I don’t know about you, but I often feel guilty about clothing that hangs in the back of my closet (or better yet, in a “to mend, gift, sell, etc” pile) unworn - especially when that clothing was a gift or was expensive.

I’ve been trying to let go of that guilt - I sometimes feel like I know too much about the garment industry and the waste it produces, or at least, I know enough to feel guilt when I think about donating clothing.

So my unworn clothing sits. Sometimes for years. And as I gather sewing skills, I am becoming more confident in my ability to upcycle as opposed to downcycle (or just make it even less wearable for me than I already find it).

I went to the back of my closet last night and found my bag of “things I would feel bad about donating, but I’m not really wearing, either” and pulled out a few things, emboldened by the success of my latest puff sleeve top alteration project.

I pulled out these 3 dresses to start with:

From left to right

A dress I thrifted in Silver Lake at a farmers’ market back in 2019. It’s a lovely, weighty cotton, made in California. The color is so stunning and I love the unique collar.

My intended alteration(s): seam-ripping the sides up to approximately my waist & adding in-seam pockets in a light, scrap fabric, and taking up the hem (which is poorly finished with a serger right now) 1-2 inches to bring the dress length to above the knee on me.

A cotton-linen blend dress my friend Lauren made for me, for my birthday, in 2017. It’s such a beautiful, bias cut garment, but I so rarely wear anything that hugs my body, I find myself not reaching for it.

My intended alterations: I’d like to use the bottom of the dress to cut a little toddler dress, and since the dress is bias cut, I can easily cut bias tape out of it to finishes the arm holes. I’d like to see if I have enough left over to make the top of the dress into a tank top. If not, I think it’d look lovely as a little bear (I recently bought a zine on stuffed toy making from The Far Woods).

A cotton dress made in India, given as a gift by a small company that no longer exists. I have already tried altering this dress twice, and it just didn’t make it wearable enough for me. It was a great exercise in learning french seams, though! I even french seamed the gathered waist, I’m pretty chuffed with that.

My intended alternations: turn the skirt into shorts, and see if I have enough fabric to turn the bodice into a crop top to wear with the shorts. I think I may refresh the iron dye with a bit of iron at home, but I’ll do that once I finish sewing it (I’ll use cotton thread so it takes the dye, too).

These are my plans for giving these garments some new life - here’s hoping I can execute them as I envision! And if not, at least I’m getting some solid practice under my belt.