Does this sound familiar? You find a genuinely quality garment at the thrift store; it fits your body, your needs, and your budget. Yay! 🎉
But then you get home and begin to have doubts. Or you start to style it into your wardrobe and it’s not working.
Have a think through these three super easy (as the hero likes to say, “easy with a cape”) alterations you can use to take your thrifted finds to the next level! Customizing your garments to fit YOUR style dna can take your wardrobe from generic to Signature Style.
- Take it in. Taking in a side seam, or adding a simple dart, is a basic move that can transform a shapeless garment into one that suits your silhouette. The number one most common female silhouette demands an arc – as opposed to cinched – waist. Not sure what your silhouette is? I can help! My Essential Discovery reveals your silhouette, along with other foundational elements of your style dna.
- Take it up. Perhaps the most obvious of the simple alterations is shortening. With basic sewing skills, you can shorten a dress, a sleeve, even jeans. Do you know your best lengths? There is a science behind where to put a horizontal line to great visual harmony. My Proportion Discovery goes deep into your best style lines, revealing your best lengths and proportion templates.
- Take it apart. If you are an experienced thrifter AND sewist, or upcycler, you know that sewing from scratch can be much more expensive than buying thrift. Here’s where you can get creative! Perhaps the fabric is perfect, but the shape is not; could you use the fabric to create something completely different? Conversely, is the fit perfect, but the fabric nothing you would ever wear? Perhaps the garment becomes a pattern (have you seen the price of patterns lately?)!
Ok, maybe taking apart a garment to make your own pattern isn’t super simple. But have you seen the price of fabric lately? 😱