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It’s National Secondhand Wardrobe Day: How You Can Participate
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Chances are, you have a clothing item (or 10) in your closet that you don’t wear, haven’t worn since the previous solar eclipse and have no plans to wear here or in a parallel universe. But, before you purge your closet and launch your lightly worn items to a landfill to join the 13 million tons of textiles disposed of each year, consider this: National Secondhand Wardrobe Day is today, and you’re invited!
Swap, Don’t Shop
Disposing of clothing that you don’t wear isn’t just wasteful, it’s extremely unsustainable and oh so unfashionable. Even today, with all the convenient ways to sell your clothes for cash, a staggering 85 percent of discarded textiles are sent to landfills annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Yet, the majority of people are not extending the life cycle of their gently worn clothes while cashing in or greening them forward.
Today, global waste in the fashion industry is a real issue. In fact, it takes 2,700 liters of water just to create one cotton T-shirt. National Secondhand Wardrobe Day is breathing new life into old clothes, allowing consumers to offset their carbon footprint by exchanging or recycling their used garments.
What if I told you that you could recycle, donate or upcycle those tatty threads just by visiting a clothing swap pop-up location near you? Element Hotels, an eco-conscious, extended-stay brand, is hosting Element Exchange today across the country for hotel guests and community members. Some events will even offer sustainable sips of organic wine and tasty treats while you “shop.”
With the coveted LEED certification, Element Hotels doesn’t just talk the talk, they walk the walk. All of their hotels are built sustainably using eco-friendly practices from the ground up and supporting local communities. The hotel chain features bright interiors with natural light, eco-friendly fixtures and recycling bins in every guest room, recycled materials in the carpeting, low-VOC interior paints, saltwater swimming pools, bikes to borrow, workout bikes in the fitness center that charge your cell phone while you pedal, and electric vehicle charging stations outdoors.
6 Ways to Participate in National Secondhand Wardrobe Day
While orange may be the new black, vintage is the new rack. Let’s face it, we’re all guilty of buying items that just don’t live up to their impulse-purchase hype. Here’s how else you can swap and save.
- Host Your Own Clothing Swap
- Sell Your Clothes Online with thredUP or Poshmark.
- Donate Your Clothes to Goodwill, Dress for Success, the Salvation Army or the Vietnam Veterans of America. The latter two will even pick up the items from your front door.
- Rent the Runway for your next soiree or event.
- Sell Your Wedding Garments Online with Preowned Wedding Dresses.
- Donate Your Wedding Dress to Brides Against Breast Cancer.
One man’s or woman’s trash truly is another’s treasure. Making sustainable choices in your clothing selections just makes sense. This year, get involved to help those less privileged by giving your time or, literally, the clothes off your back. Remember, on National Secondhand Wardrobe Day, don’t shop — swap till you drop!
Feature image courtesy of Shutterstock
Read More:
Rags to Riches: 5 Ways to Earn Cash from Your Closet
Swapping Is Sexy: How to Host a Clothing Swap Party
How to Shop for Clothes with the Earth in Mind
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Lisa Beres
Lisa Beres is a healthy home expert, Baubiologist, published author, professional speaker and Telly award-winning media personality who teaches busy people how to eliminate toxins from their home with simple, step-by-step solutions to improve their health. With her husband, Ron, she is the co-founder of
and the 30-day online program
Change Your Home. Change Your Health
. She is the author of the children’s book
and co-author of
Just Green It!: Simple Swaps to Save Your Health and the Planet
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Learn to Create a Healthy Home! Green Nest Creating Healthy Homes
and
The 9 to 5 Greened: 10 Steps to a Healthy Office
. Lisa’s TV appearances include “The Rachael Ray Show,” “Nightly News with Brian Williams,” “TODAY,” “The Doctors,” “Fox & Friends,” “Chelsea Lately” and “The Suzanne Somers Show.”
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It’s National Secondhand Wardrobe Day: How You Can Participate – August 25, 2017
Perk Up Your Workout with a Recycled Coffee Grounds Sports Bra – July 24, 2017
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It’s National Secondhand Wardrobe Day: How You Can Participate
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3 Great Ways to Help Your Prom Dress Go Green
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How to Dress Well—Without Ever Buying a Single Piece of Clothing
Mother Jones
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Last year, a friend of mine hosted a clothing swap. There were about 10 women and just a few rules: Bring clothes you want to get rid of. Take the items from your friends’ closets that you like, and the rest goes to the local thrift shop. The setup was an easy way to recycle the ridiculous number of garments in our millennial closets—we ditched items we hadn’t worn in months or even years and came away with some fresh, if worn-in, items, like the pair of American Apparel high-waisted cutoff jean shorts I left wearing.
I’m not as wardrobe-obsessed as the average American, who bought 64 articles of clothing and spent more than $1,100 on clothes and shoes in 2013. The average woman had just nine outfits in 1930. Today, her drawers are so stuffed she can wear a different getup every day of the month. Women only use about 20 percent of their wardrobes and typically wear an item just seven times before pushing it to the back of the closet. After that comes the landfill: Each of us discards about 80 pounds of textiles every year.
Fast-fashion stores like H&M and Forever 21 have made it easy to buy and dump outfits at record speed. In fact, between the time I wrote this story and when it hit the newsstands, the industry took women through upward of 10 new trends. This endless march of cheap off-the-shoulder blouses and oversize T-shirt dresses can also be bad for workers, as manufacturers have cut costs by outsourcing production to sweatshops abroad. Ninety-seven percent of our clothes are made abroad, sometimes in exploitative or even deadly conditions, points out Elizabeth L. Cline in her book, Overdressed. “If we’re going to shop in this way that’s so obsessed with novelty,” she says, “how can we do that in a way that’s not so destructive?”
So my friends and I were clearly on to something. And as it turns out, so is a small but growing corner of the fashion world. The best-known example may be Rent the Runway, a New York-based subscription company that lets you choose clothes you like online and ships them to your house. When you’re over an outfit, you mail it back, and it’s shipped out to the next person who’s had her eye on it.
Since it was founded in 2009, Rent the Runway—which started as a service just for formal wear but has since expanded to include office and casual outfits—has raised $126 million from venture capitalists. It recently moved into a 160,000-square-foot warehouse and now has more than 6 million members. It’s no surprise that a handful of competing companies have cropped up. Le Tote, an online shop that offers a similar clothing rental service, recently raised $27.5 million. An app called Curtsy lets you rent from your neighbor or classmate. These new clothiers are “asking customers to put their closets into the cloud,” says Jennifer Hyman, ceo and co-founder of Rent the Runway.
The so-called “Netflix for clothing” model clearly cuts down on waste—instead of 20 women buying identical shift dresses from Zara, they can all share one. And when Rent the Runway retires an outfit from rotation, the company sells it or donates it to charity instead of throwing it out.
But there are downsides, too: Fashion subscription services require repeated cleaning and shipping. Many companies dry-clean items between wearers; no one wants a shirt with the lingering smell of someone else’s BO or cigarettes. That process typically involves chemical solvents like perchloroethylene, which can leach into groundwater and has been linked to neurological problems, acute loss of coordination, and liver tumors in mice. The Environmental Protection Agency classifies this chemical solvent as a “likely” carcinogen. Rent the Runway claims its dry cleaning facility is the largest in the country, and that instead of perchloroethylene it uses a nonhazardous alternative. Brett Northart, the co-founder of Le Tote, told me that his company employs a cleaning technique somewhere between dry cleaning and laundry to reduce the volume of chemicals used, though he declined to divulge details.
The jury is still out on whether online shopping creates more carbon emissions than brick-and-mortar retailers, and fashion subscription services require double the shipping, since customers send their boxes back when they’re done. There’s also packaging to consider: When you buy a shirt online, more than half the carbon footprint is from the cardboard, tissue paper, or plastic used to ship it.
Rent the Runway sends its clothes in a reusable garment bag, which it says saves an estimated 287 tons of shipping waste each year. But the bigger win of the clothes-sharing model, says Cline, is how it changes the way we think about our closets. “It’s hard to imagine us getting back to a place where people only buy things they plan to wear for the rest of their lives,” she told me. But if we can kick the habit of wearing an outfit once and then tossing it, that’s major progress. “People are starting to use rental sites as a substitute for buying new, and that’s really huge.”
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How to Dress Well—Without Ever Buying a Single Piece of Clothing
3 Ethical Fashion Companies That Care About the World
Thirtyyears ago, so called “ethical fashion” was essentially non-existent. The manufacturing boom brought with it all sorts of high profile disasters, from child slave labor to unethical sourcing of materials, and big name brands were disproportionately more concerned with making a buck than creating socially and environmentally-responsible items.
Now, more and more traditional mega brands are recognizing the importance of sustainable fashion. And alongside them, dozens of stylish, ethical brands are finding their place in the sun.
