So this past weekend, I had a mission. Thanks to Dragon-Con (and my wife), I’m going in on the Steampunk costuming thing. So I need a costume. The easy thing to do is just buy one. But that can quickly, and I mean quickly, get very, very expensive. One of the things learned from Dragon-Con is that is very easy to get something and modify it, so that’s what I set out to do. I did some research first and kind of mentally put together the outfit/clothing I would ideally like and buy if money were no object. Then I compiled a list of a whole bunch of thrift stores in Austin. Then I found a weird website that lets you put in a bunch of addresses and it will spit out a list/directions of the shortest/best route between them all. So list (and GPS) in hand, I made my way toward Austin. My goal was to try and hit around 14 stores, but really it was more about stopping whenever I got sick of looking in stores. Let’s see how far I got!
The first stop was actually in Georgetown, which is on the way to Austin (about halfway there). I wanted to check out the Georgetown location of Habitat ReStore. Unfortunately, they don’t open until 10am on Saturday. I got there around 9:15, far too long of a time to wait with other places to go. So I called the next location on the list to make sure they were open (otherwise, moving on would be silly), and thankfully they had opened at 8am, so off I went.
So this became the defacto first stop of my trip. I’m fairly certain it’s a small Texas chain, I think there’s a location in Killeen? Either way, it’s a pretty standard Goodwill/Salvation Army-style setup. The majority of the stuff here is clothes. There’s a pretty decent selection, most of it seems women-focused (this seems to be something of a trend with Thrift stores, my theory is because guys don’t tend to donate clothes, they wear them into oblivion), especially when it comes to footwear (one of the things I was looking for was a pair of boots), gently used men’s shoes are difficult to come by… I did manage to find an interestingly cut shirt there, but it’s got a bunch of embroidered crap on it. and some text printed on it. So it’s going to be interesting to see if I can eventually figure out how to get it all off and/or creatively cover it.
You can see some of the embroidery/weirdness here.
Left front pocket. Weird german-flag colored embroidery. It will probably look really weird after removing all of that thread… so this one might have to be covered up somehow.
Lettering over the front right pocket.
A couple patches on the shoulder should be easy to take care of.
More lettering across the back. Seems painted on. If you have any ideas to help with the removal, I would love suggestions!
This place had a super-bonus for me though, and one of the biggest highlights of my trip. On the other side of the parking lot…
Tandy Leather – We learned about this place at Dragon-Con. This is basically the king of leather supply stores. This happens to be the Austin location. Apparently there’s one in Atlanta too (in Norcross, close enough). Anyway, I plan to shop here in the future for tools and some other things (probably some rivets for the current project – more info in a post coming soon!), but at the very minimum, it’s good to know where this place is. They seem to do classes and stuff there. People were hanging out in the back at tables all gamer-like, talking shop and one of them was working on something and getting advice from one of the others there. Interesting vibe.
#2 on the list was originally going to be number 3 on the list (which should really have been #4 on the list, but ReStore had to go and mess everything up), but the store I planned for #2 wasn’t open yet, and I actually got there just before this one opened. Thankfully I didn’t have to wait long for this one to open and off I went. This place is really hodge-podge. Mostly home decor, there’s a little bit of clothing there (mostly women’s), and various bits of jewelry and knick knacks.
I scored these here. Vintage 1960’s colored glasses. No prescription (thankfully), so I don’t have to swap out lenses, or try to fabricate them. The lenses are tinted slightly green, which I think adds to their character. They’re fairly comfortable, and are quasi-self adjusting, because the earloops are basically giant springs. They look really old, so they’ll definitely work for my costuming idea. Definitely a steal.
I have a confession to make. I’ve been to Hog Wild (and Room Service, they’re right across the street from one another) before. I was shopping around for furniture on the cheap to live here until I move to Georgia. This place was (and is) mostly home decor. I was shocked by how empty the store was though. They weren’t even using half of their floor space in the store. The whole back half of the store is just partitioned off and empty now. It seems like they’re really low on stock and just felt completely empty compared to the last time I was there. I took a rather brief look around and made my way to stop #4.
This is a sister/spin-off store of Value City (a chain of Thrift stores my wife is fond of in Atlanta). Like Value City, it is very clothing oriented. A HUGE selection of modern clothing. Very little in the way of things to modify and experiment with. Nothing coming close to the pattern that I was looking to replicate in the pants I wanted. Also, their “Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeen!” section was pretty terrible (I’m biased, I think the vast majority of Holloween (not a typo) stores are generally horrible. In fact, I’m willing to pose a theorem right now. The more E’s in the name, the worse it is. Regardless, there was nothing here for me, so I was off to the next stop.
