Clothing Swap Love

One of my favorite Vancouver events of the year is coming up this weekend (April 19) - Swap o Rama Rama!! I love this event!! I've volunteered the past 2 years and will do so again this year.... that's how much I believe in the awesomeness of this event - I want to help make it happen! The organizing torch has been passed this year to the organizer of Got Craft (best craft fair in town) in partnership with the Vancouver Craft Mafia, so I think it's going to hit a new level of awesome. (Can I set a new record for the use of the word awesome in one blog post do you think?)

The gist of the event is that you bring all your unwanted clothes - do a good spring cleaning of the closet and get rid of those things that don't fit, that you don't like, that you never wear, etc - you hand them over at the door (with an admission fee to pay for venue rental n stuff), go into the swap area, grab as much stuff as you want from the heaping piles of clothes.... then you can go to one of the craft stations and work some crafty magic on your new find. Screenprinting, sewing, stencilling, embellishments, whatever you fancy. Crafty people are on hand to assist. At the end of the day all the left over clothing goes to charity. I love it. I get rid of clothes taking up space in my wardobe (I do not have space to spare), and I get to bring home fun new stuff which saves me from having to go shopping - yay! And because all the clothes are free, I can grab some funky stuff that I probably wouldn't buy but want to try.

To find a Swap-o-rama-rama near you, check this link.

It's really seriously awesome. I highly recommend clothing swaps - even if there isn't a big swap-o-rama-rama event in your area (they happen in a couple cities), you can organize a little clothing swap amongst your friends (helps if you're all generally the same size). I did this once with some friends here and I still have a skirt and top from it that I love.... and my friends were happy to see their neglected clothing being loved by someone. It's funny how fun it is to give away your clothes to someone who LOVES it. =) Something that was buried in a drawer and never saw the light of day becomes a featured part of someone else's wardrobe - that's awesome. A cheap and fun way for everyone to renew their wardrobes.