 Hi you guys, happy January. Kicking things off today by showing you some ways that you can source denim for your projects. All month long, if you've missed it, I am trying to show you guys some really fun projects, either refashioning with denim, making projects with denim from yardage, just get you guys in the spirit of loving denim as much as I do. So today we are at my local Goodwill and I'm going to show you the best places to look in the Goodwill for denim and it might not be exactly where you think. So we're going to look at some sections to look at and then what to look for within those sections to find the best denim for your refashion projects. So let's go inside. All right, in no particular order, just based on how my store is laid out, I will start along the wall of dresses. My store has everything categorized by color, so it's typically pretty easy to identify where all of the denim dresses are going to be on this very long wall. But what I'm looking for whenever I am going through the dresses is a dress that has a lot of fabric, you know, I kind of think of it a little bit like yardage. And if I find a dress that has a lot of yardage or has an interesting detail like the bottom of the skirt that I could easily hack off and make its own maxi skirt, then the next thing I want to do is take a look at the like the makeup of this denim. Is this something that is going to be purely denim? Is it blended with any rayon or elastane? If I find something then the denim is just really beautiful and it's something that I really love, then yes, I'll cross reference, check the tag that's on the usually the side seam of the garment just to confirm that it's 100% cotton. But yeah, just looking for lots of yardage and you can usually find those in long maxi dress dresses or maxi skirt dresses, especially those ones that are kind of shaped like a mu mu that have no waist seam or really any details going on, which thankfully were pretty popular not too long ago and you can find them pretty readily at the thrift store. Next up is going to be the plus size slash maternity section and I know that this is controversial. I know that there are people out there who say leave the plus size jeans, the plus size clothing for plus size people who need to buy clothes affordably. I get that. But sometimes when you're going through here, you will find items that just are not wearable anymore. Either they are dirty, have a big stain on them and you just know nobody, no matter what size you are is going to pay for a pair of jeans or a jacket or whatever it is. If it's stained or dirty or ripped or you know whatever is going on. So I always still give the plus size maternity section a look see just to see if I can find something that is unwearable where I can take the parts of it that are still good and turn it into something that is usable. All right, as I continue to go around the store next stop is going to be outerwear they call it and this is the women's outerwear section. So I will quickly just you can easily scan the top of the hangers to pick out the denim jackets and I have quite a collection of jean jackets at this point. Again, what I'm looking for are parts of the jacket that I can cut off and combine with something else or parts that I can leave of the jacket and then turn it into something completely different. Interesting details that I think in my mind oh this could be something else like the bottom of that jacket was kind of pleated like that could that be like a pleated skirt? I don't know I'm just like thinking through that as I'm going what is this if this weren't going to be a jean jacket what would it be? But this is a prime example that jacket there of something that had interesting details to it right had like all of that embroidery on it you could cut that up and put it on something else and it would be really stunning. This is the wall of men's button down shirts. Now you are going to see a ton of blue button down shirts when you go through them you're looking for the equivalent of like a chambray it's going to be a lightweight denim and I'm just looking for good quality not a lot of stains mostly the the backs of the men's shirts are going to have like the most undisrupted yardage if you want to think of it that way but I've also been able to find so many cool denim shirts in the men's section that I've turned into skirts or I have turned into dickies or different things like that so don't skip on the menswear section just because you're not a man definitely you can find some cool things in there. Okay next up is men's jeans and when I'm searching men's jeans I am looking for like sturdy like rugged high traffic wearable um denim that is already stood the test of time that's really strong and really durable that I can turn into things like tote bags and things like that for whatever reason men's denim typically has no stretch in it well I think we know the reason um women's wear with different curves and shapes of our body they're ready to wear market has determined that elasting fits more people so they can sell more of these jeans but in menswear they don't really have those curves so you're going to find a lot more hundred percent cotton straight up denim with no elastane nothing blended in okay next up is women's skirts now outside of being able to find really cute details like this button placket that you'll be able to apply to something else I have found so many great maxi skirts um that I've been able to turn into dresses and I'm a mid-sized girl I'm not super small so um I could even turn a maxi skirt into a dress now granted it was backless but I was still able to do it it's one of my favorite makes this is my absolute favorite place to find denim quote unquote yardage and that is like the house wear section where you're gonna find sheets and comforters but they also have drapery here and I have found denim curtains in the past and that is just straight up yardage of fabric with some hem and or tabs you have to kind of look a little bit closely to determine if it's actual denim like if it's twill weave or if it's just a denim colored cotton they definitely used to make denim sheets and denim curtains back in the day so don't think that you can't find it just because that's not really a popular thing today but you can definitely definitely find denim in this kind of house wear section all right I took this video just to show you the vast amount of women's denim that is available at a thrift store it is wild and sad and kind of like creepy all at the same time there are rows and rows and rows of women's denim like it's just there's no shortage of it I do skim the women's denim when I do that again I am looking for unique details look how incredible this was I love that little like embroidery detail you could easily cut that out and add it to the back of another jacket but different stitches different like if they have lace attached if they have ribbons or like I said the the denim is like dyed in a cool interesting way but yeah I'm looking for things that are that are unique and different that I could apply to some other kind of project whether it's clothing or an accessory or something like that and finally I'll kind of just give a quick look see through the scarves again they can kind of be viewed as yardage you just never know where you're going to find a little piece of chambray something or another so I'll give the scars a quick look all right so all done this is my loop for the day and you can see that there are plenty plenty plenty of jeans to be had there so do not feel like but you're taking them and cutting them up there's no way they could sell that many jeans and some areas of the store that I skipped if you didn't notice was women's tops there's just not enough yardage you know if we want to think about it that way for them to be useful and shorts I just skip over shorts to same reason why buy shorts when you can just buy jeans and then you have like the legs of them to use too so it's kind of like a I don't know you just have to think about it as how much fabric am I actually going to get from this but while you're shopping the jeans is also important to look around and think of like little notions or laces or trims or things like that that you can use to adorn your denim so if you want to make something super unique there's something in mind that has a particular kind of trim to it a ribbon whatever it is you will be looking for that as well so happy shopping I'm gonna be ringing like I said lots of fun ideas for you guys all month long so stay tuned for that but hopefully this will help you navigate your local thrift store and source some really cool denim whether you're going to wear it as is or cut it up I'll see you guys soon bye