Second-hand clothes shopping often requires a bit more creativity than new-clothes shopping does. Really, this is true with most any second-hand shopping…a lot of used things just need a little bit of fixing, updating, or customizing. If you can get used to looking past what you initially see and instead look at what the item could be, you’ll find a whole new word of possibilities before you.
The fish dress I made for Zoe is an example of this, and I have two other clothing-related examples to share with you today.
First, we’ve been checking Goodwill each week to see if we can find a collared shirt for Joshua to wear. I think I’ve only ever bought him one before (and I shared it here on my blog!) because usually we get piles of these as hand me downs.
The hand-me-down short-sleeve polo has been in short supply lately, though. And since Joshua is pretty picky about what he’ll wear, finding one at Goodwill has been a little tricky.
Recently, though, we found this shirt for $1.25.
It’s not quite a polo, but it’s close enough for me. The main problem with it is that the sleeves were really funky. I didn’t manage to catch this well in a photo, but a lot of the graphic design looked like something out of Rocky and Bullwinkle (really 60′s-ish), and I thought it looked kind of funny with the more modern graphics on the rest of the shirt.
So, I pulled up the short sleeves, took a scissors, and cut the long sleeves right off. This is not an easy task with all faux-layered shirts, as sometimes the long sleeve is sewed onto the short sleeve. In this case, though, the long sleeves were attached to the shoulder seams, which made it very simple to remove them without damaging the short sleeves (I checked this before I bought the shirt).
I think this took me all of about 2 minutes, as there was no sewing required. I love that. And I’m especially happy that Joshua’s happy with the result.
I recently modified something for myself as well. Our sister church has a bi-annual Free Flea event (everyone brings in clothing and household items that they don’t want and the items are all given away for free), and I found a white knee-length Forever 21 skirt while I was helping to sort bags and bags of donations.
I have kind of a thing for white dresses and skirts, so this immediately appealed to me. The only thing I didn’t like was the lace trim at the hem.
I thought it was reminiscent of a tablecloth. Or something.
Plus, though I like being feminine, I do lean towards the more simple end of things, which means that lace is not my favorite thing ever. And given that the fabric has flowers all over it to begin with, I felt like the lace was just too much.
So, I ironed the edge under and sewed a new, plainer-looking hem.
Yay! That’s much better. I love to wear skirts in the summertime, so I’m tickled to have a new one that cost me exactly $0.
(thanks to Mr. FG for manning the camera!)
So, the next time you go thrift shopping or you get a bag of hand-me-downs, look at the clothes with a new eye. With some basic sewing skills (or maybe even just a pair of scissors), you might be able to turn a so-so item of clothing into something you love.
{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve always wondered something about free flea sales: how do you keep someone from taking a disproportionate amount of stuff?
They don’t. Everyone can take as much as they want and it all seems to work out just fine. There’s NEVER a shortage of stuff, believe me! lol
I can see where it doesn’t really matter how much or little someone takes. I’m in the take very little camp since I don’t need much. So it averages out I would guess. And I’m sure there is still stuff leftover, what do you do with it?
Good job with the skirt, looks very cute on you.
I’m not sure what they do with the leftovers…I’ve only ever helped with the setup end of things! lol
what a cute skirt! you look great. Now I gotta keep working on being frugal so I don’t have to wear office clothes and be at a desk all summer. Your picture of wearing casual cute clothes on the deck is newly inspiring me.
Ooh, I love that skirt! I have a thing for white skirts/dresses, too.
Mmm, yes. I especially love them for little girls. You should find some for Simone!
This doesn’t really have anything to do with your post . . . But I would just like to encourage people to not get discouraged when shopping at thrift stores. For several years I have wanted a white button down the front, long sleeves with cuffs that button. AND it HAD to be that no-iron fabric that is so expensive. Our nearest Goodwill is 45 minutes from home and since I never buy new – this has been no easy task, because I don’t make the trip unless there are a lot of things I actually NEED. But I finally found it several weeks ago!!! I was so thrilled!!! Expensive label and looking like it had never been worn. And it fit like it was custom made for ME. I had to go to the bathroom and another girl saw it and was drooling over it. She was clothes shopping for work and a white shirt like that is part of her uniform. For a split second I actually considered offering it to her. But selfishness jumped on my head. I really am so grateful to have found it. For some reason a plain white blouse has been so difficult for me to find. Hang in there – be patient and have an open mind when shopping second-hand. It is worth the effort.
One of my favorite ways of repurposing something doesn’t even need sewing. A lot of baby/ toddler dresses work great the next summer as shirts/ tunics for a preschooler. My daughter has many of these, and it lets you use items for more than one season.
Yes! One year it’s a dress and the next a shirt! I love doing that.
Being short (but not quite short enough for the “petite” sizes), I pretty much always have to shorten capris so they hit me at a more flattering length. This week I found a cute pair of denim capris at Goodwill. I rolled them up while trying them on to see how they’d look if they were shorter, and I decided I liked them with the rolled cuff, so I just stitched right down the side seams. If it ends up not working out, I can rip out the stitching and hem them properly.
I’ve also been known to buy a sweater or jacket that just needs a little more pizzaz, so I’ll buy jazzy new buttons at the fabric store and dress it up.
Something else I’ve found at the fabric store is “denim” colored thread and “Levi’s gold”-colored heavy thread for top-stitching. Makes those hems look like the jeans came that way!
That is a great skirt.
I love white skirts! They are so simple and wonderful.
I repurpose thigns all the time. Worn long-sleeved shirts become short sleeved shirts. Too-tight jumpers become aprons (slit up the back, hem under the raw edges, add ties and buttons. Sometimes I turn them back to front.) And long loose dresses often have a lot of fabric in them, and can be cut into toddler clothes. Jus topen the seams and lay out pieces.
Those sleeves would make cool legwarmers. I’m just sayin’.
Hmm…the skulls on the sleeves don’t seem “Rocky and Bullwinkle” to me. And they do go with the skulls on the shirt. I wouldn’t send my kid to church in it, though. Unfortunately, I have seen that sort of thing at church. It just doesn’t seem to belong.
They’re kinda morbid, you know?
Now I feel silly…I didn’t even notice that the black design on the shirt had skulls on it! lol I just glanced at it and saw a random graphic design.
Apparently, attention to details is not my thing. lol
love your post! so true…and the examples were fun to see what you did. way to go ms.frugal!
ugh skulls…quick grab a patch…lol Kristen
Maybe everyone we see will be as oblivious as me and won’t notice the skulls?? lol
Hahahahaha! To your reply! I hope I don’t start pointing!
I’ve managed to salvage a lot of my son’s shirt by removing the sleeves
I know they won’t fit the following fall so I snip out the sleeves and he can wear it through the summer.
I love the white skirt!
I love this idea! This is part of the reason I really want a sewing machine (off of freecycle, maybe?), because I just imagine all of the creative things I could do with even the OLD clothes my husband and I have sitting in our closet. It’s surprising what a big change something as small as a needle and thread can make in a piece of clothing!
my thrift store is usually expensive (strange- $4 for jeans ) i now buy most of my kids stuff at Target ( i love their clearance prices) i.e.~ $2.48 for a brand new shirt. it depends though, i went to the thrift shop while they were having a buy one get one free sale & ended up w/ a bunch of jeans for my daughter (some of which she needs to grow into yet) but i couldn’t give ‘em up. it was too good a deal.
Wow. If you consider $4 expensive for jeans, you would faint dead away at the $7.49 and up that they usually cost on the SF Peninsula.
They look great Kristen! I’m a big fan of summer skirts and dresses too. Which is kinda funny because in the fall, I barely wear a skirt even to church. However, summertime rolls around and I’m in skirts and dresses half the week. Camille’s in them every day. Why I buy her shorts… I don’t know.
I love thrift store & tag sale hunting. Sometimes though, I end up with clothing sitting in a to-do pile from all those good intentions/creative changes.
I’ve had to get really disciplined about setting aside one day (or at least one afternoon) a month to work through my to-do pile of clothes that need updating/hemming/etc. It isn’t always easy, but it definitely keeps things from getting too out of hand and it helps keep my teen twin daughters happily shopping at thrift stores and recycling their own old things into new.
here is something I do quite often: find a thrift store skirt (usually one of those long, tiered broomstick style skirts) and remake it into a skirt for my daughters. My oldest is 15 and my youngest is 10. Not only is it hard to find to find longer, modest skirts for them, but why pay full price when you can find it at the thrift store? I figure out how long I want it to be then I subtract about 4 inches and cut it off at that length. I always cut at the top so I don’t have to hem it. Then I take a piece of fabric from my large fabric collection (most of which came from the thrift store) and I make a yoke. A yoke is a rectangular piece of fabric that is sewn at one side seam–about 6 inches long by 2 inches bigger around that the biggest part of your daughter’s bottom. Then I gather the skirt and sew it onto the yoke, turn the top of the yoke over twice for a casing, add elastic to the casing, and I have a cute new long skirt! If you need more directions, I can give them to you–with pictures, too. Let me know.