Category: Thrifting Fun

November Thrift Haul

Much like our multiple Thanksgiving feasts, this month’s thrifting was bountiful! I ended up having the opportunity to thrift twice this month and one of those days aligned with a 50% off sale! Let’s check out this month’s haul:

Chaps linen + cotton oversized blouse, $7

I picked this up. Put it back. Picked it up. Put it back. And finally added it to my cart. I was hesitating to add it to my closet because I have a couple other oversized button up shirts and I don’t wear them super often. However, this linen/cotton combo was really soft and I like the faded red/pink stripes. I’m imagining it half-tucked into a pair of jeans, or worn open with a tank top and pair of jean shorts in the summer. This probably won’t be one of my frequently worn pieces, but I do think I’ll get at least $7 worth of happiness out of it. I’ve put it away in my closet to rediscover in the spring.

Loft cardigan, $5

This sweater doesn’t feel like it’s been worn more than once or twice — the fibers are all smooth and there is no pilling under the arms, which is all good signs. Not my normal colors, but I do love a great stripe so it made sense to bring this one home with me. This will be thrown on with a t-shirt and jeans on non-work days and would also look cute with a blouse and twirly skirt for work. It’s giving me ‘spring’, but I’m going to leave it in my main closet because it also feels a bit like a candy cane for the holidays.

Adidas track jacket, $7

I absolutely LOVE this track jacket and was thrilled when I grabbed it off the rack and saw that it was my size! I did a little research and this is from the Adidas Originals 2014 “Mountain Clash” collection. I love the painterly mountains landscape mixed with the black cuffs and iconic three stripes on the arms. The back is just so, so cool too! I’ve been eyeing the Adidas x Farm Rio collection on Poshmark and this fabulous track jacket totally scratches that itch for just $7! I can’t wait to pair it with leggings and joggers for a sporty, but cute look!

3 Shirts for Jack, .75, .75 and $2.50

Jack recently hit another growth spurt, so I’ve been stocking up on kid’s size larges to replace his mediums. These three are totally his style and at a price that can’t be beat. And I have no idea why two of these are marked cheaper than the third… but I just had to order him some shirts from Target and these are certainly a steal!

Merona cardigan, $7

A black chunky cardigan with buttons was on my thrift list, so I was happy to find this one still new with tags! This is exactly what I was looking for to fill a hole in my closet, so yay!

Vintage Hand Embroidered skirt, $3.75

Oh my gosh, I wish you guys could see this skirt in person because it is so well made. It’s a thicker linen/cotton with all the embroidery done by hand. And all the inside seams are so beautifully sewn, you can almost wear this inside out. Since our thrift store no longer has dressing rooms, I eyeballed this one and unfortunately it was too small in the waist. BUT, I decided to get a little crafty and I replaced the waistband with elastic and it’s perfect now! You can find my post where I did it here: DIY: Adding Elastic to a Too Small Skirt.

Madewell skirt, $1.75

I was able to find this skirt online and it’s the ‘side-button skirt’ from Madewell that had the retail price of $98. It’s a pretty, flowy and lightweight cotton skirt and totally my style. I don’t love the extra short slip sewn into the skirt, so I may cut it out and replace it with my own slip. However, this skirt was less than $2, so any alterations I make will be worth it.

Universal Standard sweatshirt with side slits, $5

I was able to track down this exact item on the Universal Standard website and it’s the Fiona open side sweatshirt for $94. I forgot that Universal Standard has a different sizing chart, so this large is very oversized on me. However, I bought this for either an ‘around the house’ topper with leggings, or to add to my pajamas when I need an extra layer, so it will work out fine.

North Face “Furry Fleece”, $6

I was super surprised that they didn’t mark this North Face fleece way up, because I’ve seen them at the thrift store for $20 – 30. This one must have slipped through the cracks, at just $12 and then half off. It is super fluffy and comfortable and warm, and I really like the pretty color too. I found an identical one online for $98, so once again… quite the thrift steal!

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DIY: Adding Elastic to a Too Small Skirt

I’m on a roll with my easy sewing projects lately (in case you missed it, here’s DIY: Adding Elastic to Track Pants for a Tall and Slim Kid). Well, this time I have the OPPOSITE problem. I was a little too fluffy for the waistband, but I looooved the skirt. And I had *just* enough confidence after my last project to think I could do something about it.

Here it is:

I’ll be sharing this skirt in my November Thrift Haul post later this month, but I picked it up at the thrift store recently for just $3.75. It’s a thick linen/cotton fabric with some absolutely beautiful hand done embroidery. A google image search leads me to think this is a vintage skirt that was handmade in Guatemala. Unfortunately, my thrift store no longer has dressing rooms, so I had to just cross my fingers that this might fit. And it didn’t.

The zipper on the side got maybe halfway up and that was it. It was so beautiful though, so I thought that since I had such luck with my last sewing project, I’d give another one a try. And in the worst-case scenario that it didn’t work out, I could still cut apart the fabric and make a pillow or tote bag with it.

