I’ve not bought any new manufactured clothes for over a year now. It all started last year when I challenged myself to go without for 6 months. I’d heard about a woman that was wearing the same brown dress every day for a whole year and this got me thinking about my own wardrobe. I’ve never really enjoyed clothes shopping, when I needed something I would go to one shop and hopefully buy what I needed in there. I wasn’t prepared to wear the same dress for a year but I as I’d been learning to sew I figured I could make my own. I mentioned my idea on my blog and asked if anyone would be crazy enough to join me on my challenge and to my surprise there were many. So, from this personal challenge the Wardrobe Refashion blog was born. My sewing skills have improved dramatically, I save more money and I’m recycling old clothes into new.
So, now I’m here to let you know about using recycled fabrics to sew your own clothes. This week I made Franzi 9302 using 2 old skirts I bought for 50c each at the thrift store. You will find my step by step instructions here: https://www.burdastyle.com/howto/show/48

A new vest, costing no more than a dollar and my time, would you have known it is made from 2 skirts?

It feels great to know that I’ve saved items of clothing from the landfill and it goes to show that although the clothes you find at the thrift store may not be something you’d wear as they are, they have the potential to become something new. So instead of buying new, why not give refashioning a try? You’ll save money, help the environment, improve your skills and have fantastic new individual clothes to wear and nobody else will have the same!

The BurdaStyle team is very excited to have Nichola posting bi-weekly on BurdaStyle.com! We also really like Nichola’s own blog nikkishell.typepad.com as well as the Wardrobe Refashion blog- where you can check out everyone else who pledged not to buy new clothes for the next six months: nikkishell.typepad.com/wardroberefashion