Frugal Follow-up

[FrugalFashionista]

We've hopelessly lost the old thread. How are you doing ladies?

I need to reawaken the thread as I need to get back on the wagon. I decided to temporarily suspend my shopping ban - it's summery here and I've started wearing summer clothes and I decided to make some purchases now so that I can wear them all season long (in low 20s it's still a bit too cool for my routine sleeveless dress/bare legs summer look). Most of my old summer clothes are in great shape but this is what I needed to update them -

1. white jeans (have lots of denim shirts and blue tops) - straight-leg, non see-through
2. colorful printed cigarette pants (my wardrobe is mostly solid colors - I want to wear prints but not near my face) - found a pair in my favorite colors from MSMG
3. sandals (bored of ballet flats and Havaianas) - black cage wedges, low-rent child-friendly version of the Altuzarra look
4. slingbacks (found a lovely two-tone white/taupe pair on sale)
5. a few bracelets to liven things up

I'm still looking for a couple of high-quality white or cream tops, scoop neck if possible. They seem to be the hardest item to find, but my refound Zara poly-viscose top is surprisingly versatile. Still thinking about a long and narrow snakeprint silk scarf in my best blues and also need to make a decision regarding nude/taupe courts (to go with my summer cocktail dresses).

Spring lasted for 3-4 weeks here and coincided with my 1-month shopping ban. By thinking a bit harder and digging a bit deeper I was able to find all spring outfits I ever needed without any spending! Summer will be around until the end of October so I hope that I will get quite a lot of wear out of my mix of old and new. But I think I'm almost done with wardrobe updates and might go back to tight-fist mode very soon

Myrtle the thread has remained it's original colour due to it being synthetic so my sweatshirt is now navy with pale gold stitching. As it is over stitched (not sure on the correct term!) it looks like the contrasting stitching is intentional. It works on the sweatshirt but I'm not sure how it would look on other items, I think the thing is not to alter the colour too drastically from the original.

Hello!

Hope you don't mind me butting in. All this talk of dyeing clothes has made me wonder about trying it with my winter coat that is looking a bit tired after 3 winters. It's a lightweight parka with a detachable fleece & fur lining so i was wondering about dyeing the lightweight part navy or black from the khaki it is now. Would this work? Would i turn blue if it rained?!

Have paid for the car repairs now and they've come in under budget. Surprising I know. I made small primary summer slip on type canvas shoes with £5 pink jeans o small whoopsie.

But spending has been curbed significantly as some bastards has got my card details and used it! Bank was useless last night but excellent today.

So no card or access to money - what could be more frugal.

Had to take dh to garage to fill car with diesel so I could get to work.

Sorry meanr Purchase not primary. Typing with ds snoring in my ear with one hand a
S the other is being held captive in his grip. Clingy 6 year old - whole other story.

Dig your new sweatshirt sounds fantastic!

Chablis so sorry about your card! This happened to me once years ago, the credit company sorted it out without problems.

Polkadotty only natural fibers can be dyed, fleeces and parkas are often and stitching always made of polyester (=plastic). Color addition rules apply: red sweater+blue dye = purple. If you dye jeans, effects and the natural two-color weaving pattern found in lighter denims will be lost. Jeans will be more 'one-dimensional'. I mostly dye clothes navy or black, am contemplating dyeing two cotton print dresses. You have to think whether the topstiching effect will work or not.

Myrtle having my colors done 2 years ago has really had a huge effect on me. I've been an overshopper for nearly a decade. Before color analysis, I bought things in random colors hoping some of them would look really great (most didn't). I think knowing my colors will actually help me to gradually overcome mindless shopping. I overdid renewing my wardrobe post-color analysis a bit (too many hasty this-will-do-for-now purchases in right colors but poor materials and often the wrong styles). But now I have so many truly great clothes that I've lost interest in fast fashion.

My aim is to gradually reduce my wardrobe so that everything fits in a 150cm wardrobe. Because all of my colors generally go together now, I have almost unlimited (literally thousands, I once counted) possible combinations. I can wear my subpar items too because everything is in a flattering color. Currently, I'm slowly weeding out viscose and other remaining synthetics, most prints, and 'natural' clothes. I know my personal style really well now, and building outfits and styling them is easy. Should probably snap a picture of my wardrobe one of these days - I love how harmonious the colors look there

I had a great evening out last night with friends - before going, I found the momentum to iron most of my lingering pile The effect of ironing on cotton was spectacular - slightly limp and droopy clothes looked factory-fresh once again. I took just minutes, the quickest makeover ever!

