My Amish Dresses
I grew up wearing all hand sewn Amish dresses. I was third in line having two older sisters, so I got a lot of hand me downs, but my mom also made sure we got new dresses. (I don’t know how she managed this with five kids in five years except that she is a wonder woman.) When I turned 14, I had learned to sew all my own dresses. This gave me a little more freedom to add extras. I pushed the line as far as it would go, always wanting to add that extra forbidden frill to my frocks. In my era of the Amish lifestyle, this meant puffy sleeves. Oh, the covetousness in my heart for puffy sleeves! It meant fewer pleats for a more fitted skirt, and it meant shorter, and shorter, and shorter skirts. As short as respectfully possible, which as I look back wasn’t very respectful! So vain! Oh! I almost forgot curly sleeves. My cousin’s mom sewed the curliest sleeves in the whole world. I wanted curly sleeves so badly I could taste it. Curly sleeves are made by shortening the zigzag stitch length, then pulling the stretchy fabric as it goes through the sewing machine. It gives absolutely glorious results. At least I think so. I might just try that on my next dress I sew even though I am now a mature adult, I still think it would be lovely. I heard my daughters’ eye rolls. 🙂
We didn’t thrift shop for clothes back then since we sewed our own. So when I grew up, married the milk man, and we left the Amish church, I descended on thrift store shopping for clothes with a delighted ferocity. What fun to not have to sit and sew for a few hours for a dress. And how amazing that one can buy clothes cheaper than sew them! I didn’t know such a miracle existed. I love thrift stores to this day. Just not for clothing. I love browsing the miscellaneous aisles for housewares and books.
I have an Amish sister in law that really should be in Hollywood. She is beautiful and classy. We have our annual thrift store day with the females of my family. It’s called thrift store hopping. Diane, the beautiful, classy one, let it be known exactly how thrift store clothes gross her out. To respect all clothing thrift stores I will not delve in deeper! But it was enough to get me thinking. I am easily influenced by things that gross other people out. For instance, I have another sister in law who grosses out over meat on bones. Suddenly as I am enjoying a juicy chicken leg, my mind wanders to a pet chicken named Goldilocks my girls once had and I am just starting to not appreciate meat on bones so much. I mean, it’s a bone. Ew! It once hopped about! Okay, that’s enough, and totally off-topic too.
Why do I seldom purchase thrift store clothes? Here we go!
Why not?
Here’s why I don’t thrift shop for our clothes anymore:
- Because Kohls clearance racks
- Because JCPenney clearance racks
- Because Old Navy clearance racks
- Because Rue21 clearance racks
- Because any clearance racks I can find (I recently experienced Tanner Outlets for the first time. Oh my! Hello back end of stores!)
- Because clearance rack clothes are NEW! They smell new, they have no pillage, they feel soft and fresh.
Shop off-season, girl!
I shop off season. When I started it was kind of hard to get into the swing of it, and it took time to build up my seasonal stash. Then once I have purchased it, I wait at least six months to wear that cozy sweater because it’s a blistering 90 degrees when I bought it. Recently I bought a lovely sweater for this winter for 4.90 at Kohls. It was 85 degrees outside, and I didn’t feel like buying a thick, cozy sweater at all! But I did and now I have to make a trip back because they forgot to take the thing-a-ma-jig off. The alarm even went off as I walked out the door but no one even looked in my direction so i kept going. But as soon as that’s done, I will put it in my winter stash.
The first time I did this, and opened my winter box in November, I was so happy I had done it. I couldn’t believe the prices I had paid. So cheap! I have a dress I wear a lot that I purchased at Rue21 for three bucks off-season. It’s beautiful and I always get compliments whenever I wear it. I can’t possibly sew cheaper than this. That being said, I do still sew, but not often. Usually when I do, there is a wedding involved somehow.
Here are my rules:
- Never pay more than four or five dollars for shirts, blouses or skirts
- Never pay more than ten dollars for a dress or blazer. Only pay ten dollars if it’s so breathtaking you can’t even. Try to stay at the five dollar rule, or maybe seven dollars as much as possible even in this category.
- I like to have five sweaters or cardigans per winter to change up. I don’t know how much you all like, but this number works well for me.
So there you have it! I no longer thrift shop for clothes because I have discovered I can buy new clothes off clearance racks at about the same price. Have fun as you venture out and try it!