What is ethical fashion?
Ethical fashion has come a long way since its dull, scratchy, eco-beginnings. Today, many sustainable brands lead the chargewhen it comes to creating classy, beautiful garmentsthat also honor what it means to be a responsible creator of goods.
The Ethical Fashion Forum saysit this way:
“Ethical fashion represents an approach to the design, sourcing and manufacturing of clothing which maximizes the benefits to people and communities, while minimizing impact on the environment.”
But what does that mean exactly?
Ethical fashion brands are commonly judged on whether or not the brand cares aboutthe following:
Countering fast, cheap fashion and damaging patterns of fashion consumption
Defending fair wages, working conditions and workers’ rights
Supporting sustainable livelihoods
Addressing toxic pesticide and chemical use
Using and/or developing eco-friendly fabrics and components
Minimizing water use
Recycling and addressing energy efficiency and waste
Developing or promoting sustainability standards for fashion
Resources, training and/or awareness raising initiatives
Animal rights
Another way to look at it is through the lens of the “Triple Bottom Line.” This means thatrather than examining a business purely from a profit-perspectivethat the brand’s attention to social and environmental aspects is also considered.
With those criteria in mind, here are the five newcomers to the ethical fashion scene! You may want to consider adding these companies to your Christmas gift short-list.
The Simple Kind
The Simple Kind Website
The Simple Kind is an ethical fashion company that celebrates women and childrenby making”whimsical and timeless dresses that reflect the hearts of the little girls who wear them.” Every item isdesigned in-house in Denver, Colorado, then carefully madeby groups that empower women all over the world.
The company releases just a few specially constructed pieces at a time with the intent to see their high-quality garments last for generations to come. All materials are intentionally and thoughtfully sourced in ethical and environmentally-friendly ways.
You can find out more about the company and its originshere.
UNIFORM
UNIFORM Website
UNIFORM, a new clothing line featuring hip, minimalist clothing, is taking sustainability to the next level. The company was founded by Chid Liberty, a Liberian-American who pioneered Africa’s first Fair Trade Certified apparel manufacturer, Liberty & Justice, and got its start via a Kickstarter campaign.
UNIFORM is on a mission to give back to its West African community by investing in local manufacturing and donating school uniforms to children who otherwise could not attend school.
Help them get to their goal of 50,000 uniforms donated here!
Sseko Designs
Sseko Designs Website
Sseko Designsis an ethical fashion brand that “hires high potential women in Uganda to make sandals, to enable them to earn money through dignified employment that will go directly towards their college educations.” So far, Sseko has sent more than 70 women to university.
Sseko Designs blends a financially self-sustaining business model with a cause: sending young women to school in Uganda and other regions of East Africa. Peruse their website to discover beautiful goodies, from footwear to leather bags and other accessories.
Have you ever shopped ethical brands? Which are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments!
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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Emma Watson’s Met Gala outfit was trash
Trashy to Classy
Emma Watson’s Met Gala outfit was trash
By Eve Andrewson May 3, 2016Share
Scrolling through Met Gala photos is like going through a bag of jelly beans — full of surprises and questions! Are cyborgs and werewolves coming for us all? Are these the end times? Is that a pile of garbage on top of Emma Watson?
Yes, it is, and it actually looked cute. Watson’s dress — a collaboration by Calvin Klein and Eco Age — is made from recycled plastic bottles. Since we’re on track to have more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050, thank goodness someone had the ingenuity and presence of mind to toss some of that on one of Hollywood’s more celebrated starlets.
I know what you’re thinking: “That’s not sustainable! When is she going to wear that again?” A valid question, as Americans wear a given garment seven times on average before throwing it away. Surprise, again: That’s not a dress — those are pants. In fact, it’s a multi-piece, mix-and-matchable outfit.
Watson explains how it all works on her Facebook page: “It is my intention to repurpose elements of the gown for future use. The trousers can be worn on their own, as can the bustier, the train can be used for a future red carpet look … I’m looking forward to experimenting with this. Truly beautiful things should be worn again and again and again.”
Specifically, she’s planning to wear the outfit 30 times.
On the topic of ocean awareness: Did Taylor Swift skin a fish for a dress that wouldn’t look out of place on a bottle waitress at the most elite club in Canton, Ohio? Don’t get me wrong — that’s a high compliment.
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How Does Ethical Consumerism Lead to Bad Behavior?
We cant be perfect. Either accept this truth, or risk driving yourself bonkers.
