It seems there has been alot of talk lately about getting shirts at thrift shops to use in quilts. I decided to visit the thrift shops in town the other day and was a little shocked at the prices. :shock:

Perhaps I'm out of touch or naive about this since I don't regularly shop thrift stores but wanted your input on: 1. How much fabric do you get from a shirt? and 2. What price do you pay?

I visited three thrift stores. Goodwill had all their men's shirts at $3.99 and there were some very nice 100% cotton shirts. A local church sponsored thrift store - shirts were $3.00 to $7.00 with not much selection. A third store (I think it's some kind of chain like Goodwill) had shirts starting at $1.99 to (!!!!)$19.99, with no reason I could see why one shirt was $1.99 while another was $9.99.

:?: :-( :hunf:

We have a local place where they get a lot of clothing donated from yard sales and well to do people. On certain days you can get a 30 gallon garbage bag for $1. I am thinking of checking it out. I know people who actually get nice clothing there.

In the 1970s I lived near 3 large cities, several smaller ones and a few rural towns. They all had Goodwill stores. I noticed price differences too and asked about it. They said the policy is to price according to location. So if the store is in a well-to-do part of town, the prices are higher.
I can understand this since they are trying to raise money for the disabled.
When I shopped in the well-to-do locations I found NICE clothes with the tags still on them for $10 or less. So I really couldn't complain.

They also have sale days..usually they have a list up front in the store.."tuesdays- red tags are 50% off" etc..

I made a list of all the thrift shops within a 20 mile radius one day and visited them all. Stuff was definitely priced based on location. I live in what is considered a high end area and stuff was priced here $3.99-$5.99 for a shirt, compared to other areas 99 cents to $1.99 for a shirt and it was the same stuff.

Our local Humane Society (I work there one day a week) has men's shirts for $1.00. If I buy a shirt there, it's 50 cents for me. I'll have to go looking at the shirts.
Lynn

The local thrift store I usually shop at has shirts from 70 cents on up. The used ones are usually $3 or less, they also get new ones donated from stores and those are sold at the price on the tag from the store (usually $15 or more). The tags on the used items are different colors, based on the day they are put out. Each day two colors are half price. I haven't used shirts for fabric so I'm not sure how much you get.

Check with your local Goodwill. I think that they are having a 50% off everything in the store sale on December 4th.

In my area it's not worth it to buy shirts at thrift shops. Poor community but the shops can be a little high on the price of used clothing, for me anyway. I can go to wm and buy a yard of cotton fabric priced from $2.97 to $4.44 and that can be cheaper than the thrift shops most time especially if your not getting a yard of fabric out of a shirt. I go to our thrift shops for fabric, I have gotten some pretty nice cotton fabrics there.

Sounds to me like you should move to Illinois. LOL

Goodwill here has color sales each week. This week if the item has a black tag it's 50% off. Every Wednesday people 55 and older get 25% off.
We also have a Humane Society thrift store that clothing sells Everything-in-the-bag for $2. And it's a large paper grocery bag. There's also a church sponsored one that is totally free although if and when I go there I make a donation for each item I get.

Depending on the size of the shirt you can get about 2/3yd out of a long-sleeved 2x or bigger shirt. I cut the seams out, cut off the cuffs, yoke, collar, button and button hole strips. If the cuffs are large enough to get a 2-2 1/2" piece of fabric from and are in good condition, I save it. Same with the yoke. When cutting them up I don't remove the pocket because I might decide to leave them on when I make the quilt. The process is time consuming but it's something that I've challenged myself to do. If I had to spend the amount of money that you're talking about I wouldn't do it at all.