Thrift Flipping

By: Marinel Marollano

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What if I told you the most sustainable thing you can do is go shopping in your own closet? I  know what you’re thinking “that’s not real shopping!” but when you take old clothing and  accessories and turn it into something new, you’re actually thrifting, flipping, up cycling, and  “shopping” all at once!

Often good practice is cleansing Closet. You will not only save valuable space by ridding your  dressing room of things that do not fit or have not been worn in the past six months, but also  allows you to re-evaluate your personal taste. Thrift flipping is a concept borrowed from the real  estate industry. Buying a piece of land, doing some work on it, and then selling it for more than  you paid for it is known as “flipping” in real estate. There are many strategies for thrift flipping. By taking inventory of your wardrobe, noting what you no longer want, and attempting to sell it,  you can thrift flip your own clothes. Although some people think of thrift flipping as simply  making more money off an item than you paid for it, it can also be like shopping to your own  wardrobe and up cycling clothing to give it a new life. You may wonder what they mean if you’ve  ever heard someone say they’ll go thrifting. In other words, thrifting means shopping, garage  sales and flea markets, where you will find items that are used carefully at discounted prices.  Sweeped items were loved by a previous owner, but usually have good shape and sufficient life to  make a new owner useful. Seeing my mother sewing had caught my interest in thrift flipping, starting by cutting a big shirt and turning into two piece clothes and the rest fabric will be rugs is one of the most nostalgic experiences I had. But honestly I really don’t have any idea that what I’m doing was thrift flipping, I just know that I want to fix my clothes based on what I wanted it to be. Addition to that I’m a skinny person and most of the time the clothes I had bought were really not fit to my figure and for that a lot of my clothes were fixed by myself first before I wore it. One of the most interesting parts was I started thrift flipping by sewing with my own bare hands because unfortunately I can’t afford buying sewing machines before, but that reason didn’t stop me to be creative with what I have. After learning and developing my creativity and skills in sewing and thrift flipping I decided to buy some clothes in a thrift store because since I am broke financially I really have to find alternative ways to be in trend without spending a lot of money. It’s not really necessary to catch what’s popular but personally it gives me satisfaction whenever I feel appreciated by some other people most especially when I tell them that what they saw came from a thrift store or in rug clothes. One of the most gratifying pieces everyone couldn’t ever imagine I made is I turned my silk fabric which is my blanket into two piece matching clothes and I made it last summer out of boredom I guess. My second favorite piece was my Levis bag and obviously it came from my Levis jeans that I bought in a thrift store. And I could really say that up until now I’m still learning a lot of things with this kind of work. Fashion really have place in my heart that’s why I am really dedicated when I’m creating my piece and at the same time I always feel my love to myself when I do thrift flipping because obviously I do it for myself.

I wanted to flip this oversized wrangler polo shirt, I’m really fan of this neon to pastel color of  yellow and what I wanted to be the outcome of this polo shirt will gives me like soft casual style  vibe and also what I want to change in this shirt is the fit and shape to my body, I also want to  show skin and to emphasize my body.

The first thing that I do is to tried it on and marked how much I wanted to take it on sides and  also marked where I wanted the shirt to crop then I took it off and drew a line where I marked. I  cut the shirt at the line and I started to draw the line where I originally marked how much I  wanted to take it and once I drew that line I added some sewing pins, took my sewing machine  and just sewed aligned it straight down what I drew, after that I tried it on and it looks stunning.  Here are the result…

Creativity differs from all, and each in their own way is creative. Sometimes you have to think outside of the box and think something new and different from what is usually there to be creative. I am inspired to create different reasons. The aspiration to make something new is one thing that inspires me. It feels good if I know I got something. There you go, thrift flipping 101.  Have fun and get creative!