I’ve done a lot of coat mending this winter. First was a donation coat that came to the Sew-op via a member of the Co-op. It needed a new zipper and had one pinned to it. It sat there a little while before I took it home, put in the new zipper, secured a seam that was coming loose, removed a clear-plastic ID pocket that was fragmenting, repaired a torn pocket – and mended a small hole that I nipped into it when removing the old zipper. After a trip through the washing machine it went to the local shelter’s closet for someone to stay warm in.
I didn’t photograph it really, except for this:
I tried the method of basting all the layers of the coat together prior to removing the zipper, so they stay put for installation of the new zipper. I had to do it twice because, unbeknownst to me, the lining was puffed up close to the zipper. You can see my stitching above the top piece of velcro. I didn’t have to baste both sides because the other had a seam line entirely inside the zipper.
When we were visiting my grandmother over Christmas, we went to a consignment store and a thrift store, and I bought a coat at each one. Vermont is definitely a place where a coat wardrobe sees use, and mine needed some upgrading. The first purchase was at the consignment store, where I found a nice long heavy coat… that needed some button help.
Such is the way of secondhand wardrobes. By the way, looks notwithstanding, that coat is entirely synthetic.
We went to the thrift store second, and I found a nice corduroy jacket for spring and fall. It just needed a little snag fixed up.
I was pleased with how the repair came out, especially since I didn’t actually have matching thread.
And there we are! A decent percentage of my coat wardrobe changed out – I donated two of my previous coats to make room for these.
So what’s the difference between a thrift store and a consignment store?
In this case, I mean by consignment “picks and chooses and may reject some donations” and by thrift “accepts everything (and consequently has a large trash bill).” Prices for consignment are higher than thrift, but there’s less digging to find high quality items. Consignment usually also gives some money to the original owner when the item sells (e.g. Karen’s Closet; actually this is probably the more central definition), though I don’t think the Discovery Shop does since they benefit a charity.