It’s been a while since our last “ask me” column! Here’s a great question from Marcy, and I’d love to hear from you too on this one.
“I’d love to know what you do with the clothes you’ve sewn for yourself or your daughter that have been worn out or grown out of. I know you can’t have much storage space living in NYC, so do you give clothes away that you’ve made or do you keep them? Personally, I find it very hard to let go of any clothes I’ve made, even the oldest pajamas that are totally worn out! I’d love to hear your thoughts.”
Wow, she’s grown a lot!
I’ll tell you my solution to this question. I save only my favorite clothes that I’ve sewn for S, and I send them to my mom just in case one of my younger sisters has a baby someday. Like Marcy says, we don’t have much storage in our tiny apartment, so my mom generously saves these pieces for me. I don’t think the box at her house is very large yet–I should probably take a look one of these days–but I only save the things that are in really good condition and will still look classic in ten years. I guess I don’t make or buy a lot of trendy clothing anyway, so it’s probably not a huge concern that any of it will look out-of-date anytime soon, but I do think about that when I’m making or buying clothing.
Anything else that S outgrows is either given away to someone we know who is younger and might like it, taken to the Salvation Army in our neighborhood, taken to our local children’s resale store, or sometimes I bring outgrown school clothes to her school in case they can be used by someone who needs them. (S’s school has a dress code and includes in part of its area a low-income neighborhood.)
I’m actually not all that sentimental about the clothing that I’ve sewn. I’m sure there will be a few items here and there that I’ll want to save, but so far that hasn’t been a big issue for me.
What about you? What do you save, and what are your plans (if any) for those items? What do you do with the pieces you don’t save? I’m very curious.
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