Is it really a good deal?

Have you ever thought you were getting a really good deal on something only to discover at a later date that it wasn't as thrifty as you'd hoped? For example:


We often shop at thrift stores and do not try clothes on before we buy them. At a thrift store there are no returns. We usually come home and say things like, "We bought five skirts and five shirts for the price of one new outfit!" Then after we wash and try the items on, we find out there were tears from the tag/staples put in at the store, or that the some clothes are too tight to be worn modestly. Suddenly our average price per item is rising. These mistakes teach us to shop more wisely next time. And ultimately it is still a better deal than shopping at a real store, but disappointing just the same.


Another common experience is in sewing. We'll find a pattern that we already own and even material that was left-over and start to create an outfit, usually for a little member of our family. Four days later the project is just not what we'd dreamt it would become. Too many adjustment have to be made to compensate for too little fabric. Even if we keep the finished product long enough to take a picture, it just isn't useful after that. On the other hand, sometimes the addition of a little skirt to an unused onesie becomes a beautiful dress.


Recently, we found instructions for making a tiered skirt. You know, the kind that are different, yet coordinating fabrics on four levels. The fabrics used on the example made it look like it would be pretty even without yards and yards of gathered fabric. They used striped fabrics on two layers. That added a gathered effect. It sounded like an inexpensive way to make a nice full skirt. Next, we went to the clearance table of our neigborhood fabric store and started "matching" materials for the levels of four skirts. (BTW, that took me hours because I, Marcella, am color challenged for sure) We're posting some photos today of the finished products.

We concluded that all three of us (Kendal, Kelsey and Marcella) prefer the very full, gathered tiered skirts. So we decided that in the future we'll adjust the pattern from online to suit our tastes. We were able to change around some of the fabric and make Kendal's skirt fuller.

For thirty dollars I had purchased enough fabric to make two nightgowns for little girls, and material for three tiered skirts. That was a great deal! Most of the fabric was $2-3 a yard. My skirt materials were mostly fall colors. So I went back for some last minute summer fabrics. It was so bright and unusual for me that I was concerned I'd never wear it. Thankfully a friend invited us to a Hawaiian theme birthday party that week and I developed a love for the comfort of my new, crazy skirt.

The toughest part is to make a cool, cotton skirt that doesn't require a slip. If you have to wear a nylon slip it just defeats the whole purpose of wearing cool cotton! So I'm going to make a slip of muslin this week!

In the end, I think we'll have two nightgowns and four skirts for about thirty-five dollars! That's not bad at all.


This is Kendal's skirt. Hers has four widths of fabric on the bottom, three on the third tier, two on the second and one on the top.
This is my "summer" skirt. According to the pattern, you can also pull it up to chest level and make it a dress. We didn't include any photos of that! :)
This is Kelsey's skirt. Each of us sewed our own. These were the first projects that the girls had made on their new sewing machine!