Hi Frugals!

I have been working hard to reduce my clothes stash. You know, the ones that make you feel uncomfortable at the waste of money when you look in your wardrobe?!

Last summer I got it into my head that I loved coral. I do but with winter colouring it doesn't do anything for me so I'm giving away a load of stuff to my friend who looks great in coral.

I'm also ebaying some maxi skirts/dresses as I'm 5ft 3 and trip over them all the time!

Inspired by you all I'm thinking of dyeing this cardigan. It's perfect, except that the colour makes me look actually dead! What colour should I dye it? I like white but obvs that won't work and I don't wear a lots of colour. What about black or grey?

Paris I think we are in the same boat

Check the fiber content and whether there is any visible stitching on the cardi. If gray is a good color for you, I'd dye it gray rather than black. Truer to the original design. If there are buttons or buttonholes, they will stay original color. If it's a wool cardigan, regular washing machine dye requires a 40C dye cycle that can cause felting. Cotton, viscose and silk are fine; synthetic mixes (such as cotton-nylon) will pick up a lighter tone and polyester cannot be dyed with regular home dyes. After dyeing, clean up the coin-lint-trapping rubber part of the washing machine - some dye often lingers there and can stain your other clothes.

The cocoon shape is very current and I really love my oatmeal merino cocoon cardi. It gives a great finishing touch to very plain outfits (=jeans, tee, ankle boots) but I also wore it to a matinee with a short leather skirt and tall boots, very versatile.

Tried to combine the short-sleeved rose cardi with white jeans, but it looked too mumsy twee. Having a stressful deadline-packed day, so back to wearing the men's French blue denim shirt

Hopefully The ones that have so far escaped the charity culls:
one of these that I'll never wear again and this in Eggplant. Also a shorter Hennes one, black with gold printed sequins. I'm too pear-y for this shape skirt and too old for rock chick nowadays!!

Thanks Frugal. I've checked the label and it's 50% cotton and 50% viscose so should end up as a pale grey with beige undertones. Should be interesting!

Myrtle That first tube skirt is great.

I've gone for the preppy look today! Straight leg jeans, camel and navy fitted tunic, camel mac, camel loafers and pewter satchel. The coat and jeans are around 5 years old and are still favourites, interestingly I paid more for these than I would normally as I loved the style/quality. I reckon that cost per wear they have outdone a lot of their cheaper counterparts.

Paris go for it and let us know how it works out!

Dig I often think the best value clothes are those made of great materials in simple, timeless styles - they make you feel great every time you wear them and last very well.

I made a great discovery last night. I still have a very simple cotton-polyester black coat from about 3 years ago when gothic Victoriana was all the rage. It is almost monastic but made of good materials but the focal point is mutton sleeves, combined with a very plain zip. I have not worn it a lot because it would l It looked great and pared down with my bright cigarette pants.

Sorry, touchscreen fail
Anyway, a forgotten short coat was the perfect 5:3 complement to one of my favorite items this summet - my very bright trousers - it felt great on a night out
I almost donated that coat last year, now very happy that I still have it

I'm starting to think that storaging and selectively rotating my clothes might be the correct way to address my bloated wardrobes. I read the charity shop chapter in 'To die for' and it made me feel thoroughly sick :( So trying to be responsible and making the best possible use of what I have (and severely limiting shopping in the future) would probably be the answer.

What does the charity shop section say, Frugal? In summary, that is,of course! I have 3 bags lined up ready to go next week....

I've done some dying recently too. The tired cotton tees are now revitalised to their original navy but the white cotton/poly skirt is a bit, umm, not sure.... Due to the poly content, I wasn't expecting it to dye navy but the very pale grey it turned out as was a surprise. It does look nice, I think - like it's meant to be that colour - but I'm not sure it's dark enough for me to feel comfortable wearing. My palate is very much navy, charcoal and black, with touches of emerald, dark pink and white.

