Repairs and Restorations!
Because everything I source is second hand, I often find pieces with stains, tears, or other flaws. I find that in the women’s vintage market my customers usually want their pieces in as close to brand new condition as possible. While I find this to be an unrealistic expectation, I want to give my pieces the best chance they can at being purchased and getting a second life. I aim for progress not perfection in my repairs. I find this part of the work to be very gratifying as I can save pieces that other people without my knowledge or skills might not be able to. Here are some examples of repairs and restorations that I’ve done!
Sewing Repairs
This prom dress had a pretty large rip in its mesh overlay. I used my sewing machine to patch it up.
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I found this vintage prom dress with the left strap detached. I was able to easily fix this with my sewing machine.
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Stain Removals
I found this super pretty silk vintage Victoria’s secret top at the goodwill bins unfortunately covered with mystery stains. I honestly wasn’t sure if I would be able to remove the stains, but with a little time, effort, and 4 rounds of stain removal I was able to get it back in working condition!
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I found this top with some pretty significant staining around the collar, but felt confident I could take on this challenge. At first I tried to remove the stains with general stain remover which made some progress but didn’t fully remove the stains. After that I decided to bleach them out since the top portion of the shirt was white. This last step did the trick and the shirt is good as new!
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The same prom dress I did a sewing repair on had some staining around the bottom hem of the dress. I was able to remove the stains with some stain remover and a toothbrush!
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Other Repairs
I found this grommet medallion belt with the brass portions looking worn out and dirty. I used a brass polishing solution called Brasso to scrub and polish the brass. Much better!
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Alterations
I found these y2k Hollister sweatpants at the goodwill bins and thought the decal was so cute. Unfortunately skinny leg sweatpants like this don’t sell well for me so I decided to cut and hem them into a pair of micro mini shorts, which do sell very well for me. I sold them less than a week after listing them and was able to save another piece from the landfill!
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I found this vintage dress with lace up back details but unfortunately missing the actual lace up string. I considered trying to find a replacement for the string but I decided it was too specific of a fabric to find something that would match. So I removed the loops with my seam ripper and sewed over them to reinforce the hem, making the dress now a low back cut instead of a lace up back.
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