Stop #5 became Assistance League. A big charity-oriented thrift store, they put a lot of money back into the community around them, so they’re a good store to support. They also follow kind of the basic “Goodwill”-esque model. There were a handful of knick knacks here and I managed to find a diamond in the rough.
Thermos and carrying case. Combo-steal! The thermos is really heavy, but I’d have no problems modifying it for use as part of a backpack or something. Or, worse comes to worse, use it as a thermos. The case is a greenish leather. It has some nice looking characteristic wear and tear on it (you can see some of it along the bottom edge). And some fixing that needs to be done:
Bottom of the Thermos and it’s info plate. Made in Nashville! I doubt this was made after Disney’s Aladdin movie, but I find it hilarious that it’s a Stanley Aladdin and says, “It will not break” on the bottom. (Google searching for the model number A-994B seems to indicate it was made in the 70’s.)
This modern-style clasp will need to be replaced with something more old-timey/fitting. You get a better idea of the leather color too.
This is the functional D-ring for a shoulder strap.
This is the non-functioning D-ring for the shoulder strap. The metal ring ripped through the leather, so I’m probably going to have to make another leather bit and replace it… or figure out another way to anchor something there to hold the strap to give it more character… hrm…
This, will make the perfect map case/general carrying case (my wife has already pointed out that it would be perfect for transporting a bottle of wine). It needs a little repair on one of the loops that would hold a D/O ring for the shoulder strap, and really, I’d like the replace the clasp/buckle with something a little more old-fashioned/fitting. So it’s a leather project for the future. Maybe I’ll take it down to Tandy and ask for some advice! This sounds like the perfect set-up for a future adventure…
This place ended up being a potential goldmine. Stop #6 is directly across the street from the Assistance League. I knew I was in for something good when I saw this in the window:
A sign of things to come? (See what I did there?) To say the selection/goods available here is “eclectic” is a massive understatement. There’s everything from custom-made armoires, to weird clothes, to old radio parts… to old CRT tubes and electron guns (!!!). The big one here is they just have bins of old electronics parts. Old resistors and tubes (including restock tubes, they’ve never been used and never got sold, so brand new in box – NRFB*!) (* – Bonus points if you get this reference.) So here was my score at this fine establishment:
A 6V Sylvania Vacuum Tube. This is what I’m going to base the experiments for part of my project off of (again, more of this in an upcoming post!). (Note the awesomely sexy paper-towel backdrop, beautiful, isn’t it?) I also got a bit of a Pro-Tip from the owner of the store (who informed the hipster kid before me that all of his stock was TV tubes, and they’d all sound horrible in a guitar amplifier). I explained to him what I was trying to do, build a circuit to use old vacuum tubes as lightbulbs, so I just need to power the heating elements. So he gave me this gem of advice: “Measure the resistance across the tube’s pins, the 2 pins for the heater element will be the only ones that will have continuity.” If you don’t speak electronics, it means that if you measure the resistance from one of the little pins on the bottom to another, they will all come back as “infinity” EXCEPT for the two that go to the heater element. They are the only two that are connected, so they’ll actually give you a result when you measure them.
On the way out, I noticed this, which should have tipped me off from the beginning:
It’s a window display made by attaching a bunch of vacuum tubes decoratively to a frame. I will be returning to this place to acquire more tubes. From here, I decided to take a little lunch break.
Second on my list of Brewpubs to experience in Austin, is the Black Star Co-Op (unfortunately, it has nothing to do with Blackstar Amplification). Their food menu is fairly simple and limited (which isn’t always a bad thing, usually it means that what they do make, they’re really good at making). I got the Black Star Burger, because it was the most appealing thing on the menu for me, seemed like it would pair best with the selection of beer… and let’s be honest, with all the thrift shopping I was doing, I had to do something manly to balance it all out. Am I right? So bloody cow patty it is! Bring on the beer!
Sampler of all 5 of the in-house-crafted beer. From closest to furthest away we have these culprits:
- High Esteem – 4.7% ABV – 17 IBU
- Elba – 4.8% – 18 IBU
- Vulcan – 6.7% – 57 IBU
- Vector – 6.7% – 65 IBU
- Old Sour Dewberry – 7.6% – 24 IBU
As you can see by the IBU’s (International Bitterness Units), it went from a slightly crisp-pineyness to IPA-levels of Piney-bitterness fairly quickly. If you’re a fan of good piney/crisp/bitter beers, these would do you pretty well. None of these in the sampling were very malty, they were all rather hop-oriented, strongly hopped beers. I’m personally more of a fan of the more balanced and more malt-oriented beers personally.
