The Thrifty Six Celebrate Summer Birthdays

Emma challenged our Thrifty Six group this month with Sumer Birthday Party Outfits!

Summer is such a great time to have a birthday or any other type of party. It makes hosting celebrations so much easier when outdoor space and activities are available. Of course, one must always prepare for rain, especially where I live. While we generally experience very mild summers, passing rain showers are a regular threat to any type of planned outdoor activities.

My immediate family doesn’t have any summer birthdays. In fact, all four of our birthdays happen in spring. When we lived in Pennsylvania, I would have declared spring as the best season for a birthday or any celebration. But here in the northern reaches of New York State, snow still happens in spring which forces every party indoors. We do have the space in our home to host gatherings of around 20-30 people which works just fine because I don’t think our close friend group expands beyond 30 people anyway.

Since we don’t have any family birthday parties in summer, I decided to style an outfit to celebrate the birthday of the United States. On July 4th, our nation observed its 250th birthday, which was kind of a big deal. However, we didn’t make any big deal of it. Usually, we would invite some friends to our house for a cookout on this holiday, but we had recently hosted a Memorial Day Cookout at the end of May and I wasn’t feeling like cooking food for a large crew of guests just 5 1/2 weeks later.

Instead, we were invited to our friends’ home for a very small celebration. It was just the four of us and the four of them. They had been smoking ribs all night for a large celebration with their extended family that night. Since they were traveling over an hour away for their gathering in the evening, they invited us for a quick lunch to sample their smoky goodness. Because this was just a small lunch time get together, I made a quick batch of homemade apple crisp and brought it along with ice cream and whipped cream. I figured any baked apple dessert with ice cream is very American and perfect for our Independence Day celebration.

I knew that we were styling outfits appropriate for summer birthday parties for our Thrifty Six prompt, so I figured this was the prefect opportunity to get it done.

I wanted to wear something that was patriotic without it looking like something Uncle Sam might wear. So I started with this tiered color-blocked cotton sundress that I thrifted at the end of last summer but never wore. The top tiers of the dress in navy and red scream Americana while the bottom two tiers in peach and yellow prevent it from looking like a Fourth of July costume for an American Girl doll.

As you can see from the first group of photos above, the dress is loose and rather shapeless. It’s not bad and it’s really comfortable, but you know I can’t just wear one layer of clothing. I have too much clothing to not wear multiple pieces at a time. If I didn’t add layers, there would be too many things in my closet left unworn. And the clothes want to be worn, don’t they? It’s why I buy them!

So in the interest of layers and making my wardrobe do the work I paid for it to do, I first added a newly thrifted duster length vest in deep red with an ivory floral print (this another LulaRoe thrift store find). I think I liked the outfit best with just the red floral duster vest, but July 4th was a rainy day that had a brought a bit of a chill along with it.

To keep that chill from biting at my shoulders, I added another thrifted layer with this blue and white vertical striped long shirt dress by Zara. I liked the stripes as a subtle nod to the American flag. However, because the stripes are not red, they prevented me from looking too much like a flag.

For my accessories, I wanted to bring in a bit more white so I piled on a bunch of thrifted ivory seashell necklaces and wore my new casual white footbed sandals that I’ve been wearing on repeat all summer long. The shell necklaces suddenly gave this outfit a beachy vibe so I opted for a plain tan straw sun hat. Finally, I added my large feather earrings that have bits of red and blue.

It was the perfect outfit for a cool rainy summer birthday celebration. It captured the essence of America without being a costume, making it appropriate for just about any casual warm weather occasion.

What have you been wearing this summer for celebratory events?

Now let’s check out what my thrifty friends have styled for summer birthday celebrations. Just click on the links or images below for details about each outfit. 

• Emma of Style Splash
• Jane of Preloved-Vintage-Handmade
• Jodie of Jodie’s Touch of Style
• Nancy of Nancy’s Fashion Style
• Sally of Within a World of My Own
• Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge

The Thrifty Six is a group of international fashion lovers who meet once a month in our little space on the internet to share our thrifty outfits. On the third Monday of every month, we will all share an outfit based on a theme that features preloved wardrobe pieces. Shopping and reselling preloved clothing is so much better for the environment and you can find some of the best fashions in thrift or charity shops. The Thrifty Six are here not only to inspire you to shop second hand but to also get creative in your closets.

Emma of Style Splash

Jane of Preloved-Vintage-Handmade

Jodie of Jodie’s Touch of Style

Nancy of Nancy’s Fashion Style

Sally of Within a World of My Own

And Me!

I hope you have enjoyed all of these summer birthday party outfits. If you would like to see more preloved outfits created by this budget- and environmentally-friendly group, please stop back on August 17, 2026, to see how we style Jane’s next prompt…Summer Sparkle! Until then, happy thrifting…and styling! 

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee