Posts Tagged ‘clothing’

Declutter Your Fall/Winter Wardrobe

Wednesday, August 24th, 2022

declutter-boho-capsule-wardrobe

Today I’m going to show you how to declutter your wardrobe to make more space for what you truly wear and love. Getting rid of everything that you don’t wear and don’t like will eliminate so many clothing choices, so that you have fewer clothing choices in the morning, but all of them are your favorites.

I will also give you a glimpse into my clothing style, which is mostly Boho. I discovered that my favorite way to dress is Bohemian style, which includes flowy feminine tops and dresses that may remind you of the 1960’s. When I was in my early 20’s, I loved this style and had forgotten about it when I became a mother and focused all my attention on raising my family. It was not until my kids reached their teen years that I realized that I didn’t like the way I looked in many of my clothes. By going through this process that I’m showing you today, I came to find out that I feel most myself when I wear Boho style.

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If you have a different style, go ahead and look up online what clothing styles are out there, and see which ones suit your personality the best. My daughter loves vintage style. She likes, for example, dresses from the 1920’s, along with a variety of hats. She wears these to church, to square dancing, and to any other function where a dress would be appropriate. But then she also wears classic style clothing whenever she is hanging out with friends.

So if you open your closet doors and remove all of your clothing, throw all the hanging clothes onto your bed, and go through each one. I tried on each one, realizing that some were scratchy or didn’t fit any more. I got rid of anything that wasn’t beautiful and comfortable. That left me with about 33 pieces in total, which is what fashion designers call a capsule wardrobe. A capsule wardrobe is the essential pieces that you wear all the time, but for me, they are the only pieces I have, aside from a couple of Christmas sweaters I found later in a cupboard. Whenever I get a new piece of clothing, I get rid of one that has stains or isn’t as nice as the new piece. This way I always have a reasonable amount of clothing.

You don’t have to whittle down to only 33 pieces, but if you go through these steps, you will find that you have clothing that intermatches. Your favorite colors are probaby seen multiple times in your wardrobe. If not, you can build a wardrobe that includes more of the colors that you love.

Look at what your main colors are in your wardrobe, and see what pieces you would like to buy to help you wear what you love more often. You can get clothing inexpensively at resale shops, where I’ve gotten most of my clothing over the years. You will be glad to wear what you love more often with accessories that intermatch what you already have.

Finally, when you hang up everything you love in your wardrobe, you will see that your life is simplified, and you feel better about yourself. Because your style is what makes you feel more yourself, you will feel better about how you look, which will help you to take better care of your body in general.

I hope you enjoy my runway-style video, showing you how you can intermatch your clothing, using basic colors like blue, gray, or black as a blank canvas for your brighter splashes of color. Have fun with it!

Creative Ways to Use Cookie Cutters #7: Patches

Friday, April 26th, 2013

how-to-make-a-patch-for-clothesAnother creative way to use a cookie cutter is to make decorations for your clothing. I will show you how to make a patch for clothes.

It all started one Sunday afternoon while resting on my bed. My daughter came up to me with a flower decal on her shirt. A light bulb went off inside my mind, and I asked her to go get the cookie cutter and put it against her shirt. Sure enough, the decal was exactly the same as the cookie cutter. I thought to myself, “You could easily make a decal for your clothes using a scrap of felt and some embellishments.”

I recommend using felt because you don’t need to hem it, and it won’t fray. Use the cookie cutter as a stencil to trace around on a piece of felt. Use a marker or pen if you can’t see pencil marks on the cloth. Cut the felt shape.

You can decorate the felt shape with fabric markers or sew a pattern with contrasting colors of thread. You can sew buttons, glitter, ribbon, or other embellishments onto your shape.

Using fabric glue, paste the felt shape onto a long or short-sleeve T-shirt that is boring and blah. Make sure you use color-coordinated fabrics for a beautiful result.

To make the T-shirt more durable, you will want to sew around the edge of the felt shape. This is a perfect simple sewing project for a child who is brave enough to use a pointy (not blunt) needle. Just sew a simple stitch up and down, all the way around the shape. Now you are finished. You may wear your masterpiece for everyone to enjoy.

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I can’t wait to show you idea #8! Stay tuned for something you can use to make birthdays special…

Modesty or Frumpiness?

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Until the past few years, most of my life I’ve worn frumpy clothes. There’s a reason for this. I grew up in a Latin American country where men whistled at me even when I was a child. I felt hatred and a slight bit sick to my stomach. When worse things happened to me as an adult, there was no way I wanted a man to ever look at me. Hence the big, baggy shirts that didn’t fit properly. And in my justified prudishness, I never even considered what my husband thought about the way I dressed.

A few years ago, two of my sisters went shopping for clothes with me at a resale shop. They told me my jeans were way too big. When I tried on jeans that actually fit me, they said, “Wow.” They had me try on shirts that were my size instead of an extra large. The shirts felt too clingy. But my body was completely covered.

“How do you justify showing off your shape to the world?” I asked my sisters in an effort to obey God by submitting to my husband’s reasonable request to wear clothes that fit me.

“The way I see it is this,” answered one of my sisters. “If God had intended me to look like a man, He would have made me a man. It’s not a sin to have bumps.” In fact, by looking like a man, I’m disobeying Scripture that says that a woman should not look like a man.

