Wardrobe Refashion: Taking the plunge – Uh, pledge.

Posted on | December 3, 2007 | 8 Comments

I, mel, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of “new” manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 6 months. I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoated, recylcled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftyness brings!

Signed: mel c purlingplans

I’ve been following the Wardrobe Refashion blog for awhile now – I love the concept and the intent, and Tad and I have been working to employ a 3 -step strategy to our purchasing in general:

1) Buy only what we need (Yes, I know books and music don’t constitute needs, and neither does yarn and fiber – ok, excepting those things, and possibly a few others too – we are trying, but definitely not perfect!)

2) Buy used

3) If used is not available, buy green (as much as possible)

I’ve had such fun watching the Refashionistas re-purpose old & thrifted clothing in creative and stylish ways (as well as sew new clothes from “scratch”!). I suffered a breakup with my sewing machine years ago and I don’t know that I’ll be tackling sewing an entire article of clothing anytime soon, but we have made amends to the point that I could stomach doing some minor stitching and repairs, and here is where my big plans with regard to the next 6 months of the pledge come in!

I’m going to tackle my mending pile. It’s shameful. I have a laundry bag full of clothing that needs to be hemmed, repaired, de-furred, or is otherwise is in need of attention. Some of the clothing has been in there for a year or more.) This tells you:

A) That I’m not in need of it – whatever is in that bag.

B) That I don’t miss it enough to have done something about it.

However, being that I’ve been getting better and better at curbing my packrat tendencies and purging/donating any clothing that isn’t being worn, I think that these clothes would have gone by the wayside if I didn’t still want them (Do they even still fit? That’s a whole other issue.) So, it stands to reason that I would wear them if they were in a condition to be worn ;)

I’d also like to take the opportunity to alter some clothes that should fit me better than they do – including a few finished knits that don’t get worn, but could be, with a little tweaking, I think!

I’m not a big shopper generally, and truly right now, there is nothing that we NEED. So when signups came up for December 1, I was ready to take the plunge for 6 months (I somehow just don’t think this will be that hard… Am I suffering from overconfidence? You’ll get a full confession here if that turns out to be the case!)

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Now playing: Eva Cassidy – Kathy’s Song

via FoxyTunes

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