I’m about to take you though the steps I did for this project, but please keep in mind… I’m a *intuitive sewist* and not an actual sewist. I basically just figure out what makes sense my head and I try to make that happen.

First up, I carefully cut away the waistband.

This was pretty easy to do, since it was sewn on with big stitches by hand. I’d just cut a stitch and then pull until I was able to get to another stitch and worked my way around the waistband. Once I got to the end, I gave the fabric a good tug to get rid of the pleating. Here it is with the entire waistband removed, so now the top of the skirt is way, way larger!

Next up, I removed the zipper. I don’t have a seam ripper, so I just snipped a few threads with my scissors and worked the entire zipper off the skirt.

Now that the zipper was out, I could just follow along the lines and sew the skirt up to the top. You can’t even tell that there was ever a zipper there.

Okay, now the moment of truth. I needed to add some elastic. I was going to use the same elastic I had on hand from Jack’s pants project, but I wanted the skirt to have a similar look to my notPERFECT LINEN skirts. I measured their elastic area and it looked like it was about 2 inches wide. So, I ordered this Elastic Band for Sewing, 2 Inches. The whole roll cost $5.99 and it was delivered overnight by Amazon.

I took the top of the skirt and I folded it over to make a little tunnel for the elastic. Real sewists call this a casing. I eyeballed it based on the width of the elastic and put in pins where I would need to sew. I removed the elastic as I ‘measured’ with it, so that the tunnel was empty when I sewed it on the sewing machine.  Don’t forget to leave a little access hole!

Empty pocket = done

Next up was time for the elastic. Because this elastic was very thick, I made sure to stretch it first. I went all Get-In-Shape-Girl-Aerobics on it and gave it some big stretches. This way it won’t immediately get too baggy once I wear the skirt.

Once I did that, I wrapped it around my waist to figure out how long I wanted it and pinned it to size to make sure it would easily stretch over my hips and butt when I wanted to get the skirt off.

Then, I just fed the elastic through the tunnel. I put a safety pin on the end of one side of elastic and bunched the skirt up as I went. At the end, I safety pinned the two ends of elastic to each other so that I could try on the skirt before sewing everything into place.

Once I tried it on, I realized I wanted it a little tighter. So, I just yanked the elastic a little and re-pinned it. Then, I sewed the two pieces of elastic together — I got all crazy and zigzaged it a bit. Yes, it looks super messy but I wanted it to hold and nobody will see it anyways.

After the elastic was sewn together, I shoved it back into the tunnel and sewed up my access hole. For my last step, I put a line of sewing through the elastic on each side seam of the skirt. Hopefully this will keep the elastic from twisting… so we’ll see if it works.

And BOOM! I’m done!

Here is a closer look at the waistband:

I can’t believe how easy it was and honestly, looking at the skirt you wouldn’t know that I chopped at it and added elastic so it would fit me. So, if you’ve been intimidated by sewing projects like this… maybe give it a try because it really wasn’t that difficult. Especially if you thrifted something for less than the price of a Starbucks latte!

11/16/23 Update: I wore my new skirt to work today and I love it so much!

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October Thrift Haul

October was quite the busy month, so I actually wasn’t sure I’d have the time to do any thrifting. However, some last minute changes in plans over the weekend meant that Jack and I were able to try out a new pizza place and our favorite thrifting stop!

So, with my trusty thrifting list in hand and leaving my finds to the Thrifting Gods, here is what we brought home:

Eileen Fisher linen cardigan, $8

While it’s not the chunky knit I was looking for, I couldn’t pass up this lightweight linen Eileen Fisher cardigan. I usually find a couple pieces of Eileen Fisher each time I thrift, but often they are not my style or just worn into the ground.

This one was still in great condition, but a bit scratchy – so I solved that problem by throwing it into the washer AND dryer to soften up the linen. Similar cardigans are on the Eileen website for $200, so I’m happy to add this classic sweater to my closet for much, much less.

Harry Potter Gryffindor cardigan, $8

Okay, hear me out. This cardigan is adorable and super soft. And yes, I’m a Harry Potter nerd and have been sorted into the Gryffindor house. With all that being said, I almost put this one back… until Jack convinced me that I need to buy it so I’m prepared for our next trip to Universal Studios.

Do we have a Universal Studios trip planned? Nope. Will we be going there in the future – um, most likely. So, now I’m the happy owner of an adorable Gryffindor cardigan (retails for $40-50) that will go quite nicely with a cute skirt and our wand on our next visit.

Flax linen skirt, $5

This one was a bit of a gamble, since they closed the dressing rooms a couple months ago and you can no longer try on clothes. However, since I’m a fan of notPERFECT LINEN, I’ve seen the brand Flax by Jeanne Engelbart come up time and time again, since they both source(d) their linen from Lithuania.

I figured if this skirt doesn’t fit, I can resell it to someone else who will love it. As it is, it’s a little bit snug… but I’m just going to stick it in with my summer stuff and give it another try in the spring before I make any decisions.

So, once again nothing on my current Thrift List, so maybe I’ll get luckier in November!

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