You’ve heard of terse answers? You won’t find any here from Nancy Polacek, a whiz-bang seamstress who enjoys a verbal joust as much as anyone:
Name:
The very unimaginative Nancy Polacek. Sometimes I add “Minneapolis” to it but then that is the answer to question 3!
Vendor:
Nancy Polacek
Lives in/Business located:
I live and work, as my labels say, in my dank, dark Minneapolis basement. Since my chicks are leaving the nest I have crawled upstairs to evict Barbie and Ken from their Dreamhouse, a.k.a. my sunporch, so I do see the light of day, occasionally. From that vantage point I can spy on my neighbors and be completely distracted from work. Ball-throwing session going on out there? Well, c’mon dogs! Can’t neglect you!
This will be Bonanza vendor appearance:
2
Specializes in:
When I’m back in my ’40s desk chair I get down to business sewing all kinds of things out of sturdy vintage fabrics. My favorite is pillows. So many way to change them up.
Find:
Website: etsy.com/nancypolacek
Facebook: facebook.com/nancy.polacek
Favorite activity besides junking:
If I’m not sewing I can be found throwing the ball for my little dogs, Rusty and Otis; weeding and wondering what my 13-year-old will make for my dinner.
Would save if the workshop were on fire:
Last year I cavalierly claimed in my Flea Market Style mag profile that I’d save nothing if my house were on fire, but my workshop?! (Insert horrifying scream here).
I would save everything! Don’t make me choose! Would it be the 1950s hefty Pfaff that runs with a belt that looks like a snowmobile track? The huge pair of scissors that slices through metal zippers like butter? That recently acquired bag of vintage metal zippers? That question is too stressful. I have to go lie down for a while…
You knew you were a junker when:
I can pinpoint, exactly, when the junking bug hit. I was about 10 years old and looking across a junkyard with my Grandpa, who told me with a sweeping gesture that I could have anything I wanted. Little arms are not nearly long enough. Can you believe my Mom did not see the potential in all the stuff I dragged to the home I shared with 10 other people? Mom! I need this incomplete jigsaw puzzle! This old jar with the mystery items in the bottom! A little macrame and it’s a terrarium!
She’s still shaking her head at me.
Three words that describe you:
odd, vintage, useful
Three words that describe your product:
odd, vintage, useful
If you couldn’t be a junker, you’d be:
a high-fashion model (fer sher)
You couldn’t stand to sell it once you found it:
The Gothic, green-eyebrowed portrait. It’s something I didn’t fully appreciate until I got it home and now could never part with. She has the skeptical green eyebrow raised. Probably wondering why the painter made her nose all red like she has a cold. She will be making her debut on pillows at this year’s Bonanza.
We think it more likely this gal is musing why there is a sideways chevron stuck to her pageboy, but that’s another discussion, and one Nancy will be delighted to have with you when you visit her table at the Bonanza!
Kim
That portrait is too fun…looking forward to stopping by!
Love Nancy’s sense of humor – will stop by and talk!
Don’t believe the unimaginative part, Nancy is very imaginative and sews some very fun and different pillows! Being a sewer myself I understand the looking out the window and being pulled away from “the machine” to play with the dogs part too! Can’t wait to see what Nancy brings to the Bonanza this year.
I can’t pass of a good piece (or bad) of fabric and always feel a great kinship to a seamstress/sewer. Very anxious to see what you bring to JB this year Nancy!