On that note, I was very happy with today's outfit, a never-before-worn combination: vintage wash bootcut jeans (very long), a blue and black striped long-sleeved tee under an elbow length black jumper. Jumper is a loose knit with a hint of sparkle in it. Oh, and I loved today's shoes: navy and black pointed flats, kind of western style.

Dying? I mean dyeing, of course.

Has this site already been mentioned? dailyconnoisseur.blogspot.co.uk/ I really liked her 10 piece capsule wardrobe.

Has this site already been mentioned? dailyconnoisseur.blogspot.co.uk/ I really liked her 10 piece capsule wardrobe.

Sorry for double post - I'm rubbish at copy and paste on iPad!

I've been feeling guilty at how much I have bought lately but I've found it hard to wear some of my old clothes knowing that they're the wrong colours. They've all been purchases on my mental wish list though so will get worn loads.

frugal I would also be interested to know what the book says about charity shops as I give a lot to them.

I'd also love to do some dyeing but the stitching not taking the colour would bug me. I've got a cream jacket and so making it darker would mean the stitching would show and presumably if I tried bleach to whiten it, it would ruin the fabric?

My task today is to take a couple of tops back that have ruined in the wash. One is a tee with a curved hem but it's gone all wonky and is now unwearable (I can't tuck it in as I look silly!). The other is a tee that appears to have shrunk.

justonemorecardi thanks very much for linking to the Daily Connoisseur blog. You have given me a real a-ha moment. The gist of the blog is that she is from California and had a transformational experience as an exchange student in Paris.

We're all heavily influenced by our early experiences and it's reminded me of how my Mum had a similar experience which she would always tell us about. She went from a post-war German farming community to study at the Sorbonne in the early Sixties and lived with a Parisian family. Apart from the more bonkers stuff she went on about (you must never cut a potato with a knife apparently), she drummed into me and my sister that less is more, quality matters and, more importantly in her mind, you can have the most expensive, fancy outfit in the world, but if your hair is dirty, you'll still look a mess.

Whether I like it or not, a lot of these things have stayed with me as well as other elements of a strict European upbringing (I had to curtesy to older people until I was in my early teens, I kid you not). I think it explains why I'm drawn to a streamlined wardrobe and classic, quality clothing. Not sure I actually dress like that yet!

In answer to frugal's question about what to do with your 'excess' clothes, the simple answer is it depends, but be realistic. This is discussed a lot on the minimalist/decluttering threads in Good Housekeeping.

I personally eBay stuff although the returns are mixed. We've eBayed loads of stuff, but it's been with the aim of paying for our holidays. I'm not the sort of person (or broke enough) to bother doing it for just more money to go into my bank account as the amounts aren't huge. I know some people see something they want to buy and then eBay until they have 'saved' the money.

Other good places to sell are Gumtree and local Facebook selling groups. Easier to list and the person comes to collect. It can be good for maternity clothing and formal dressing, especially as the wedding season looms.

But be honest - if it's just going to sit in an eBay pile for six months, do something else. Give it to Women's Aid, charity shop or other charity, e.g. If you have excess work or smart clothing, there are projects supporting people getting back into work who need suits and shoes etc.

The thing you have to get your head round is that you will never get the money or time back that you spent on those items. You have to make your peace with that, which can take a while. If I'm honest, eBay is a slight form of penance for me.

Fantastic ideas QoW! Sorry about long post, but trying to summarize the charity shop chapter in To Die For (highly recommended).

How do charity shops operate?
The way we think it works
You send them clothes, they discard a few but sell most of them in the local charity shop where eager shoppers get a true bargain. Yay! This transaction funds the operation costs.

