Arabella's Alteration Projects 2020-2021
- Mandy Morose
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
My grandmother bestowed many pieces from her past to me. Some of them were many decades old. I liked the idea of modernizing clothes she would have worn at my age. As much as I was fascinated by them as relics, I was less concerned with preservation back then. I stopped using vintage pieces for projects as the realization of loss and destruction settled in.
I’ve never enjoyed shopping. I seldom go to the thrift store, but when I do, I tend to over buy and end up with more than I know what to do with. I acquired a lot of things from my mother, who has a propensity to shop at department and thrift stores. I didn't inherit that natural talent, and often relied on this income of material. When started shopping on my own, I found myself overwhelmed.
Recently I have been trying to work on that skill of honing in my eyes and vision. It takes time and dedication, like any physical task. What more, there is something exhausting about making decisions and looking at so many options. There is so much to see in Austin.
Altering clothes is the best way to learn how they work. It was also a quick way to bring visions to life without having to know very much about clothing construction. Most of the alterations I was making were bringing waists, making two pieces, and cropping shirts. I got particularly good at altering jeans and making them look factory. Many of the creations I made around this time were not things I would ever wear in public or for any reason really. The only times I wore them were for my own entertainment in privacy.
The most common alterations I would make to pieces was removing elements I found tacky or uncomfortable. Elastic was a common feature I would delete.
I've taken a particular liking to altering jeans (pants generally) starting in 2017. Over the years I have become pretty good at it. The back of page 29 describes the basic method.
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