Hello friends! Alicia here :) I've been having a few chats with friends and family members about this topic lately so I thought I'd bring it here and chat with you guys as well because it's something important to me and something I'm hoping to help with through Sasspot.
So here's the deal friends, we throw out A LOT of clothes! And I won't lie I'm super guilty of it as well, it's so easy to go out and buy a new outfit when I'm feeling kinda meh about myself or my life. It's a great pick me up! But what happens in 2 months when I look at that new shirt and I HATE it, it gets thrown out or sent to a thrift store.
I am a HUGE fan of donating my old clothes, but do you know what happens when the clothes can't be sold at thrift stores or they get holes in them? They get thrown out and wind up in a massive landfill creating rubbish.
There's also the political aspects of Fast Fashion that are super concerning. Fast Fashion companies often use cheap labour to create the products and then they make bank on the markup when they sell it to you.
When I started Sasspot and started making things it was largely to get rid of the collection of fabric I had amassed over time. Scraps and snippets from other projects, old sheets, bolts of fabric I picked up because they were cool when a theatre was closing; but the more I went through the process and worked to start up the business the more I realized the impact that could be made.
With the amount of stuff we throw away thrifting is a really great option to not only save some $$ but also to help reduce the impact shopping has on the planet. We live here so we should be trying to take care of it! And as a bonus finding a name brand pair of jeans that fit perfectly because someone else has already stretched them out a bit and only cost you $5 is just perfection.
Sasspot opened my eyes to thrifting, up to this point I have been a terrible thrifter. I'm really bad at hanger banging my way through a thrift store or trying to find gems at yard sales without getting bored...there's also something about that industrial detergent smell that can be super off putting.
I am officially a convert though! I've figured out what works for me and funny enough it's something that I do when I'm shopping regularly. I shop with a PURPOSE! I can't just go into a thrift store to poke around, I need to go in with a goal, then when I'm in there I start looking in other sections and almost always walk out with an armload.
My thrifting journey started when I wanted a pair of boyfriend jeans...you know the ones, comfy with a few holes, a bit baggy but still tight enough that your butt looks nice in them...yeah those ones. But because I'm stubborn and cheap I didn't want to go out and pay for them at a store, because buying jeans in a store is THE.WORST. Then a friend took me thrifting and it was like a lightbulb went off. I walked out of the store with 2 pairs (a long one and a cropped pair because options) and I paid like $8. Another major perk? They were already broken in!!!! I didn't have to hop around to get in them and they fit like a dream. Yes my friends nice fitting jeans are a thing that can happen!
I walked out of the fitting room and I suddenly had this burst of energy and I tore through the rest of the store. You better believe I walked out with way more than 2 pairs of pants.
So that's how it started and now whenever I need to kill time I stop at a thrift store. I have walked out with nothing, I have walked out with a stack the size of my upper body, because that's the game! It's a lottery you either win big or you lose.
Then I started thinking about how I could apply that principle to my business, because frankly walking into a fabric store at 29-30 and being helped out by the old ladies who look at you like "how are you in here you probably don't know what you're doing" is a super rude and insulting experience. It's like I'm invading their terf about 30 years too early.
But you know where a lot of really great fabric can be found - you guessed it! THRIFT STORES! Because when those old lady crafting hoarders pass away their family is like WTF do we do with grandmas fabric stash and they donate it. It's a treasure trove! I also look for things like bedding and clothing in cool patterns as well because those can be transformed as well.
This is the part where I tell you I've thrifted some really rad things for my craft show displays too. So creativity is definitely a factor when you're wandering through that thrift shop. Think outside the box and I guarantee you'll find some winners.
So what's the point of this whole blog post? Well it's really rambley and I appreciate you sticking with me this long, but what I'm getting at is how cool it is when you open your eyes to new ways of shopping. And at the same time you can have an impact on the world around you.
So get to thrifting and as always Stay Sassy!