The way it really works
You send them clothes. Only 52% of the donations are high grade enough to be sold on. Only an average of 10% is resaleable in UK and destined to local charity shops, where it is given 3-4 weeks to sell. The quality of donated clothes has steadily decreased (due to increasing numbers of poor-quality high street items) and covering operating costs is increasingly challenging. Unsold items and 90% of the resaleable donations are sorted in a sorting plant. A small portion of the resaleable fiber, perhaps about 10%, can be recycled to become car door and car seat fillers and wiping rags. Wool used to be recycled in Italian textile plants, but is increasingly sent to landfills. The overwhelming majority of clothes is baled and sold to middlemen who ship it to Africa. Currently, 16% of all containers on ships bound for Africa are full of used clothes. This rag trade is worth more than 1 billion USD annually. The bales are a mixed bunch: some charities do a good job sorting, but increasingly low-quality clothes are dumped into the bales - we seem to be outsourcing our landfills

African buyers (often market sellers and other small entrepreneurs who will spend their average monthly income to purchase a bale) generally have to buy the bales blind. African buyers are not very excited about that droopy viscose top with twisting seams either - apparently the highest value items in clothing bales are football shirts and flared jeans. A lot of the clothing in the bales is difficult to sell and poses a significant financial risk to the small-time entrepreneurs.

Many African countries have an uneasy relationship with the rag trade, and many countries have banned some or all of it. Although sub-Saharan Africa is one of the biggest global cotton producers, domestic textile industries cannot compete with the shiploads of dumped clothing and have continued to decline steadily. Economists state that no country has ever achieved a sustainable per capita national income without developing an indigenous clothing industry. So dumped clothing as 'development aid' is probably doing exactly the opposite.

What happens with the discards, or about half of the content of the charity bags? It's difficult to find reliable statistics of how much clothing is discarded - charity shops are unwilling to give exact estimates as they fear it will negatively affect their business. Traid.org states that to offset the 2.15 million tonnes of new clothing and shoes purchased each year in the UK, over 1.4 million tonnes are sent to UK landfill every year (either directly by consumers and shops or by commercial textile sorters subcontracted by charities). The lifespan of polyester in a landfill is at least 200 years.

Bottom line: do not use the charity bag for dumping. Avoid fast fashion, resell, swap, reuse and repurpose all you can. If you want to donate to charity, donate clothes that you think might do well on eBay (better UK resale value), or donate football shirts and flared jeans (high resale value in Africa).

Its been pretty cold here.On thursday it was 9 degrees with a very cold wind and i was freezing in my summer coat.So i'm now wearing my winter clothes again.Cashmere jumpers have been retrieved from the cupboard.The only change is boyfriend jeans instead of skinnies and leopard sneakers[which have been a revelation as they really are like walking on air].
I've sorted out more summer clothes.£100's worth of Wrap clothes have been binned.Mostly due to utter shapelessness.I will never shop from this website again[includes Poetry]My Hush midi marks when you dry it over the airer.Now have stripes across it.I am so fed up of buying appalling quality clothes that turn to rags after one wash.Good for you taking items back if they become mishapen Queen.I don't think as a nation we like to complain too much.
Frugal i do think rotating clothes works.It stops me getting too bored of certain items and also means my wardrobe isn't too full.I do it mainly by colour as well as by weight[winter].I am trying to buy less and better quality but it is difficult.In terms of reselling/recycling i pass on decent items to our local dress agency where they tend to sell for peanuts.If they don't sell there i then pass on only wearable items to the charity shops.Kids clothes go to the Salvation army bin.Bras go into the specialist bra bin at our local recycling centre.
I love the dyeing stories.I even had a look at the Dylon colours in my local hardware shop,Sadly i can't think of anything that needs transforming at the moment.Love the sound of your outfits Frugal and Dig.They sound like really classic combinations.I succumbed to the lure of Tk Maxx this week and bought some silk/jersey mix t shirts/dresses.They are pretty on with the fine silk grecian type draping going on.But the jersey is viscose and the silk is incredibly thin.I do wonder how long they will last.Hate the fact that natural fabrics seem to often be mixed with synthetics these days.

Very interesting, and much what I feared - thank you, Frugal.

I do try hard only to donate what I think to be decent stuff to charity shops - so nothing bobbly, misshapen, threadbare etc. The rest gets labelled as "rags" and given to a place that asks for such things. But I've seen clothing markets in sub-Saharan Africa full of the West's leavings and, my goodness, I'd be annoyed if I'd spent all of my monthly income purchasing some of that lot.....

Really, the answer has to be to buy less, buy better, doesn't it? Always assuming you can afford to, of course. On that note, I am finding it impossible to find a white jumper in natural fibres (pref linen/cotton mix), long-sleeved or perhaps elbow length. Everything, but everything, seems to have acrylic/nylon/viscose/polybloodyester in it!

