Yesterday the fabulous Thrifty Little did a refashioned OOTD costing £1.99 head to toe! Check it out here…..
Today she’s given me her top 3 thrifting tips and I just HAD to pass them on to you guys…. you deserve it!
Step 1 – Learn some mad skills on the sewing machine.
Ok so we can’t all be genius dressmakers, but there are a few simple techniques that once mastered can open up your world of thrift shopping to no end.
Beg borrow or steal yourself a basic machine and utilize YouTube for the many sewing tutorials you can find there. Useful things to learn include hemming a skirt, taking in a waistband and if you’re feeling brave, changing a zip (tough but endlessly useful)!
Practice, practice and practice some more on old clothes that you don’t mind ruining and then behold as your skills develop and those hundreds of ill fitting yet fabulous second hand items become exciting possibilities.
Step 2 – Choose quality.
As our society continues on its throwaway path our charity shops begin to fill up with cheap clothing that was never made to be owned by more than one person. Try to filter out the Primark cast offs and look instead for well made pieces in fabrics that last. If you’re going to spend time altering a piece you want to make sure that it will last. With the right pieces and the right care, you could be handing your unique and fabulous wardrobe down to your grandkids!
Step 3 – Never miss an opportunity.
Nip in to a charity shop at every chance you get, I have found some of my favourite pieces this way while full days of shopping have proved fruitless.
Stock is ever changing so 5 minutes on your lunch break every other day could make you the victor in snapping up that one of a kind piece that just arrived in store. There’s no harm in befriending the staff in your local stores either, get enough of a dialogue going and maybe they’ll even take a look in the mysterious ‘back room’ and see if there are any treasures hiding in there for you!
Hope these handy tips come in useful – I’ve been meaning to brush up on my sewing skills for a while now and bizarrely it never occurred to me to turn to Youtube – definitely going to be spending my long winter evenings on that!
