In this post blogger roundup, sewing fashionistas share their secrets of self-made clothes. Read what you need to know beyond sewing to get the most for your style out of your DIY efforts on self made clothing.
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Use Your Sewing Skills for High Quality DIY Fashion
Many of us over 40 had a sewing class in middle school. Our project was to sew an apron. The next one was a night gown followed by a full skirt. That class implanted some sort of virus, and I got into sewing. In high school, I made many of my summer skirts myself. In college, I also sew some suits. It was the 1980s, and my style progress was from Rock’n Roll to Power dressing. Despite H&M was a good cheap source, DIY was much more affordable. 😉
Don’t Waste Your Money, Time on Cheap Fabric
I still sew, but not that often anymore. Today often the fabrics and other materials are more expensive than buying a new item. Well, time is another issue. Therefore, my sewing is more along the line of
- Classic or retro cuts with high quality fabric. In other words, I sew items that would otherwise be out of my budget, and
- Upcycling old shirts of quality fabric like silk, or
- Recycling of quality evening gowns into fancy everyday dresses.
Advantages of Learning the Secrets of Self-Made Clothes
There are many reasons you should learn how to sew. One is that sewing your own clothes provides a lot of degrees of freedom. It starts with the choice of the pattern, followed by the fabric, adjusting the fit (if needed) and details like buttons or zippers. This means you need great imagination ahead of time to create a unique garment.
Designing clothes from scratch was never a subject in many sewing classes. All 40+ women whom I asked reported that their teacher prescribed the pattern, fabric material, and button size. Their only choice was the color and print of the fabric. However, I found a great book that covers the subject. See my review of the Ultimate Illustrated Guide to Sewing Clothes.
Sewing Bloggers Sharing Their Secrets of Self-Made Clothes
Since better style and fashion over 40 are part of the reasons to sew, designing the clothes is an essential first step. Therefore, I asked several sewing fashionistas
What is your most important advice/secret to design your own clothes and make them look right?
Carolyn Norman
Her advices:
I think the advice I would give to sewists is to know your style and be true to it when sewing. Secondly, sew for your circumstances right now. Don’t wait to lose weight, gain weight, live somewhere else – sew for where you are right now. It will go a long way in making your present circumstances better. Finally fit ~ fit is very important to how well you look in a garment, so don’t neglect learning what fits for your body and what proportions work well for you.
The internet provides wonderful access to other sewists and what they are sewing. It also offers you other places to shop for resources like fabric, embellishments and notions and this abundance of inspiration can ignite such a creative storm inside you that you consider sewing items that don’t work for your lifestyle or your body type. Don’t do it ~ stay true to what works for your body, your lifestyle, your color palette.
Kirsten Schwalke
Her tipss on self made clothing are:
I think it is really important that you know yourself and your own style to sew really great looking clothes. I for example know that I look better in elegant and feminine pieces, so I do not sew many sporty pieces. It’s just not me. And you can see it if I don’t like myself in a piece.
For the process it is important that you can imagine wearing the chosen pattern and fabric on yourself. I normally choose the pattern first and then the fabric and I don’t have to do adjustments very often. I love the moment when my imagination comes to life and it looks (hopefully) just like in my head before.
When I first started sewing I was fascinated by the look of the fabrics and just started a piece without thinking too much. I ended up having a lot of beautiful but impractical pieces hanging in my closet. After a few years I have learned a lot about me and my style. Before I start sewing something nowadays I’m always trying to imagine myself in everyday situations since I only want to make things that I’m really wearing.
One last thing that I had to learn: You’ll always make some mistakes from time to time and then you have to improvise. But the result is always even more unique and YOU than you imagined beforehand so don’t let yourself get down by mistakes. You need them to get better and push yourself to the next level and to your true style.
Tina Kersting
She gave the following advices:
Sewing your clothes has many advantages. One can choose the cut and the fabric. Thus, the length and width is like you want it. A high quality fabric is important to me because the material of the fabric often determines the form of the clothing, for instance, flowing or stiff. Moreover, one can make matching accessories like fillets, scarves or even bags from the same fabric. This way one creates unique clothing items that nobody else owns. Even designer Vivienne Westwood advises “You can’t afford that cool designer dress? Sew it yourself!”
I sew only simple items often with self-designed cuts. There are wonderful instruction on the internet. One trick is to produce a pattern from one of your favorite clothing items. To do so I use plastic foliage (Pi-dy Kopierfolie) and a dry marker. It is perfect to copy the cut and transfer it onto the plastic foliage for a pattern. Just cut the pattern from the foliage, put it onto your fabric and pin it. Cut, sew, ready. When I face a challenge, I watch a related sewing video on YouTube, e.g., how to sew in a zipper.
Recently, I learned that one needs special sewing needles for jersey- and elastic fabrics. It is impossible to sew elastic fabrics on a sewing machine without them.
Try something simple first, like a wrap skirt. The success is guaranteed. 🙂
Linda Maki
What she said about self made clothing:
Whether it is something I need – a new pair of jeans – or a want – that outfit that model is wearing – it is always important to be patient and flexible. There are the choices to be made like pattern, fabric, fit, etc. but in addition to the imagination to put it all together, I think it is important to be patient and flexible. Sometimes your sewing machine, the pattern, or the fabric won’t co-operate with you! Other times the supplies you want aren’t available! Sometimes you can be finished a whole garment perfectly and then decide it’s not quite what you expected. If it was RTW you would try it on before you even brought it home. What to do? Be flexible and patient – change your plans, make it something that works better for you! We aren’t working with cement here, plans can always be changed. Relax, and enjoy the process!
Erica T.
She said:
Sewing your own clothes is a perfect way to display your own unique sense of fashion. Yes, you need the imagination ahead of time to think out your project in advance; and for me, this usually involves the contemplation of which fabric to use for each garment and asking myself, will this print go with that print?
My biggest secret to getting the clothes I make look right has everything to do with the fit. It took me years to figure this one out and I had a lot of scrapped projects because of it. Always be aware of your measurements and familiarize yourself with the instructions for the pattern at hand. The size of dress that you would buy at a store is not the size of dress you will be on the pattern envelope when you make it yourself, and that is perfectly fine. Also take in to consideration the pattern ease. Depending on the brand, this can make quite a difference with your finished project.
Also, there is a lot of trial and error involved with sewing your own clothes. Some projects work out and some do not. But once you get an idea of what styles work best for you, the possibilities are endless. Be patient and have fun! With all the different kinds of fabric available, you won’t ever have to worry about having too many of one style, and your uniqueness will stand out every time.
Dresses I Sewed
Use Your Skills for Unique Style
Because we learned the skills once, we should make use of them for creating great DIY fashion. Often the designers only have 20 something women in mind. As a result, reactivating our skills and sewing our own clothes permits us wearing what we want without looking like we rioted our (grand)daughter’s closet or got the clothes as free bees from the Salvation Army. Making your own clothing is just one of many reasons why you should learn how to sew.
Photos from these Ladies’ blogs
Photos of me: G. Kramm
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