Open Range Preserve Vintage

From Knoxville, Tennessee, I present Jane, from Open Range Preserve vintage on Etsy.com. 

I recently nudged Jane into sharing her shop story with me on this blog. Pull up a chair and stroll through memory lane with Jane!

 I had been making handmade items for decades, using crochet, macramé, sewing, quilting, embroidery, and needlepoint to make clothing, decor, accessories, Christmas ornaments, household linens, and anything else I could think of. Five years ago, several people began urging me to sell on Etsy. But I had a job and other activities and just didn't think I had time for it. So I let it go.

Fast forward a few years, and I'm in my sixties, too old for my former job and with health issues and changing family circumstances that moved me to a much smaller living space. And here were all these wonderful items I had collected over the decades, but that I would no longer have room to keep. 

A friend already had an established Etsy shop (Victorian Wardrobe), and she pointed out that I could sell vintage on Etsy. 

Well, I was well supplied with that! So I looked into Etsy and started my shop on May 2013. While I haven't sold a lot, it has been enough to keep me going. I have out-of-print fabrics, vintage patterns, pre-loved toys, heirloom household items, nearly-antique jewelry, and old books (including some first editions). 

Now, every time I sell an item of special significance, I recall how I got it, and I think of how much the buyer is going to enjoy it. Recently I sold an old hippie kind of book that I thought was wonderful, and not long afterwards I sold an old pair of hippie bellbottom tiedyed jeans that I had grown out of long ago. And I was so excited for the buyers! They get to have these neat items!

Someone asked me what I'd do when I ran out of things to sell. I had to laugh! No danger of that for quite some time!

Thanks, Jane!