There are times when I literally catch myself in the act of becoming a grumpy old woman.

One such, only yesterday, was after I had been lamenting how the changes to Etsy’s rules for sellers were an inevitable product of the greed that ensues when once-small websites get big and, rather than keep to the ethos that got them that way, decide to maximise profits at the expense of their users.

Don’t get me wrong, I stand by my opinion on that. Etsy’s rule change means that it is no longer solely the home of handmade.

You can now sell stuff manufactured by other people. Hence the site now being flooded with mass produced rubbish based on copies of handmade stuff.

Other examples include Pinterest – these days full of “promoted” pins from big brands, and Ebay – now more a source of shoddy Chinese electronics than garage sale bargains.

But as if to tell me to shut up and stop being so negative, the universe sent me a gift…

Yes, I bought this on Ebay.

And yes – sorry if this sounds like gloating – it was very affordable. Even bearing in mind how much postage has gone up these days (beware – grumpy old woman alert!)

It had been badly photographed and I thought it might possibly turn out to be a synthetic nylon or fibreglass-type fabric.

It was impossible to be sure from the photos and there was no time to contact the seller by the time I spotted it.

But I liked the print, so I bid anyway.

It’s actually a cotton-viscose mix, lovely and slubby and fluid.

Although it does smell like it’s been sitting in someone’s malodorous shed next to their dirty underpants for the last twenty years or so.

But I got another, rather pleasanter and less smelly surprise…

There on the selvedge (and nowhere in the Ebay description) was pure fabric collector’s gold…

It took me right back to those heady early days of Ebaying, when snapping up lovely bits of stuff by Heals for tuppence-ha’penny or thereabouts used to be a regular occurrence.

I thought those days had gone for good.

But it just shows…

If you give up and sink into grumpy old womanhood too early, you might just miss out on something good. ♥