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Friday, October 1, 2010

Economizing

Peace to my 1 only reader!!!!

I don't just blog to be popular, I blog because it's cathartic. Also in this particular blog it's good because I have a platform to display my Understanding (3) of my chosen Culture(4).

One of the things that pisses me off is how expensive sewing has become. I can only blame the economy in this capitalist society. As the economy has soured, more folks have turned to home sewing. Now all the home sewing stuff has gotten off the chain expensive. It is NOT cheaper to make your own clothes. There used to be fabric stores in every neighborhood when I lived in NJ. Here in GA, there are fabric stores are few and far between, and they mostly sell upholstery fabrics and not clothing fabric. The ones where you can find a little something something, are Joann's, Hancocks, and Gayle's... you know the corporate companies. And they are expensive. I mean why would I pay $8/yard for fabric, $30 for a pattern and $10 for notions? I wouldn't. And it's not even like the fabric in those stores are the hotness.

There is a ghetto fabric shop in my neighborhood. What makes it ghetto is, (a) it's in the hood, (b) they have fabric at rock bottom prices $1-2 and the people working in there are tres' ghetto! They might have 20 teeth between all of them working there and they give you their asses to kiss. Our people... What are you gonna do. We also have an Asian shop that carries fabric, but their stuff is mostly synthetic. I don't like synthetic, but their notions cannot be beat!!!! So that's how I roll when I want to get my sew on.

But like I have been saying, it's not really cost efficient to really delve into making my own clothes if these were my only options..... But Ghetto Refined Princess that I am I have found a solution.... Thrift stores!

Thrift stores are wonderful for so many things. Depending on what you need to create you can find most everything at the thrift stores for the low low. But you have to approach it form a different perspective. You probably aren't going to find a bolt of fabric, you might (I have before) but probably not. So you have to look at the clothing hanging there for inspiration.

Example....
I needed a fancy black dress to sing in a Christmas concert. I like to sing so much that I will sing in church concerts. Shoot me! But my life isn't such that I have great need for fancy holiday dresses. Off to Value Village I went. Now, I'm a big girl. It's the reality of my life. I have made my peace with it. It's not like there is going to be a fabulous dress hanging there is a standard size 16 with the boobage extended to a 20. My determined idea was black velvet (black velvet tends to be the same color and blends well with other fabrics and colors) dress. I found 3. They were having a 3 for 1 sale. BOOM! I took them jokers home, niggarigged a ball gown complete with jacket and headwrap in one evening. I got more compliments than a little.

When you do this type of shopping you have to keep your eye open for buttons, zippers, and stray pieces. A long skirt in a size 12 may fit a size 16 if you cut it low off the waist. It will be shorter but it will work. You can take pre-made clohtes apart and use them as pattern muslins. You can use adult clothes as fabric for children's clothes. And it will be way cheaper than fabric stores.

Another example....
I am making a season-less denim dress. Technically it's a sundress but it is completely cute worn with a turtle neck and boots. Thin denim is hella expensive. So..... You know what I did, I went to the thrift store and purchased several denim dresses and I will rig them into the dress I want. The caveat in this situation is I can use the back of one of the dresses as the back of the dress I'm rigging it into! Saves me some work and the stitching on the back is cute, and probably not a detail I would do if I was making this dress from scratch. Denim fabric in Hancocks... $7.99/yard (I'd need 5 yards). 3 thrift store denim dresses total....$8. Saving a grip of money and time... priceless!



Peace

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