Too many, too short

If one of my favorite fashion flaws is my propensity for buying formal dresses, one of my least favorite is my almost-equal propensity for buying clothes in large lots. I don't do it often, because it's rare to find any motley collection of used clothes that both fit you and suit your taste, but buying in bulk is basically the only way I can get tops and skirts online at my price point. Unfortunately, when I do buy a lot of clothes, it's almost always a waste of money.

For example, the last lot I purchased seemed like a great deal. After putting in an eBay best offer and getting a shipping discount, I was paying slightly less than 2 dollars per piece. Everything was my size, and from the photos, it looked like a lot of the items were just the kind of colorful, slightly quirky clothes I like to wear. But when the lot arrived and I tried everything on, I learned a sad truth. Although in good condition, almost all of the tops were old—from a time about 15 years ago when it was fashionable to wear shirts that were slightly cropped, in order to show a bit of skin above one's ultra-low-rise pants.

Funny story: when I was just starting to do my own shopping around that time (late high school to early college), I was just about the size I am now, but I was convinced I wore a large, because all the shirts were too short for me. I utterly failed to catch on that the peeking midriff was actually deliberate until years after it had gone out of style. Anyway, I obviously never cared for the ultra-short shirt, but now I have a collection of 15 of them.

Fortunately, I was able to wear one of them just this past weekend, at a fortuitously timed 80s/90s dance party. Since I completely failed to be fashionable when I lived through the 90's, it's only fair that I get to make up it 2 decades later.

How did I do? Am I a 90's chick?

As for the other clothes, none of them are quite as fabulous as an all-over sequined tank top, but still, some of them are just too awesome to let go of—or sit around waiting for more 90's parties. So it's time to get crafty.

Rather than just sadly getting rid of the clothes that are too short (e.g. by hawking them on eBay as "petite" wear as I usually do—because this isn't the first time I've unwittingly bought a lot of clothes left over from the midriff ages), I'm going to challenge myself to find new and aesthetically pleasing ways of lengthening them.

• I now have a brown medieval-looking blouse that's just begging to be made into a tunic,
• A green tank top with red contrast stripe that could use a little more red,
• A sensible short sleeved blazer that I simply need in my nonexistent arsenal of "professional" summer clothes, and (not from this lot)
• A pair of denim cutoffs that may be just a bit too cut off (or may not be—I still haven't decided).

What will I do with them? Well, you'll have to wait to find out all the details, but I can tell you one thing I'm going to do for sure: Be more discerning about what I purchase on eBay!