Thursday, November 01, 2012

Refashioning volunteer job

It is easy to restyle a new piece of clothing, when given the opportunity to work with second hand garments. The cost is minimal, and relatively guilt free when working with unwanted fabric, particularly damaged textiles.

I've reached a point recently, where I've admitted that I own too many clothes, yet I'd still like to be creative, and continue to refashion old garments into funky new stuff.

I've started working in a voluntary capacity, with a local vintage thrift store called Hunter Gatherer here in Melbourne, Australia.  I take a bag of un-stylish second-hand clothes every few weeks, and work on refashioning them to make more sell-able, after which they are returned to the store, ready to put up for sale.

Here's what I've done so far:

The first, is a skirt with a gorgeous Central American 'tribal' print, which sadly, sat in the store unsold.  I've resized it, and added a press stud fastener to the top. A simple adjustment, makes the world of difference:



The second item, is a blue and white button up floral top, which needed a more flattering fit:

Next on my agenda are dresses and shirts.

Photobucket

9 comments:

Sandy said...

This is a great idea. There is a young lady who started doing this with Oxfam clothing in Reading. She did so well that Oxfam gave her a little boutique to run! She has volunteers in a room upstairs that come and work on upcycling clothing that wouldn't sell in the Oxfam shops. Some volunteers begin to get a signature look and their designs have their name on the label!

Some of her first pieces were taking jackets and making them smaller with a bit of lacing in the back. Lyndsey took a coursetry course at the college where I was teaching and now alot of her things are developed with a corsetry look to them. Her own blog is here. http://www.lyndsey-clark-boutique.co.uk/

concretenprimroses said...

Good for you! what a wonderful thing to do.
Many years ago when I managed a non profit thrift store there was a woman who took clothes and made potholders and bags. Then she brought them back and we sold them. I still have some of the potholders which had towel pieces inside. They are wonderful. I'm sorry to say that refashioning wasn
t something we did a lot unfortunately!
Kathy

Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog said...

That is such a neat idea! I may have to do this at some point...only I would probably do this for family since their closets are not packed like mine is lol.

Helen
Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

Ernie's Mum said...

What a brilliant idea! And great job on the first 2 refashions. I love those shops.

Agy said...

That's amazing, Erica. A lovely way to help thrift shops - given me an idea too. Do they get you to make different sizes? I suppose you would need to get a body form to do that.

twobutterflies said...

I love that skirt!!

Unknown said...

Thanks all of you for your support, this is great!

Sandy, the story about the person that did this for Oxfam is very inspirational! Thanks for sharing

cookiecrumbs said...

That's awesome Erica! I haven't been to Hunter Gatherer yet so will have to check it out. In the meantime if you ever need an assistant let me know :-)

gaby said...

This is a wonderful! I'd love to get involved in this kind of creative philanthropy!