That said, many of us do make peace with our imperfections or, at least, say we do. The reality, however, occasionally seems to be that when were not at our best, our brains grow quietly unwilling to acknowledge were taking the low road. Whats more, not only do we refuse to see the so-called worst in ourselves, but we chastise others for their ability to be the good people we cant (or wont) be.
A great example of this can be seen in an upcoming July article for the Journal of Consumer Psychology. The study dovetails with previous research to suggest that, while people want to buy products manufactured by ethical means (think fair trade), it turns out that if were actually given the opportunity of knowing where our merchandise comes from, wed rather remain in the dark.
Whats more, if our friends and loved ones tell us the products theyve chosen to buy are made by demonstratively principled companies, we label those people preachy, unfashionable and unattractive. (This response might be all-too familiar to folks like feminists and vegans who, given the wrong audience, can barely open their mouths without being accused of behaving holier-than-thou.)
Authors of the study arrived at the conclusion that individuals who choose to buy items produced by ethical means were seen as a kind of threat to others sense of self-righteousness. But whats perhaps even more interesting is that, when surveyed, those who denigrated do-gooders revealed they didnt feel much revulsion toward companies that defied ethical standards. Thats because one feeling cannot exist without the other: If fair trade isnt a big deal, then companies that avoid fair trade arent really doing anything wrong.
All this reveals a great deal not only about our very human need to often live in willful ignorance (otherwise we might grow overwhelmed and, in turn, paralyzed by all the worlds very real horrors), but that each of us knows so little about who we really are and what we really care about.
For example, few of us would admit that we dont much care whether the clothes we buy were made by children working in slave labor conditions. And yet the fact that these practices continue, often in the name of United States consumerism, show that more than a few of us truly dont make the issue worth our time.
Its not that were bluffing, necessarily; when we say we care about sweatshops, we usually mean what we say. The issue is that were genuinely unaware that, deep down, these issues arent our priorities. This kind of unconscious lack of familiarity with our own values (or lack thereof) touches on a theory known as the introspection illusion. This is the idea that our desires are rooted in such complex psychological mire, theres no real way for us to understand why we like what we like, and why we dont like the things we find repellent.
There are dozens of experiments that seem to reveal introspection, or an attempt to understand the self, is not the means to identify our innermost truths. On the contrary, its the means for us to come up with justificationsas to why were drawn to Thing A and not Thing B, when, really, we havent a clue. Thats why many people patronize therapists. These caretakers have training and, more importantly, objectivity, and are far more likely to identify, for arguments sake, our sense of shame when we cant pay for more expensive fair trade options.
The truth is its OK to feel small when we cant achieve or dont even think to try what others do with passion and conviction. The problem comes when we start acting out against those people, or actively undermining the causes they support. Again, its about our ability to be imperfect, as well as our need to accept that the best we can do is try.
When we come into contact with individuals of whom we are jealous, we must try our best to know and admit our true feelings. In turn, we can either minimize the accomplishments of others, or strive to be more like them. At least that choice (introspection illusion be darned) is up to us.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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Fur Farming: The Unnecessary Cruelty that Needs to End
The term fur farming refers to the entire trade of capturing, slaughtering and skinning animals for the purpose of selling the pelt. Some of the horrors of fur farming include the following: animals are often caught in leg traps that cause severe injury. In many cases, these wounds are left untreated. In addition, the creatures are kept in cages until the fur is intended to be sold. Examples of these cages have been recorded and the results show confined, excrement-filled living quarters in which the animals are made to eat and sleep. Due to injuries or illness, animals have perished inside of their cages. Nevertheless, animals continue to live in the presence of a decaying neighbor. These horrific conditions may make a person wonder why fur farming is necessary. The short answer isits not.
Before the times of man-made cloth, fur and leather was a necessity in order to stay warm during the winter months. Today, renewable fabrics like cotton, hemp and bamboo are being used ubiquitously in clothing production. The need for animal fur is no more. However, fur farms remain in production all across the globe to deliver fur pelts strictly for fashion purposes.
What animals are farmed?
Rabbits, wild cats, coyotes, wolves, mink, ferrets, foxes and many other animals are involved in the fur farming industry. A lack of regulation on the types of animals bought and sold leads to an almost infinite amount of animals being caught and used in fur clothing items worldwide. Regrettably, even animals that arent being targeted are trapped and killed every year including hunting dogs, raccoons, squirrels, gophers, birds and even domestic cats and dogs.
