot Street that used to be held on Saturdays.
Anyway, I was most pleased to find this Tootal scarf in the local charity shop yesterday for the princely sum of 65p. It appears to be in excellent condition and has possibly never been worn at all. It could do with a launder to freshen it up but I'll let whoever buys in from me have the pleasure of that task!!
In the same charity shop there were loads and loads of crochet patterns from the 1960s and early 1970s, including a couple for crocheted hot pants (by gum, you'd have to be careful what knickers you were wearing under a pair of those!) I don't really know much about vintage crochet patterns - except that I find a lot less of them than I do vintage knitting patterns - so I left them where they were and thought I'd do a bit of ebay research before I decided whether to buy them or not. Turns out crocheted mini dress patterns sell pretty well - one even sold for the somewhat ludicrous sum of £21.00!! Needless to say, I'll be back down there tomorrow to see how many crochet mini dress patterns are still on the shelf.
My dad had a scarf just like that :)
Posted by: Sharon J | 05/21/2011 at 08:39 PM