The Elba was an American Wheat Ale, and it was pretty good, probably my favorite of the ones actually on the paddle. But the star of this little show (get it? Star?) was the Old Sour Dewberry. It was the winner of an intra-Co-Op brewing contest for sour-style beers. It was pretty damn tasty. I’m personally a big fan of the acquired taste that is Duchesse de Bourgogne, so this sour hit the spot. I’m glad it ended up being the extra/last one served, because I don’t think it would have shined so much if it had been in the middle of the mix. Blessings in disguise.
The unassuming burger and fries. The fries were kind of awesome. A unique cut, which lead to them being fried pretty evenly. Nice and crunchy, with a light smattering of salt and a TON of shaved garlic. Good thing I love garlic. It doesn’t seem like much (though you can see a couple huge clumps of it in the picture), and it’s not really heavy in the taste, but you can definitely tell it’s there when you finish eating! I think the fries even managed to outshine the burger (love me some garlic), but the burger was pretty good for a burger. Went well with the hoppy beers, which was exactly what I wanted and was hoping for. Stomach full of food, beer, and garlic, I was off to Thrift shop #7!
A pretty cool concept for a store (and a very Austin concept), they give away lots of stuff (everything in those boxes by the door was free to take). They had a pretty eclectic collection of stuff. Nothing that really appealed to me, but it seemed like it had a fairly badass selection of garments for the lady-folk. Were they so inclined to go thrift shopping, that is.
Austin Habitat for Humanity ReStore
Stop #8 was the Austin location (and apparently the first location ever) for Habitat of Humanity’s ReStore. For those unfamiliar with the concept, ReStore is where contractors donate the leftover stuff from construction projects. Add in the leftovers from Habitat for Humanity builds and boom, you have a really good place to go to for cheap construction/home goods. They have everything from fixtures, to paint, to light switches, to tools. Seriously, if you have one nearby and you’re planning any sort of home repair/work, check it out. But wait a minute, I’m out shopping for costumes, you say? Why would I want to go to a ReStore for costuming?
Brassy bits! Well, among other things. I was mostly seeing if there was anything of interest. Turns out there was. I’ll probably come back for some of these later. As you can see, all kinds of weirdly shaped copper/brass/bronze hardware here, just in this one little bin. I made a couple purchases here too. What did I find that was so interesting? First there was this:
A $2 hammer. It’s for the costuming project, but not in the way you’re thinking of. See, at Dragon-Con, I saw this cool-looking cane, that had a brass claw hammer for a handle. What wasn’t cool about it was the $100 price tag. The handle alone was $75. So I said, “Fuck that! I can make something like that for a lot cheaper than that, I’m sure!” So, this ball peen (much cooler than a boring ol’ claw) hammer just happens to fit perfectly in my hand as a handle… cha-ching! Now I just need a cane, and then I need to cut the cane, remove the handle from the hammer and then “replace” the handle with the cane. Sounds simple right? Stay tuned to future posts to see how this part of the project goes!
Shouldn’t be too hard, right?
See, perfect fit. I didn’t see anyone looking at me weird in the ReStore while I was walking around holding the hammer like this to see how comfortable it would be. This is probably a good thing. Also, it probably didn’t look too weird, and probably looked far less threatening that if I were to be walking around the store wielding said hammer by the handle…
Looking around I saw this:
A pedestal sink that’s almost identical to the one we got for free (thanks Deb!) when we were renovating our house. The hardware is different, but this one clocked in at $75. A complete sink like this can run you from $150-300+ at Lowes/Home Depot. So see the kinds of bargains you can get? Worth checking out, seriously. They had full bathtubs and everything here.
What else did I pick up?
Some components for the electronics project, a couple of really cheap bundles of wire (I think I paid less than $0.40 for all of the wire), and $1 or so for the gator clips. These are for the electronics project and experimenting with that vacuum tube I got earlier. Wheels are churning, things are coming together. In full mad-scientist mode, I headed to my next destination…
I intended to go to a place called Lovely Austin next. However the store was completely empty and there were no signs anywhere to be found saying they moved locations. Their website also seems to be vacant. Alas. No time to mourn! A few beeps from the GPS later, I was off to the center of Hipsterville in downtown Austin. South Congress.
This place had a neat assortment of stuff. They had a fairly big selection of hats, which made me ask if they knew anything about styles of hats. I had a certain type of hat in mind, very flat-brimmed, with an equally flat crown. Kind of stetson-ish, but with a wider brim and flat top. He knew what I was talking about, he said, “Kind of like what Zorro wears?” (Yeah, kind of, but what I’m thinking isn’t as high as that. It’s worn by a lot of gunfighters in westerns though.) According to Wikipedia, it’s a Sombrero Cordobés, but it’s pretty much impossible to find these anywhere. So if you have a tipoff on these, please let me know! Comments are always welcome.