How are animals caught/slaughtered/skinned?
The most commonly used trap in the United States is the steel-jaw leghold trap. This trap consists of a pressure plate in the center of the trap and two jaws on the outside (often with spikes or teeth) that clamp down on a captured animals limb. Of course these traps are immensely strong and will often break the creatures limb in the process. Fur farms that export a significant amount of product may have hundreds of traps out at any given time. Therefore, traps may go unchecked for days or weeks on end. This means that a severely injured animal may be left to bleed to death due to their injury sustained from these outdated traps.
With very little regulation in regards to fur farming, animals are often killed in a myriad of ways. Bludgeoning, hanging, bleeding to death and even skinning alive have all been performed as viable means to end an animals life (Caution – videos provided are real, but are very disturbing). Although, as mentioned previously, injuries caused by trapping often also lead to infection and eventually death.
Whats the truth about faux fur?
The fact of the matter is that fake fur is not always fake. Many countries around the world have little to no regulations on fur farming. This means that furs which the U.S. deems appropriate to sell and label as fur may be different than other countries. Of course, the U.S. has banned the sale of cat and dog fur, but because of the false labeling of products in other countries, this fur is still being distributed. Investigations into fur trade in countries such as China have resulted in some disturbing findings (Again, the videos provided are very graphic and shocking). Domestic cat and dog fur can be labeled as faux fur according to Chinese regulations.
The one and only way to be certain clothing does not contribute to animal cruelty is to ban fur farming. For the time being, no one can be sure that their faux fur was actually made with animal friendly materials. Whats more, wearing fur (even trim or faux fur) as a fashion statement encourages the slaughter of millions of animals around the world each year. Fur is no longer a necessity. With the amount of affordable renewable resources at our disposal, there is no justifiable reason to maintain fur farms any longer. Many animal friendly organizations stand against the sale of any type of fur. One such example is the Make Fur History campaign. The group offers educational materials, alternate clothing options and easy ways to take a stand against fur farming.
Photo Credit: Dzīvnieku brīvība
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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How to Simplify Your Wardrobe in 3 Easy Steps
An overstuffed closet and a mountain-sized pile of discarded clothing options after each round of getting ready may indicate that your fashion philosophy values quantity over quality. Create a cohesive collection of streamlined wearable looks and kick the chaos and castoffs out of your closet with a simple capsule wardrobe in three easy steps:
Step 1: Out With the Old
Like many of lifes challenges, this situation is going to get worse before it gets better. However, if you clear a couple hours of your schedule and stay committed, the end result will be a closet you can love again. To get a true view of what you need, love, and wear, you need to start with an honest of assessment of what youre currently working with and why you have it.
Take everything clothes-related out of your closet and pile it up somewhere unavoidable now theres your assurance that this project gets finished today. (Seriously, dont skip that part. Its important.) Try on each piece and ask yourself the following questions:
1. Does this fit?
2. Do I feel confident when wearing this?
3. Have I worn it in the past six months?
If the answer to any of the above is no, its time to honor that item with new opportunity by donating it. The only exception is if a much-loved quality piece can be tailored; if so, drop it off within the week.
Snap a quick full-length mirror selfie for any outfits you feel unsure aboutthe camera is your most honest friend. Once you have separated the trash from the treasure, analyze what you have left. Your keep pile holds clues to your personal style. Why do these items appeal to you? What do they have in common? A successful capsule wardrobe will keep you comfortably and happily clothed. If your everyday style has an easy casual vibe, a closet of fussy fashionista frocks wont solve your problem; youll just go from not having anything to wear to not having anything you want to wear. Be true to your real self.
Step 2: In With the New
Take a look at what you already own and set aside essential foundation pieces. These are items that every wardrobe needs, like a little black dress, a white button-up shirt, a pencil skirt, nice jeans, quality leggings, black pants and a few fitted tees. Anything missing from the essentials should take priority on the shopping list; these key pieces become the uniform for life and are worth the investment. Buy the basics in neutral colors like black, white, khaki or gray. These items are the core of your capsule collection and become the backdrop for most outfits.
Step 3: Freshen Up
Now take a new look at the clothes you have leftis there an underlying color theme? Pick out a few pieces where you feel drawn to the color or pattern and create your personal style palette. Buy accent items and accessories that coordinate with your capsule collection colors to maximize your ability to mix and match, and easily update your wardrobe seasonally by swapping out colors or clothing types.
