How to Make Your Thrift Store Finds Fit You -

To be honest, I probably wouldn’t thrift as much as I do if I couldn’t alter the clothing I buy. Nothing ever fits right — the waist of the jeans gap, the shirt is too long, the dress lays in the wrong places. That is the kind of stuff I fix for customers all the time as a seamstress/tailor, but those alterations can add up ($$$), especially when you come home with a bunch of items at a time in need of fixing.

I regularly alter dozens and dozens of wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, pants, shirts, skirts, cushions, curtains, etc. every week for customers. It’s an amazing skill!! I want everyone to learn how to sew.

Because of this, I can go to any thrift store or regular store and basically buy anything whether it fits, whether it’s three sizes too big or if it’s just butt-ugly and needs some major love. I feel a sense of control and ownership over what I put on my body because of that.

Today I’m going to show you how I altered an ugly skirt from Goodwill to both fit me and be cute. This tutorial is running on the assumption that you already know the basics of how to work a sewing machine and have maybe done your own alterations before or sewn some stuff. If not, you’ll get there! YouTube is everything.

I’ll let you know right now that clothing alterations are not easy. It involves a lot of picking apart and putting back together. But if you practice, then you, too, can buy that grandma skirt from your local thrift store and make it into a trendy, unique piece to brag about and be proud of. That’s pretty rad.

THE DREADED 80s SECRETARY SKIRT

First of all, how did this sucker first fit me when I bought it for $3 at Goodwill? Like this:

Very wide around the waist and too long. This is what I wanted it to look like:

So, let’s get started.

STEP ONE
Have a friend put a pin in the skirt where you want it to be hemmed. For me, that was a few inches above my knee. I took the skirt off and measured how much I needed to cut off between the pin and the bottom. You can see that it’s about 9 inches here.

Put pins 9 inches all the way around the skirt, then cut an inch or two below the pins so you have enough fabric to roll it up and hem it at the end.

Here’s the waist of the skirt. You can see that it’s a double-sided band that holds the fabric and the lining together. On the back, you can tell there’s elastic inside where the fabric scrunches.

STEP TWO
Time to turn on your machine and thread your needle and bobbin with black thread. Put the setting on a regular straight stitch, medium tension. This happens to be a nice, thick fabric that’s easy to work with, so that’s a bonus.

STEP THREE
Now we’re getting into it. You will want to detach the waistband from the fabric/lining a few inches on each side where you’ll be taking in the waist. You can do this with a seam ripper or a razor blade.

[Note: on skirts like this, where there aren’t any pockets, belt loops, or fancy stitching, taking in the waist on each side at your hips is the best route. There isn’t a seam down the back, there are only seams on the sides. For a jean skirt or pants, on the other hand, you’d fully take in the back instead.]

STEP FOUR
Move the waistband and the lining out of the way a little bit so you can fit your needle at the top of the fabric, starting where the waistband was. By now you should have also had someone pin how many inches you’ll need to take in the waist. For me it was 4 inches, so I split the difference 2 inches on each side.

Here, you will sew straight down 1 inch from the edge (because the fabric is doubled here, 1 inch from the seam will be 2 inches total) all the way to the bottom. There’s no hem to worry about right now since you already cut it off.

Cut off your extra fabric and leave 1/2 inch or so seam allowance.

Repeat the same step with the lining! Then repeat another 2 inches on the other hip as well, on fabric and lining.

STEP FIVE
Now that you have a seam allowance at your new seam on each side, you’ll have to make sure it won’t fray in the wash. If you have a serger machine, definitely use it. If you’re like most of us and don’t, you can just switch to a zig zag stitch on your machine and go all the way down the edge.

INTERLUDE
Now, take a look at your work. You’ve successfully taken in the sides! However, your waistband is now gapping because you haven’t taken it in yet too. This part will be the most tedious.

STEP SIX
Turn the waistband inside out so it looks like this below. You can see the elastic here now.

There are two ways to do this if it has elastic. You can sew the fabric/elastic an inch in like you did with the skirt part and then cut off the excess. This is the “normal” way. OR you can literally just pull the elastic tighter and sew it down. I went with the first option because this material is so thick/stiff — the elastic doesn’t do much for it and honestly I don’t know why they put it here.

So: Measure 1 inch in (or however much you need), and sew straight down. It may take a bit of maneuvering/you may need to open the waistband up a bit more to get it fully under the needle.

Cut off the excess and leave a seam allowance, as shown in the second picture below.

STEP SEVEN
When you flip the waistband right side out again, you’ll see that you now have a waistband circumference that matches your skirt! However, it’s still detached a few inches. This is where the whip stitching comes in.

Because it can be difficult to catch both sides of the waistband if you try to topstitch it on the machine (and maybe you don’t want to see a seam on the outside), I think it looks nicer to sew it back in place by hand, using a whip stitch or slip stitch.

Thread a needle and start from the inside, catching both sides of the fabric semi-invisibly. You can YouTube this if you need to. I think this is the easiest part and it always looks pretty professional. See the second picture below for a finished stitch!

STEP EIGHT
Alright, you got through the most difficult part! Now all that’s left is the hem. Because this fabric is so thick, I decided not to fold the hem over twice but instead just once. Because of this, I needed to make sure the edge wouldn’t fray. A simple zig zag stitch all the way around will do the trick.

Usually, skirts in this style are blind hemmed, meaning they are hemmed with a stitch that you can’t see from the outside. I have a blind hemmer, so I just used that, but regular sewing machines also have a blind hem feature.

Otherwise, a simple topstitch will do. To get a crisp, even hem, you can fold up the hem and press it with an iron before you even sew. This works really well on fabric like this that will hold its shape without you doing much. Plus, perfect hem!

Additionally, you will need to hem the lining as well. Cut the lining about 1 inch shorter than your outside fabric, then pin it where you want the length. Since lining fabric is thin and slippery, go slowly and fold it over twice so you don’t see a raw edge.

STEP NINE
You are basically done! Now you have to do my favorite part, which is pressing all the seams so everything is smooth and flat. And finally, try it on!!

Do NOT be discouraged if it doesn’t fit the way you want it to. This takes practice, and sometimes clothing alterations is a multi-step process. Often customers at the shop have multiple fittings. I even had to fix part of the hips on this skirt because it bubbled a little. Adjusting to perfection is part of tailoring.

And now, for the finished product!