Smaller me! YEAH! Can't afford new clothes! Boo!

October 19, 2011 5:39 PM

I have lost weight, yeah! What do do about my clothes that no longer fit?

I have been on the divorce diet. As a result of my recent separation, I am on a really tight budget now and cannot afford new clothes. So, my question is, should I take my clothes that I love and wash them in hot water and try to shrink them? or toss the lot and get new clothes at Goodwill? Lots of what I want to make smaller are sweaters.

posted by jennstra to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (14 answers total)

Are there any consignment stores near you? Whenever i outgrow or outshrink clothes, I give them to the consignment store, which gives me 40% of the resale price, and I put that towards my new clothing purchases. The store I use is "designer" (but that ranges from Banana Republic all the way up to the occasional Chanel) so it's a halfway decent return.

Some items you may be able to have tailored to fit you better, depending on where/how you've lost the weight.

Congratulations!
posted by olinerd at 5:43 PM on October 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

How much are we talking? Like is your waist just an inch or two smaller or is it so much weight loss that things are looser in the shoulders, bust, everywhere?

Depending on how much/where you lost the weight, alterations to your clothes may or may not be feasible. Taking in the waist on a blouse is easy enough and costs the same as or only a few dollars more than a used blouse at Goodwill. Taking in everywhere is hard to impossible and expensive.

Taking in knits can be done too, depending, but is technically more difficult and also expensive. Full reweaving is $$$, taking in a seam without making it perfect and matching the original yarn of the knit might be within your price range. In general you might be better off just getting used sweaters unless they are nice cashmere ones that were expensive to begin with.

(also, not to be a jerk but if you just lost weight from stress from the divorce you might gain some back once your life is more settled. think before you hack up your absolute most favorite clothes)
posted by slow graffiti at 5:48 PM on October 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

I sold some of the nicer, less worn things on eBay. A lot of clothes I just gave to Goodwill and figured that it was better than throwing them out.

You can probably get by on a lot fewer clothes than you think. Supposedly, people wear 20% of what they own 80% of the time, so you can probably get away with not replacing everything. I've found this to be true even after getting rid of a lot of stuff that didn't fit. I need to do another clothing purge, actually.

Like slow graffiti said, it's possible that you'll gain some of the weight back. I would wait for 6 months or so to get rid of stuff that you really, really love that doesn't fit now.
posted by k8lin at 5:55 PM on October 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Shrinking plain t-shirts has worked for me (not when I've lost weight, but when I wanted a tighter fit), but that was because I previously only washed them on cold/hang dried. I don't know what effect going extra-hot would have. Sweaters you should not heat-shrink-- you will end up with oddly shaped doll clothes. I would try selling things on your own first (if you have a way to advertise locally, that has worked the best for me), and then think about consignment, or making temporary "alterations" (wearing a waist belt to cinch or layering) until you think you've reached a stable weight. I've resold name brand stuff locally for more than I actually paid for it. Good luck!
posted by stoneandstar at 6:04 PM on October 19, 2011

I would say to first go through your closet for the items that you haven't worn for say, 6 months, and sell those at a consignment shop. You can also go shopping while your there and see if you can find anything.

I would only invest in getting tailored the pieces you really love.

Don't try to shrink things. They'll look terrible.
posted by DoubleLune at 6:14 PM on October 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You will feel a lot better if you have some clothes that fit you just right.

Shrinking things has never worked well for me - they don't shrink in the right dimension, or they get shorter as well as narrower.
- Even decent, non-designer consignment stores will usually give you better store credit than cash for your nicer clothes (take all of the nice stuff there, they'll often choose just the items they figure they can sell).
- I've found some really nice stuff at Goodwill that I'd never have purchased new - it's a Great option when your size is changing.
- If you have a friend that sews, you might look into bartering something for a little tailoring on your favorite clothes, or take it to a tailor to find out what alterations would cost.
posted by ldthomps at 6:35 PM on October 19, 2011

If the consignment shop won't take some things, you may want to donate them to a women's shelter. My wife did that when she lost a bunch of weight, and they were VERY glad to get larger-sized donations.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:42 PM on October 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Are you crafty at all? Sweaters might be tricky, but I recently picked up a cheap sewing machine and started doing little alterations myself. It took some time and effort to get started, but that's a lot less expensive than new clothes. Most of my favorite things are t-shirts, though, so they're easier to sew.

Otherwise, as someone said above: belts. Pick up a couple of nice belts and start cinching things in around your rib cage. Fortunately flowy, belted things are actually "in" for Fall fashion I hear, so you can even pretend you're just following trends. ;)
posted by jess at 6:57 PM on October 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Perhaps you could throw a clothing swap with friends of all different sizes? That way you could swap out some of the clothes that you don't want and get new ones, all for the glorious price of FREE.
posted by so much modern time at 6:58 PM on October 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Even if you replace your wardrobe entirely, I wouldn't get rid of your old clothing for at least a year, ideally several. At the very least, I would avoid getting rid of or altering any favorites, and keep a few basic staples (your most comfy pair of jeans, etc) as well. You could easily gain back some or all of your weight once you've recovered from the divorce, and you don't want to end up in the same wardrobe situation again because you've tossed all the clothes that used to fit you. I learned this lesson from hard, expensive experience, so I thought I'd pass it on.
posted by bettafish at 6:59 PM on October 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Here is how I take in pants. I am doing a pair now. If you gain weight back, you can cut out the elastic again. Memail me if it makes no sense.

If you shrink things, usually I find they get all stretched out as you wear them and are annoyingly enormous by the end of the day.
posted by artychoke at 8:14 PM on October 19, 2011

Best answer: Are you still losing weight? If so only give away the REALLY ill fitting clothes.

I sewed a lot of clothes myself when I lost weight (an inch down each trouser leg, taking in at the seam on some tops). I went really skinny then after a little while (around a year) averaged out to a nice medium, so I was glad I didn't give away all my medium sized clothes.

I sold HEAPS of clothes at a car boot sale, when two or three weekends and the stuff I didn't sell from that adventure all went to charity.
posted by jujulalia at 2:42 AM on October 20, 2011

Look for clothes on eBay, too. You may be able to pick up a few nice items for very little money, including items that people bought with a view to shrink into them and have never worn.
posted by koahiatamadl at 7:52 AM on October 20, 2011

I have fluctuating weight. I alter the favorites that I can, keep those that I can't (I have to really love them and consider them irreplaceable), and donate the rest.
posted by Salamandrous at 9:51 AM on October 20, 2011