Retro fitting

The process of taking a reasonable but meh piece of clothing and making it fit, removing things that make it look frumpy and generally making it over in your better image.
I have come to the conclusion that the mid summer weeks deserve a wardrobe of their own.  This is a new idea to me, but I come to things slow.
My usual manner of getting a wardrobe begins by taking a tour of a thrift shop.  My usual budget runs about twenty bucks.  Then I take my findings and do whatever needs to be done to make them into things that I would wear.  I like capri pants for summer wear.  I prefer cargo pockets.  Baggy is ok up to a point, the point being looking like I am wearing  clothes that belong to my mom. (she has excellent taste but she is bigger by six sizes)
Shopping in a thrift store means that sizing is as varied as the brands that land there.  I am looking specifically for linen.  It wicks sweat and it does not cling.  I actually found a pair of linen pants that it would be easy to take up around the waist.  It has a cargo pocket and looked like a simple retro fit.  Then I looked at the hems.  Oh holy heavens what designer thought this up?  The bottom of the pants had ruffles.  army green linen pants with ruffles.  Then I found a nice shirt.  Purple is a good color and the tag says XS.  again, right fiber it was linen.  so I get my goodies home.
The pants took about an hour to tighten the elastic, remove the ruffles and shorten and finish them off with a bias band.
I think the extra small was the size of the whale the shirt was supposed to fit.  I looked like I was second hand Rose.  It took three hours to open the seams and get the sleeves off and to cut four inches out of each side.  It took fifteen minutes to resew it all.  next week I visit another store and do it again.  By the mid week in August when the heat breaks, I will have a whole mid summer wardrobe of linen shirts and pants good for the next year.  I can pack it into a box and let it wait until the thermometer hits the ninety's next summer.