Monday, July 7, 2008

extreme refashioning

If thrift store shopping and refashioning enjoyed the sudden popularity of ethanol, would middle-class green fashionistas drive up the prices and deplete supplies of clothing needed by the poor?

I am participating in the Wardrobe Refashion challenge by remaking little-worn garments in my own closet, while using up my neglected fabric stash. My goal is not only to refrain from buying new garments for the next two months, but to maintain -- or reduce -- the size of my wardrobe by September 1. I figure that by transforming, mending or altering an item a week, I will have eight more options in my closet than I do now. Accomplishing that economically and ethically is what I'm all about this summer.

My latest project was a pair of well-loved but little-worn shirts. I loved the fabrics -- one is a celery-colored linen shirt with faggoting trim and the other is a cotton-linen plaid in gorgeous blues and greens. The problem with both: the sleeves are too short. I'm 5'9", and it's a common issue, which I usually solve by buying Tall sizes or 3/4-length sleeves. But I was too weak to resist these two, and seldom wore them, as a result. Less than an hour's worth of work, and I have a lovely celery green 3/4 length shirt-jacket (I added some machine embroidery on the collar and cuffs in a very light pink) and a fabulous short sleeve plaid shirt.

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