What Price Knowledge? Upcycling PT 2 by Delight Worthyn
People often say to me, "you find great stuff” and it is true, but there are many visits that are a bust...Many...the trick is to go frequently, very frequently and pounce if you find something.
I have been sewing for a lot of years and I understand how garments are constructed and therefore how to take them apart.
I wasn’t born with this knowledge I have learned largely through trial and error, learning vastly more from the latter. (Hint-don’t be afraid to “fail”) Although you can expect to pay less for material you should be prepared to make up for it in labor.
Let’s go to the thrift store…
To start: 1) Become a regular at your local thrift stores. If you have a question about price always talk to a manager. The clerk ringing you out can’t help you and are often instructed not to sell an un-ticketed item. If they have seen you around you will get the best deal.
2) Be prepared to spend time sorting through a lot of undesirable stuff. Dig into bins, good stuff is often at the bottom. And it probably isn’t clean-bring hand sanitizer!
3) Most thrift stores have a half price day, find out what day it is and GO.
4) If you see something that really speaks to you buy it on the spot for it will be gone when you go back.
5) Have a general idea of what you are looking for, but be flexible.
6) Bring a tape measure
7) Look over the garment and don’t dismiss stained or otherwise damaged items since they may have trims, buttons and the like that you can employ. I am generally looking for either tee shirts or silk. I have developed a signature style using the ubiquitous tee. I dye them, hand paint them, bead them and weave them. People never believe where they started.
Years of acquired skill and knowledge, how much is that worth,
I wonder?
Check out both of Delights Etsy Shops to see her fanciful work! DelightWorthyn and ScavengersDaughter
Images & Text © Delight Worthyn
5 comments:
Great advise!
I love the hunt.
Good points. I have made a lot of recycled T-shirt creations. One thing I learned is that there's a lot of 2nd hand shirts that don't perform that well in a recreation -- the material wears out faster than the other materials used in the piece. However, even experiments that don't work out give valuable data for future projects!
Good article. I'm loving this series, because it is helping me realize everything I put into making my plushies and miniature vignettes from recycled materials. As you said in the first article, just because it's recycled doesn't mean it should cost less. There's much more work that goes into hunting down the material and processing it than with buying new materials. Thanks for the insights! :-)
@VinAlly-it is true about tee shirts and that is where experience comes in,don't you think?I am uber picky about which ones I buy or scrounge.I figure though if you put your mind to it you can always figure out something to do with just about anything-I lie awake nights with ideas swirling!!
Just went to a great thrift store in southern FL. they had a table by the front door with a huge pump bottle of hand sanitizer!! all thrift store should do that.
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