If youre adopting the capsule wardrobe approach for its simple minimalism, aim to have approximately 30 pieces. If youre just trying to simplify your morning routine, dont overwhelm yourself with options, but dont obsess over item numbers or perfecting your collection, either. Just like your personal sense of style, your capsule collection will evolve as you do.
The ultimate goal is to create a mix-and-match recipe of your ideal outfit for every occasion, which is easy when the closet is full of coordinating favorites. The most essential part of creating a capsule collection isnt in perfecting the numbersits in making sure you feel fashionable and fantastic wearing each and every piece!
Ashley McCann writes foreBayabout mindful living as a Floridian mother of two. She makes affordable and sustainable fashion possible bybuying and selling her clothes online.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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Use an Old Sweater To Make Two New Wardrobe Pieces
Ugly sweaters are not a waste: Theyre an opportunity.
Consider this lowly knit mock turtleneck. It was buried in an old clothes bag in my closet, about to be sent off to the local thrift store, when I saw one of its dark green sleeve cuffs peeking over the top of the bag. For a split second I thought it was the edge of a boot sock, but when I found out that it wasnt, I decided to turn it into one. Except that it turned out to be more than a boot sockin a couple of hours, Id stitched that unloved sweater into a pair of boot socks and a cozy casual sweater skirt, too.
And I promise, it took very little stitching skills. The biggest challenge for me was being able to stitch in a straight line around the top hem of the skirt and around the edges of the boot socks to keep them from unraveling. Apart from that, if you can sew on a button, youre good to go!
Step 1: Cut off the arms
It really doesnt matter if you cut on one side of the hem or around the sweater shoulder. Since youll be cutting this part off anyway, just cut a clean line alongside it.
Step 2: Cut off the excess
Youll see that the top of the sweater arm is wider and curves outward a bit. All you need to do here is cut that curved bit off so that its even.
You can actually stop here, if you want to. For a simple boot cuff to wear on the inside of your boot, or a leg warmer to wear slouched over your short boots, this is really all you need.
Because this was so easy, though, I decided to take it a step further and add a little bit of embellishment a la turn-of-the-century Victorian boot fashion: buttons!
Step 3: Cut along the sleeve hem
Again, it doesnt matter if you cut on one side of the hem or the other; just make sure you keep it consistent.
Step 4: Hem the cut edges
This is where that awesome stitch-in-a-straight-line skill comes in. Find the two edges of the sleeve that have been cutand could potentially unraveland fold them in about half an inch and use a straight stitch to hold it in place. You could even iron the hem down beforehand to make it easier to stitch straight.
Step 5: Stitch on the buttons
I used six buttons on this one, but I have another boot sock that used 10it just depends on your style, and frankly, how many matching buttons you can find to evenly spread between both socks.
Step 6: Cut the button holes
To do this, I pinned the top and bottom of the sock together so that they wouldnt move, and then placed the button-free side over the buttons, cutting a very, very small hole above each and then working the button through it. It doesnt take much to make a button hole! Also, if youre worried about fraying at this point, you can add a dab of fabric glue to the edges of the buttonholesthis should keep it from unraveling any more and will give the buttonhole a better hold and shape.
Youre done! Show off your fashionable boot glory now or, like me, put them on with some slippers and whip yourself up a cozy sweater with the excess materials.
Step 1: Using the instructions above, cut off the sleeves and make boot socks!
Step 2: Trim the trunk
Again, I lay no claims to being any kind of a seamstress. To get the shape I wanted, I just turned the sweater trunk inside out, placed my favorite sweater skirt over the top of it and trimmed around the edges until it was the same shape, making sure the bottom hem of the sweater was the bottom hem of the skirt.
Step 3: Sew
Next, I stitched the edges where Id cut it all the way to the top, then folded over the top about an inch and a half. Inside this fold, I ran a length of elastic band, stitching one end to one of the side hem edges to keep it in place and then just stitched beneath the band all the way around. By not actually stitching through the elastic band, it allows the band to pull the skirt in around your waist without cinching up awkwardly.
And now, really, thats it! Boot socks, simple or buttoned, and a cozy sweater skirt from an outdated sweater. I think I need to dig through my husbands closet a little more and see if there are any other sweaters hes not using! Of course, Ill ask first
Kristin Hackler writes about the intersection of fashion, home and sustainability for eBay, one of her favoriteplaces tobuy or sell lightly worn clothing. Follow Kristin’s adventures on hereBay profile, oron her blog,Cardboard and Cloth.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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