Anyway, he didn’t know where to find one, and didn’t have one like it in stock. But he did know people who might know more about hats than him, and referred me to a place called “The Hat Box” (foreshadowing!) This was also the first place I found canes. They had a couple of good ones they were more than I was looking to spend though. So I ventured further down the street.
The “Boutique” in the name should be the big hint here. This is a fairly pricey women’s clothing boutique. I didn’t see any men’s stuff in here at all. What they did have that was kind of neat was a collection of hand-made jewelry from people all over the US. Not my thing, but I can see the appeal. Some pretty unique stuff here. Fits right in with the “South Congress” vibe.
Stop number… shit, I lost count… 11! Stop #11. Yes, 11 (it would have been stop #12, but Lovely Austin… which means that with the first ReStore, it should actually be #13, but it’s really #11, so yeah, #11?), okay, New Bohemia. Again, mostly clothing. This time it’s mostly modernish clothing. Trendy, hispter, “SoCo” (South Congress, it’s an Austin thing) clothing. I assume it’s a good selection (since this isn’t my style of clothing/dress. Again, mostly women-oriented (aren’t they all?). There are likely some really good reviews out there from people who would shop at a place like this and would be a much better evaluator of them. There’s several of them on the site I linked.
If there was ever a place that lived up to its name, stop #12 – Uncommon Objects is that place. You could spend hours just wandering around the store just looking at all the weird/neat things in the shop. There is a LOT of crazy/cool stuff here. There are also signs that say photography is not allowed inside, or you might have gotten a few shots of the more interesting stuff there. There’s a couple videos on the website (under Peepshow) that show off weird collections of stuff. They’re basically slide shows, but it will give you at least a little of an idea. Oddly, things are arranged in the store by color, so there’s kind of no rhyme or reason to the layout. Which adds to the wonder of wandering through the store looking at things. I saw everything from wall decorations made from animal skulls, to old card-catalog library cabinets, to Knights Templar swords, to old postcards, to crazy old pocket compasses (I’m debating on one of these for the costume), and all manner of jewelry and home decor. If it weren’t so expensive, this would be the perfect place to find neat little things. I can see going back here, and I likely will return here again.
Stop #13 was a rather bland Goodwill-esque thrift shop called Thrift Land. Apparently it’s part of a small chain. Very clothes-centric. This is the part where I realized that the rest of the stops on my list were basically big-box thrift stores that were all going to be cookie-cutters of one another. They were going to be just slightly different versions of Savers and Texas Thrift. So I decided to call an end to the thrift store adventure… but I still had one more stop to make.
Stop #14 – A cool little store in downtown Austin that deals exclusively in hats. Great selection and decent prices (decent hats tend to have decently high prices, these seemed reasonable to me, but I’m not a hat person). They have all kinds of styles from modern to vintage. What’s really kind of neat (if you’re a hat person, or just like rare/interesting things), is that they have a “back room” that’s roped off, where they keep a selection of rare and special hats. You can’t go in there without an employee to show them off to you. I didn’t elect to go back there on this trip, but if I have reason to go back I will be certain too. They did not have the weird mexican western hat I was looking for, but they did tip me off to a style of hat that would go well with the costume I’m putting together, and I found a way to get something similar on the cheap (thanks Amazon!). I wish I could afford to drop a lot of money on a good hat, but I’m trying to put a whole costume here on short notice with not-a-huge budget… so restraints had to be made. I highly recommend paying this store a visit if you have time to stop by, or happen to be in the area.
My goal when I set out was 14 stores… and if two of them hadn’t been closed, I would have hit 16 (including the bonus Hat store). So I think I was successful. I even managed to pick up a couple of things for the costume (even if only one of them is for immediate use). Things are coming together nicely for the costume, I have almost all of the component in my possession (at the time of writing) so all that’s left is to experiment and build! Oh, and figure out what I’m doing this weekend. It’s Friday night and I have no plans for Saturday! Gah!
This time, I promise to have my update posted before the weekend. Until next time!
DS Boggs 
Nice work! Interesting shops.
I tried to hit up a good variety of them. Used a few other people’s best-of-thrift-stores lists to generate my base lists, then hit random shops of opportunity if they were really nearby and looked interesting. There are about 30 weird thrift-like shops on South Congress, only a few of them were worth noting for what I was trying to do, or came highly recommended.