Coats-How to get a Second Hand Coat and What to Look Out For

Wow, I could find camel hair colored coats and trench coats a dime a dozen or almost.
Perhaps $5.00 for a coat at Salvation Army. I love doing this now.

When I see a style in New York or the most famous designer sites, I get a kick out of going to the stores and trying to find replicas.

This past week-end I could have walked away with two trench coats, two camel hair colored long midi coats and a camel short blazer type jacket.

Dry cleaning a wool coat is around $20.00 but worth it if there are no moth holes in the wool.

1. Check the wool for holes
2. Check the lining in the coat if it is pulling away at the stitches from the out
shell of the coat
3. Is the coat faded in the lining
4. Is the coat faded in the wool itself
5. Does the coat smell like smoke, moth balls or pets

You may be handy with a needle and can tack the lining. Sometimes a coat just needs freshing up and can be hung up on the clothes line and sprayed with fabric Fabreze.
If the coat is severely wrinkled, put on your shower with the hotest water possible, hang coat in the bathroom. Check the coat often though so as the wool will not get too much moisture and do any shrinking.

You can buy a vintage coat that maybe you just don't like it being long down near the ankles (used to call them maxi's in the 60's and 70's) You hate the buttons too?! Cut the coat down, hem it, and cut off those buttons and change them. You may even find a coat that you like the buttons and can buy for cheaper than going to JoeAnne's to buy buttons.

The buttons you cut off, keep and later make a button bracelet. It will match the coat you are wearing and add a bit of pulling the colors together.

I was pricing dye the other day in Walmart. Dye costs $3.99 so if the camel color is not your thing, buy brown dye and give it a try. Remember, you are not paying thousands of dollars for this coat so give it a try. You will learn alot doing it and you have a conversation piece with friends.

Scarfs and Wraps

Typically, you can wear a scarf that matches the colors of your outfit perfectly. In fact that is how I was brought up in the 60's and 70' and 80's and 90's. But all of a sudden you can now wear a scarf with a very different pattern and all sorts of colors, wrap it around your neck with a cotton blouse of a different color and a cardigan sweater that is even different from those. Shocking! Yes. Unusual, it sure seems it.
Uncomfortable-perhaps if you are a person that likes everything to match.

The color schemes are very similar from store to store: grey, limey greens, taupy purples, red and rusts, greens in various shades...

Scarfs range from sale prices like $2.99 to mucho bucks especially on the materials the scarves are made of: mohair, wool, silk, rayon, cotton.

I was just in Old Navy last night, peeking at their 50 percent off of their clearance prices. Cotton scarfs of all sorts of prints and little cotton balls of of the edges were only $3.00 How many scarves can you have? Not enough I guess, but I again, didn't want to be spend thrifty but certainly would have walked out with 2-3 scarfs.

Many scarfs are made very wide and can be used as a wrap. I have done that when it is still warm but a bit chilly at night. Now you can undo your scarf and just wrap it around your shoulders.

If you don't want to wear your scarf all day long, and it gets a bit uncomfortable with the temperatures (especially if you have hot flashes like me), take your scarf and tie it on the handle of your pocketbook or wrap it around your waist. When you need it, you will have it.

There are many ways to tie a scarf on your body, experiment and be in style.