Our Sewing Thrift Store
How We Started
This shop began on accident. It grew out of Liv's first shop, Fenceline Fabrics. She set up a small de-stash corner in the quilt shop hoping to re-home a few of her own unloved fabrics. Eventually, people started asking if we took donations and well, we were too thrifty minded to refuse. In no time, the donations were taking up half the space in the Fenceline Fabrics building (which was only 600 square ft) and Liv realized that a secondhand sewing shop wanted to exist.
This shop began on accident. It grew out of Liv's first shop, Fenceline Fabrics. She set up a small de-stash corner in the quilt shop hoping to re-home a few of her own unloved fabrics. Eventually, people started asking if we took donations and well, we were too thrifty minded to refuse. In no time, the donations were taking up half the space in the Fenceline Fabrics building (which was only 600 square ft) and Liv realized that a secondhand sewing shop wanted to exist.
So, we moved house. We loaded up our de-stash and deadstock fabrics and transported our inventory to our current location, a 2,400 square ft warehouse in the little town of Ogden, KS.
We believe that sewing can and should be sustainable. The practice of sewing as a household skill was often used to re-make or repair clothing so it could last longer. We hope to encourage our customers to think before they buy – check their stash, sew with what they have, upcycle, and generally put thought into their projects. But we also know that deadstock fabric sitting in a warehouse somewhere isn’t doing anyone any good, so we are happy to provide a secondhand shopping alternative for thoughtful makers.
Our Values
We believe in amplifying marginalized makers and sewists. Please tag us in your Thrifty makes so we can repost you on our social media accounts (with permission and credit). We want to avoid randomly posting people without an authentic connection to their work. Let’s build a relationship and collaborate!
We want to be good neighbors. When we can support businesses run by marginalized folks, we will always do so. At the very least, we will consciously support small, sustainable, and local.
We want to be good neighbors. When we can support businesses run by marginalized folks, we will always do so. At the very least, we will consciously support small, sustainable, and local.
- Be intentional in our hiring practices. We want to cast a wider net when we hire new people onto the Thrifty team. We exist in a majority white town in northeast Kansas that still relies heavily on networking and word of mouth and we want to move beyond these often exclusionary hiring practices. We enthusiastically encourage applicants from all communities who are sustainability minded to apply.
- Take care of our people. As a newer small business, we can’t yet provide pay and benefits equal to what our employees deserve, but we are taking intentional steps to achieve a living wage for our staff. All employees receive quarterly raises and our CEO takes the lowest salary of anyone in the company.
- Donate 5% of our profits to a different non-profit each quarter. At our core, we are a group of people focused on sustainability and promoting equality. We want to contribute to causes we believe in by making regular donations when we turn a profit. We believe in putting people first and profit second (we’re terrible capitalists).
- While we strive to be primarily a secondhand shop and majority of our sales are online, it is worth noting that we are the only fabric shop in our area that is not a big box store. As such, we do keep a selection of high quality and organic new fabric on hand for our local customers. We do our best to source these fabrics with as much research as possible and the belief that we are buying ethically made textiles, but with capitalism being what it is, we can not always be 100% sure of manufacturing processes overseas. That being said, we endeavor to be transparent about all of our sales practices here at Thrifty and will continue to vet any brands we sell to the best of our ability.
Since moving locations our desire to be good neighbors in our local community has increased. One local non-profit that is making a steady and quiet difference is The House Café. They fund an Early Learning Center and an after-school program with their non-profit coffee shop in Ogden. For now, a portion of our quarterly profits will go to their cause.
Thank you all for sticking with us as we keep learning and trying to do better. Feel free to share any feedback below.
✊🏿 ❤️ ✊🏽 🏳️🌈 ✊🏾 🌍 ✊🏻
- The Thrifty Crew
Organizations we've supported:
The Bail Project
The Flinthills Breadbasket
The House Cafe
Sunderland Foundation Innovation Lab
Victory Fund
Meet Our Team
Livie - Owner
Liv is a lifelong dabbler in all things textile. She's particularly interested in the intersection of textiles and ecology. Her desire to save unique things from ending up in the landfill led her to start A Thrifty Notion.
Kelly - Content Creator + Fiber Specialist
Kelly is A Thrifty Notion's only "trained expert" in textiles and fashion. She has a Bachelor's of Science in Apparel and Textiles with a specialization in Design and Production. She's our in-house fabric identification expert. If you have questions, she's the one we ask for answers!
Mercedes - Marketing Manager
Mercedes has a Bachelor's in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her passion for people, advocacy, and sustainable living led her to Thrifty. She's a beginner sewist and aesthetic enthusiast.
Jaimie - Inventory Manager
Jaimie has a passion for her family, animals, kids, teaching, helping the community, and all things arts and crafts related. Her love for visual arts and up-cycling is what led her to join the Thrifty team.
Chloe - Inventory Assistant
Chloe is in college studying Fine Arts with an emphasis on painting. Her love of fashion and sustainability lead her to join the Thrifty team!