Let Thrift shopping thrive in 25!

SandyShores

Rosa_Damascena said:

Also I found this fashion tutorial online - plenty of sensible advice, much of which I have learned through years of experience! But the younger generation could definitely learn a lot (and save a lot) from it.

Just had a quick flick through Rosa, this looks really interesting.  Do you know what the four questions to ask yourself are?  I'll spend some time watching it over the weekend but was interested to know.

@Miró is it bad that my thoughts went immediately to coffee and walnut cake?  I don't like coffee chocolates and I'm not a fan of walnuts either, but in a cake - yum! 

Miró

Many thanks for all the walnut recipe suggestions, Gonna be busy now.....  

Passing thro Ripon today called into the YMCA shop and picked up a pair of black, wide legged M & S trousers in a sort of evening-y crepe fabric. Could not believe it when I found them on the £1 sale rail 😧

weenancyinAmerica

Really impressed by the flyer of Selby with the thrift shops on it. Wish a lot more places will do that.

Rosa_Damascena

SandyShores said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

Also I found this fashion tutorial online - plenty of sensible advice, much of which I have learned through years of experience! But the younger generation could definitely learn a lot (and save a lot) from it.

Just had a quick flick through Rosa, this looks really interesting.  Do you know what the four questions to ask yourself are?  I'll spend some time watching it over the weekend but was interested to know.

@Miró is it bad that my thoughts went immediately to coffee and walnut cake?  I don't like coffee chocolates and I'm not a fan of walnuts either, but in a cake - yum! 

I couldn't tell you without watching again, but I made a note of my own compliance at the time. The over-riding message is "No clothing without human labour" - it is not possible to dress in quiet luxury for $20. I refute the second statement: it is if you know which chazzer to look in, and I am the everyday proof of that. Which is ironic as my mum would go out of her way to buy brand new from M&S for us back in the 70s when we were children, second hand had such a stigma then!

Brie

Rosa_Damascena said:

I couldn't tell you without watching again, but I made a note of my own compliance at the time. The over-riding message is "No clothing without human labour" - it is not possible to dress in quiet luxury for $20. I refute the second statement: it is if you know which chazzer to look in, and I am the everyday proof of that. Which is ironic as my mum would go out of her way to buy brand new from M&S for us back in the 70s when we were children, second hand had such a stigma then!

Charity shops were an issue when and where I grew up.  There was a Sally Ann (Salvation Army) shop where you had to show your benefits documents to gain entry.  So of course that wasn't used as my parents weren't that poor.  And I remember some politician talking about it and saying he wished he qualified to use that shop as there was so much nice stuff there.  Always struck me as a completely unthinking comment.  

Second hand through was fine.  With 3 older brothers I was the recipient of many a hand me down despite being a girl.  It explains, I think, a lot about my dress sense and the fact that I didn't realise that there was a standard for how things buttoned - one way for males and the other for females.  I still don't know which is which.

Floss

Rosa_Damascena said:

I couldn't tell you without watching again, but I made a note of my own compliance at the time. The over-riding message is "No clothing without human labour" - it is not possible to dress in quiet luxury for $20. I refute the second statement: it is if you know which chazzer to look in, and I am the everyday proof of that. Which is ironic as my mum would go out of her way to buy brand new from M&S for us back in the 70s when we were children, second hand had such a stigma then!

No stigma about second hand in the 70s for my family. I was one of 4, only girl, with girl "cousins" older & younger than me. Elder cousin passed to me, then went back to her sister. Cagoule, aran jumpers & wellies started with my eldest brother and worked their way down to youngest cousin.

I got a new corduroy pinafore for Christmas for about 4 years, with a skinny ribbon polo neck. Ideal for a long skinny pre-teen!

annieb64

I had three older cousins so lots of clothes passed down.My aunt in Canada also used to send a box of clothes twice a year. My grandmother and great aunt used to run the church jumble sale and would put aside clothes in our sizes.We'd come home from school to find a pile of clothes for us to try on .Anything we didn't want would go back for the jumble sale that evening.

My mother did make us dresses and she and my grandmother would knit for us.Occasionally we'd get something new from the Ladybird shop or Kays catalogue. I must have been about 12 before I went to a shop to buy clothes.

DigForVictory

Eldest child so I got new clothes a lot of the time, but also got second hand clothes from cousins & home made clothes by my granny & even my GP mum. Who was nearly in tears at me carefully re-backing a cushion cover her mother had embroidered when I was a child, and I'd watched her turn the bare canvas into flames of bargello work. It's back in the armchair again & won't require a sock from a grandson to reinforce the backing fabric. (Attempt #1 to save it.)

I adore jumble sales largely as raw material to cut down for quilts - but it's getting harder to find clothing abused enough to justify taking shears to. Either wash intelligently (& the stains are gone), or the fabric hasn't the structural integrity to withstand repurposing, and frankly should be shredded respun & rewoven. (I visit Helmshore Mill, which supplies Queen St Mill with much of its cotton & gaze at the waterwheel powered fulling hammers. Haven't seen a properly fulled woollen garment outside a charity shop in years. (I do a couple of veterans a shameful injustice, but too many senior chaps are hustled into coats their carers can manage, that aren't 'too heavy for them'.) Just as child, we weren't let in until our senior womenfolk had had their fill of the hunt. When I bought a Bialetti coffeepot in my "child size" (2 espresso, I think) with my pocket money, my father carefully put it up on a shelf for me to enjoy full bragging rights but for him to make a single cup when the big coffee pot wasn't making the start the day rocket fuel.

The lads were largely charity shop dressed, with as much supermarket school uniform as we could get away with, as they grew! There was a ruthless hand along policy so none of them was encouraged to abuse their clothing - result Youngest is beginning to get to the end of life stage of some much loved T shirts he's been wearing for almost a decade (we have the photos.) One still has the Anglo Saxon stitch repair Middleson did, a source of heartwarming pride that they can look after their clothes & effect running repairs as needed. All credit to Himself for being clear about washed clothing being put away, not dumped on the 'floordrobe'. One of them will get their great grandfather's macintosh - genuine Burberry. They're not clothes savvy enough to realise and start negotiations yet...

tooldle

I I loved a jumble sale as for me, it was the only opportunity to choose for myself an item of clothing. My mum made most of my clothing, including coats. I was born in the late 60’s. I have fond memories of a blue cord pinafore with a floral trim, acquired for 10p at the church jumble in the late 70’s. I recall a company coming along at the end of the jumble sale to clear all the unsold items, for a small fee. No idea what they did with their spoils.

suzeesu2000

Oh loved a jumble! Had some great bargains myself. When I was a girl, mum would buy knitted clothing, bring home and wash it then it was my job to unpick it into new balls of yarn. She would also buy men’s shirts and cut them down into dresses for me or take apart grown ups clothing to remake for one of us. So lucky that mum was of the “make do and mend” generation. I remember her saying that during the war, she was gifted some army blankets so she made dressing gowns and slippers for my very much older siblings.