The thrift store is the Velveteen Rabbit of clothes. Well-loved shirts, jeans, and skirts find themselves re-racked.

I’m not a shopper (except for books, of course), but once a year, maybe twice, I get my wild hair (or is it hare?). Time to hit the thrift stores! I have a good friend (who loves shopping, especially thrift, consignment, and resale), who drops everything for my annual hair (or hare).

Yesterday was my hair (or hare) day.

Shopping at thrift stores requires a bit of creativity. Mannequins don’t stand in the aisles telling you what to wear. The retailers don’t sell the clothes in matched pairs. In fact, the clothes may not come from the same decades.

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All the more fun.

It requires an eye for opportunity. I bought a shirt yesterday that will need some loving care to fix some of the beaded pattern. But this shirt will be a tunic for the ages when it’s ready (again)!

And, if you’d like to take it to the next step, it can employ re-creation. You can take an old pair of jeans (which you acquired for $3.98) and embroider a pattern on the pocket, perhaps incorporating beads. And who knows what you can do with that old bowling shirt? A veritable treasure!

As an added bonus, thrift store shopping is economical (something more and more people need these days) and earth-friendly. Instead of discarding into a landfill, instead of encouraging slave-labor environments, instead of new chemical dyes running through the rivers (not to mention rubbing against our skin), you have salvaged a perfectly good piece of clothing and re-saw the possibilities.

Note: Some thrift stores have dressing rooms. Some don’t. For those that don’t, I suggest wearing a skirt and a tank top so that you can pull up pants under your skirt and slide on shirts over your tank top.

Get thee to a thrift store!

Related article: It’s Thrifting Time