Very interesting to hear about your upbringing, Queen. I have several German friends and, contrary to national stereotyping, have always admired how well put together they are and how, despite their high incomes, they don't shop shop shop like it's going out of fashion. Mind you, my English grandparents, who were young adults during WWII, also had something of that mindset. Although always financially comfortable, they would never have dreamed have buying something for the sake of it, that they didn't need and that wasn't very well made. Hmmm. How times change. It's leaving me thinking how, maybe, I don't actually need that white jumper I mentioned earlier.

Thanks for your feedback Teta! I'm going to look into rotating

QC dyeing only works if you really like the item and the likely end result. If you feel unsure, it's better to face the facts. Good luck with returns! We really should give more customer feedback - subpar quality is unacceptable and a waste of resources.

I used to be a faithful mid-range shopper but ever-decreasing quality has forced me to move to higher end and to become an avid label reader. In the past year I've found good clothes on the Outnet, Yoox and Matches sales, and selectively in higher-end department stores. Zara and H&M purchases have been a total waste of money, even 100% cotton items haven't held their shape. But have woken up to realize that many companies I have supported don't treat their suppliers in a fair way so trying to look into more ethical alternatives. I'm also trying to purchase items that I can wear for a long time. Fast fashion can be addictive I think I've done with it.

Violet polyester is tricky in dyeing but absolutely loving your long bootcut look! It can be so flattering, I always feel my legs are supermodel caliber when I wear them.

Cardi thanks for the link!

I'm stuck in a rut - wearing white jeans with my men's French blue shirt once again

I rescued a pair of shoes yesterday! My sky blue cheap mock-ostrich ballerinas were looking really tired. I looked into leather dyes but lots of them are quite toxic and I'm not a confident shoe painter. Some websites said you can refresh leather dye with food coloring (apparently leather is usually stained, not painted) and while preparing to do so, I washed the shoes inside and out with water (never do this but felt I had nothing to lose). And lo and behold, when all the grime was gone, they looked about 100x better and are good for at least another summer! Might give them some TLC in the form of a beeswax coat when they are completely dry. And possibly skip the food coloring

Thank you Frugal for posting about charity shops. My goal is to buy less and to buy quality items that I truly love wearing. I'm sick of having a wardrobe full of not quite right pieces but I'm finding it increasingly difficult to find anything that ticks every box in terms of quality, style and fit. Throw price and ethics into the mix and its impossible.

In order to strengthen my resolve I'm going to order To Die For. As a grown your own, eco aware, chemical shunning vegetarian, I find it appalling that in many other areas of my life I'm well aware of the social and ecological cost of owning "stuff" yet for some reason I've been blinkered when it comes to clothing.

On a lighter note wearing old clothes today as having a clear out of DS's old toys. Thankfully these can be passed on to younger nephews, pity that his old clothes are never in a fit state to be passed on in the same way!

Dig you've done already than most but I agree that fashion / apparel production cannot any more be the ethical black hole it has somehow become. We can buy fairtrade bananas everywhere and nobody bats an eyebrow if we ask for organic or an energy efficiency A+ dishwasher - why should clothes be any different?

I'm almost done with 'To Die For'. It's definitely among the most important books I've read this year (and I'm an avid reader), just like 'Overdressed' was last year. I'm not pretending I'm particularly ahead the curve, but my life as a mindless shopper and my relationship with fast fashion is definitely over.

Slow Fashion, when you savor it like 'Slow Food', actually sounds fantastic. Siegle writes: "The key to this is to then of the wardrobe in terms of a collection that needs to be curated. This reinforces the idea that each piece is important, wanted, and needs to be preserved and treasured to the end of its useful life. Curating your clothes is another bulwark against filling your closet with impulse-bought fashion junk. And it is not just about selecting pieces, but about how you treat the clothes you already own. It begins with how you look after them."

I know the fashion press abuses the terms 'to curate' and 'pieces' , but I really get what Siegle says. I'm tired of brief flings and impulsive one-night-stands and really after longer-term commitment. This includes a mindshift - instead of looking for 'a perfect piece' it means learning to tolerate and love the flawed and the imperfect: in brief, wabi-sabi esthetics, but perhaps more of that some other time.