Inspired by my conversation with my friend Rachel – who I interviewed for my previous post– and some previous knowledge I began exploring the world of second-hand further. The first stop, charity shops. In my past experience, I have never had much luck at charity shops. Either I can never find something in my style, or its never in my size. However, there is a whole world out there that takes these hurdles in their stride, thrift flipping. Thrift flipping can mean different things to different people. For me it was always an Americanised way to say buying from charity shops and upcycling the clothes to match your style etc. For it is something popularised in America where there is a significant “thrifting” culture since they have more larger thrift stores – or charity shops. The range of clothing and items is much larger and more varied.
With further research I have found a different take on thrift flipping. This article on Resalvaged website explains thrift flipping as selling items for a profit. Like house flipping where people buy houses renovate them and sell for a profit. According to Resalvaged thrift flipping entails the same principle but of items like home decor and clothing. With this blog I’ll be exploring how we can turn clothes into something new.
To start with I found these two old t-shirts that I don’t wear that often but still want to keep. My plans for these are fairly simple although the options are limitless. When deciding what I wanted to do with my t-shirts I used YouTube and Pinterest to gain inspiration. Videos such as this one showing 10 different ways to upcycle a t-shirt and this video on a couple of ways to crop a t-shirt provided perfect inspiration for some simple ideas. I decided to test two different methods showcased in the second YouTube video.
For my old Primark Freddie Mercury t-shirt, I decided to put it on and decide where I wanted to crop it. I had a rough plan going into this as I knew I wanted to crop it somewhere just under where the printed design stop. Once I decided where I wanted it cropped, I folded it in half length ways and cut. With my stitch t-shirt I decided to use a crop top I already owned as a guide. Using the stripes as a guide I cut along where I decided to crop it. I decided to leave both with a raw hem, but you can easily stitch in a hem if you wish. The material of t-shirts causes the fabric to roll which hides the edge.
This was a really simple and quick project. It was very fun to do and in the future I will definitely be trying more of these. I would love to hear from you about any of your thrift flipping ideas. Whilst exploring this topic I have found many different resources.
Here is a list of some projects and workshops:
- ReMode – a Renfrewshire based project aiming to raise awareness of the environmental impacts of the fashion and textiles industry working with communities to deliver practical solutions. ReMode runs various programmes of workshops and education events as well as operating a shop in Paisley where you can buy, swap and donate clothing. All their “remoded” clothing is also sold online
- The Coupar Angus Low Carbon Classroom upcycling workshop – A talk about saving our clothes from the bin by repairing and upcycling. It is on Wednesday the 10th of March at 7pm.
- Fife Contemporary – Resolve to Make it New – a partnership between Fife Contemporary and StAnza 2021 celebrating items that have been made anew. It is an online exhibition includes images of the items as well as poems that look at the theme of making new.
Here is a list of some ideas of projects you can do yourself:
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