In this country, men don’t even look at you. And if they do, who cares? I realized that there are different ways that a man looks at a woman. Let me give you an example.

When I wear a dress, I turn heads. Why? I have no idea. My hair and make-up look identical, and I don’t turn heads when I’m not wearing a dress (even with form-fitting clothes). What is it about a dress that’s appealing to men? It’s the shape of the body, the hourglass shape. But my husband taught me the difference between appreciation and lust. When I’m in a dress (completely covered), men look at me with happiness and NOT lust. I know the difference now. I don’t feel yucky when a man looks at me. There’s a difference between “That woman looks pretty” (similar to “That sunset looks pretty”), and “I want to sleep with that woman.” In one instance the man is not sinning, and I feel fine; in the other instance, I feel disgusting.

I also realized that a dress shows vulnerability and femininity. I’m furious about showing vulnerability. I would like to be seen as a person who could knock someone out. But when it comes to my husband, for heaven’s sake, I want to be pretty and feminine and vulnerable, because when I am, we are more connected as a couple. And that’s pleasing to God.

So if your husband wants you to wear something that is not frumpy, and you’re justifying your rebellion on some modesty speech you heard at a homeschool conference, that modesty speech doesn’t apply to you. Guess what? With form-fitting clothes, nobody looks at me. I look pretty for my husband instead of looking ugly.

Older women are to teach the younger women how to love their husbands (Titus 2). It wasn’t until I entered my 40’s that I gained some perspective on life. I’m telling you, doing this one thing makes your marriage sweet, and you will feel peace from God after you’ve gotten over your prudishness. The bottom line is to ask your husband how he would like you to dress, and then ask God to help you to submit.

Saving Money on Children’s Clothes

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

saving-money-on-children's-clothesSaving money on children’s clothes has been important to me, since the children outgrow their clothing so fast. I came home a few days ago with fresh clothing for each of my children for the fall. I usually go to a children’s resale shop. Many of these shops will give you cash or in-store credit for clothing that is outgrown, or toys that your children no longer play with. I can’t remember how many times God has provided exactly what my children needed through these resale shops. I take boxes of things I no longer need. I pray that God will provide the very things that I need for my children. When the exchange is done, only a few coins are spent. I get a huge bag of almost new, name-brand clothing for my children for (basically) free!

Yard sales are another place I go to get clothing, and I find wonderful things sometimes. But the resale shops have clothing in all the sizes of my children, and it’s all in one spot, so it’s a better use of my time. Plus, a garage sale won’t swap my old stuff for me to buy their stuff. They are in the mood to make money and don’t want any more stuff. Plus, I’ve noticed that at most yard sales, clothing isn’t even worth looking at, unless you are in a rich neighborhood. I don’t understand why people put out stained, stretched-out clothing, as if anyone would buy such garbage. This is what gives garage sales a bad name – mostly the pathetic clothing!

That said, this time I actually did spend money. That’s because I had nothing to exchange. And normally I show some sort of wisdom as I switch over the children’s clothing from summer to fall. I write down what each child lacks. If one of my children doesn’t have swim trunks (because he’s grown out of his smaller ones), I write that down. If someone’s winter jacket has a broken zipper and a missing hood, I write that down. You see, it’s like grocery shopping. I come armed with a list. And I mostly stick to the list, unless I see something wonderful that we always need, like more long-sleeved shirts for the boys, especially for my oldest boy, since he hands them down to his two younger brothers.

So I didn’t have a list for the first time, and I had nothing to swap, and I was in the mood to go shopping. I knew the kids needed fall clothing. My husband blessed my shopping spree and gave me cash. He said, “Have fun.” I felt oddly disoriented with cash in my pocket and without my list, but I cried out to God as I drove the car, that would He please provide what I needed, even though I didn’t know what it was!

God was so good. I looked through the racks, starting with size 10 for my oldest son. (I always shop for my sons first, since shopping for girl’s clothing is so much more fun!) The only thing I could find was three long-sleeved shirts. Come to find out the next day when I switched over the boys’ clothes, that’s the very thing he needed. He only had five shirts, and one or two of them looked like they might be too small. So three more shirts rounded out his only need for clothing. (I’m choked up, because only God could have known that.)

For my second son, several months ago, I asked him what he would get if he had a million dollars. His eyes got wide, and he looked like he had never thought of what he wanted before. He finally said, “A new pair of pajamas.” I laughed. I said, “What’s wrong with your pajamas?” “I’m just sick of looking at them every day,” he replied. You’ll never guess what I found at the resale shop: a new-looking, very soft and comfy pair of pajamas. He loved the color, and he was so happy.

I also found two name-brand sweaters for him, and later on I found out that he was my only son with virtually no sweaters. (Snow is on the ground up to five months here in Washington.) I also found a long-sleeved shirt he loved.

For my third son, I only found two things, but it ended up that he didn’t really need much. I found a beautiful coat for my daughter, and this was odd because her other jacket was fine except for the stains. God was so sweet, He upgraded her jacket just to make me feel rich and lavished upon. You know how God is. And I found some long-sleeved shirts, which she badly needed, having only two or three in her closet, and having to wear them every day for fall, winter, and spring.

I guess the biggest way to save money while shopping for children’s clothes is to commit your way to the Lord, and just see what He will do.

Frugal Homeschool Friday