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You're Home! » How To Make Your Bargain Basement Look Couture

December 12, 2012

How To Make Your Bargain Basement Look Couture

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*This is a guest post*

If you have ever caught yourself looking longingly at a designer dress wishing you could afford, or even justify, splashing the cash required to make it yours then you have no doubt looked for cheaper alternatives and ways to spruce up your existing wardrobe.

How To Make Your Bargain Basement Look Couture

So if you, like me, want to look classy but don’t want to throw away your life savings to get there you should follow these five easy tips to make cheap items look the part.

Your first step should be to change the buttons, as perfectly passable cheap clothes often give their secret away due to the shoddy buttons they come with. To fix this you need to head to a fabric store and buy some more expensive-looking buttons and get rid of the terrible-looking plastic ones.

How To Make Your Bargain Basement Look Couture

If all of this sounds like too much effort you can even pay someone a nominal fee to do it for you!

Once the buttons are done you need to make alterations. I can’t tell you how much a few slight alterations will improve an item of clothing. Shorten the hems on your trousers and you will look chic, taper your bargain pencil skirt to give it some shape or nip the waist of your dress and your outfit will automatically look more expensive.

How To Make Your Bargain Basement Look Couture

If your new dress has come with a sash, it is more than likely that it looks a bit rubbish. You should ditch the sash immediately in favour of a thicker less synthetic one from a craft or fabric store. Alternatively you can use one and buy yourself a swanky belt to go with your new dress! Yay!

While this article is about faking style, you cannot fake the fabric it is made of. It doesn’t matter how much you trim it, accessories it or alter it, cheap fabric is always obvious. You should try your best to stay away from anything that’s more than 20% synthetic.

How To Make Your Bargain Basement Look Couture

Finally, once you have saved money on your dress you should still flash the cash on the accessories.

Make sure you get a kick butt pair of shoes to go with your new outfit and not only will they add to the overall outfit they won’t fall apart in months’ time like some cheap shoes. The same goes for bags and belts.

 

 

About Kim Delatorre

Kim Delatorre is a mommy to three beautiful, smart kids and wife to an amazing husband of 24 years! She enjoys reading, writing, spending time with her family, and blogging.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lily Kwan says

    December 27, 2012 at 12:10 am

    These tips were very helpful and interesting. Thanks for sharing!

  2. Sprinkle says

    December 26, 2012 at 2:09 pm

    Nice tips. I wish i had one basement. but i don’t. Well of i had i would have applied some of the tips. Very informative

  3. Heather S. says

    December 25, 2012 at 11:00 am

    I love shopping for bargains especially for my kids who grow so fast! Thanks for the tips.

  4. Maryann D. says

    December 24, 2012 at 3:18 pm

    These ideas are all great! I never thought to change buttons, and I can do that myself. Too much altering and I have to take the item to a seamstress which costs a lot where I live though. But I have bought some great items at thrift stores near by.

  5. Ciara Weaver says

    December 21, 2012 at 7:00 pm

    Really neat! Buttons always spruce things up!

  6. Mandala says

    December 20, 2012 at 3:12 am

    never thought about the buttons but it’s a great idea. Thanks for this post!

  7. Amy Z. says

    December 19, 2012 at 7:26 am

    I like the ideas of changing the buttons and the sash! I’d love to try this out sometime instead of splurging on the more expensive options.

  8. Marcie W. says

    December 15, 2012 at 7:33 am

    I would love to invest some time in perusing second hand stores to see what fun items I can find. Who knows, I might come across a high end piece or two!

  9. Terri Betz says

    December 13, 2012 at 10:12 am

    Smart and cleaver! This is the best way to do it! I love our local Goodwill! Will keep these hints in mind next time I’m in there! TY!

  10. Elena says

    December 13, 2012 at 9:19 am

    Good tips! Thanks for sharing!

  11. [email protected] says

    December 13, 2012 at 8:46 am

    i love thrift shopping. In fact I just bought a simple black Gap dress for $1 last week. It has a blah string belt but I’m going to upgrade it to something prettier.

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About Kim

My name is Kim and I have three busy kids. I am married to my middle school sweetheart and we live in Idaho. You can easily contact me on my Contact Me Page!

Email: [email protected]

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