by Emily Lewis

Tired of your clothes and craving a change, yet don’t have the money for a full wardrobe makeover? Luckily there are various ways to update your clothes and freshen up your outfits without spending too much money!

Instead of heading to the mall or an expensive online shop, head to some thrift stores and a craft shop. One of my favorite things to do is upcycle clothing. Upcycling is similar to recycling, but more on giving the piece of clothing a bit of an update rather than transforming it into something completely different.

If you want to start completely from scratch, thrift stores are great places to find lots of clothes for cheap. Goodwill, Valley Thrift and Village Discount are great places to start in the Dayton area. I typically enjoy finding a few shirts, a couple of pairs of pants and maybe a pair of shoes.

Once you’ve got some clothes that you’re ready to change-up, you’ll need to find some extra items. Scrap fabric, sewing scissors, dyes, buttons, anything! Some of my favorite things to do are add a bunch of buttons to a shirt, or cut a giant shirt into something that fits better. Dyeing fabric can be a chore at first, but it always ends up looking great. Jeans can be embroidered to give them an extra flair of color, and two shirts can be cut and stitched together.

Pinterest and YouTube offer thousands of ideas to update your clothing. My personal favorites include embroidering flowers onto old shirts, painting the back panel of jean jackets and cropping oversized shirts into vests. There are so many fun and cheap options to choose from when deciding to freshen up your closet.  Rather than own the sweater from the department store that everyone else also has, upcycling is the perfect way to give your clothes a unique flair.