Clothes Deals at Goodwill

If you've been reading long you know that I love Goodwill. I've bought so many great things at great prices there over the years. And clothes have been no exception.

A few weeks ago David and I were in the mood to go looking around Goodwill. We weren't after anything in particular but just like to look around. I like the housewares, furniture and clothes. David likes the books, electronics and clothes. Trey likes the toys!

So, we head in and I'm drawn to the clothes. I really love the way my local Goodwill's organize the clothes, it works with the way I think. They put all the women's sleeveless shirts together and then by color. Then the women's short-sleeve tops together by color and so on. So I can easily just look for the kind of top/bottom I want and then look at the colors I'm interested in. I love it.

Well after a while of looking at jeans and other random stuff, I walked the skirt rack and 2 caught my eye. They had great colors and patterns. One was marked my size the other a little bigger. We were getting ready to check out when I noticed them so I didn't try them on. I figured if they were too small or didn't look right I'd just use the fabric for something else. So we bought them.

Then the next weekend we had the itch to go back to Goodwill, only this time a different one. I went straight for the clothes and started pulling tops in colors I liked/looked good on me. Of course I grabbed more than I thought I'd get because after trying stuff on you usually weed through the pile. I took 7 tops in and all of them I liked/fit! And they were all very comfy.  I was surprised that they all worked. This isn't always the case but you embrace it when it happens. So we bought them.

So, I had 2 skirts, 4 tank/sleeveless and 3 t-shirt tops. After trying everything on, I needed to alter both skirts, the pink tank, teal tank and teal shirt. I felt pretty confident in taking on these alterations since they were pretty basic. Skirt #1 was too long. Skirt #2 was too wide. Both the teal tank & teal shirt were too long and the pink tank was too wide.

With the help of my new serger I altered all my new clothes to my liking. I was SO excited that I was able to do all of this all by myself. And with a little help from the manual! I'd tried shortening some tops last year just using my sewing machine but I wasn't happy with the results. They were mostly knits with some stretch and when I hemmed them they puckered or the stitch would break. I know you can use a zig-zag stitch to help with stretch but I didn't like the look. This is one reason I asked for a serger for Christmas. I love that I was able to take at least 2 items that were sized too big for me and make them my size.

This thing worked beautifully! I'm VERY happy with my results and I'm now working on making some skirts and dresses using my serger. I'm enjoying learning how to make clothes.

Oh, and in case you are wondering most of these items are name brand pieces.
Pink tank- Jones New York
Green tank- Mossimo (Target)
Turq. tank- Old Navy
Teal tank- Ann Taylor
Pink tee- Gap
Teal tee- Apt 9 (Kohls)
Purple tee- Eddie Bauer
Skirts were brands I've never heard of.

Oh, and I got all of this for about $35. I LOVE GOODWILL!

In case you aren't familiar with Goodwill here's some tips.
Don't expect to find great deals every time. Some times you score big sometimes there's nothing good. Items are donated so the supply is constantly changing and that's what makes it so fun! Although I've seen many items with their original price tags on them, often from the original store that just needed to get rid of the items. So they are in great shape for fractions of the price.

Be open to finding diamonds in the rough. You have to search and look and try things on. I don't only buy clothes, I find decorative items for my home and sometimes furniture too. Be willing to look. Clothes can be altered, items can be painted or cleaned up, furniture can be refinished, fixed, altered and painted.

Give yourself time to look. If you are in a hurry you won't find as much.

The Oklahoma Goodwill's offer a discount card for each calendar year. It's about $5 for card and every time you use it they take 10% off your order. And around here that's more than sales tax. If you shop there often it's worth it to get the discount card.

So there's my story of my latest score from Goodwill.

If you shop Goodwill or thrift stores tell me what you get. Any awesome deals?  Please share!

Comments make me Happy!