The making your own clothes thread

[MulberryPeony]

Just because a few of us seem likely to get back in the habit with some spare time/wanting to look expensive/capsule wardrobe/consume less.

I made quite a lot of my own clothes as a teen and early twenties but I’m not sure I’ve completed a project for me since. Hand sewing wadding into padded curtains did me in!

I’d like to make a copy of some floaty shorts and duster coat I already own. Got a fair few basic patterns for tops and throw on dresses so might make something light for summer too. I’d like some comfy trousers but worry I’d end up with something resembling pjs! Thinking of repurposing a slub woven cotton smock from a few years ago as there is oodles of fabric to go at.

I’d class myself as a beginner level but happy to adapt patterns. Button holes scare me.

Would anyone like to join me? What is on your to-make list? Any more beautiful sites for me to browse expensive looking fabrics like the merchant and mills one mentioned the other day? Does anyone know of any sites where I can look through a pattern book like the catalogues they have inside fabric shops?

Hello everyone! Excited to have found a sewing thread on here.
I’ve rediscovered my sew-jo which I’m really pleased about - lockdown has not been kind to my waistline and I need new stuff. I bought a new Pfaff sewing machine just before lockdown and had hardly used it until this week. Really happy with it; an improvement from my old janome which was horrible for buttonholes.

Here is my new Sew Over It Siena skirt from their recent e-book. Love it!

Hi mouldy thats a great skirt.
I love the print.

Oh yes @mouldygrapes lovely skirt.

Lovely skirt mouldygrapes. It looks so wearable.

All those button holes! I'm definitely a zip and button hole avoider.

Thank you all. I avoided buttonholes for years due to my previous machine hating them, but this new one seemed to be a lot easier. I haven’t tried it for zips yet, my other nemesis!

I have a shirt dress on my make list - buttonholes are putting me off.
Realistically, using a buttonhole foot, they aren't that bad or too difficult.

But its the thought of all the effort to make a dress/shirt etc and then messing it up at the last hurdle on freaking buttonholes.

I recently found my sewing machines additional feet (missplaced when I bought it so I've only ever used the original foot for the last 4 years), so I'm warming up to give buttonholes a go.

You could always use press-studs instead! I found buttonholes on my ancient Singer didn’t look like modern buttonholes - they are much more like a small zigzag than a satin stitch, and took quite a bit of getting my head round, but they haven’t unravelled on the dress after three washes and I will just mend them by hand if I have to.

@mouldygrapes where did you get the lovely fabric?

@MaryLennoxsScowl I bought it at the Stitch Festival earlier this year - possibly from Fabrics Galore, but I can’t remember. It’s a viscose linen blend. Unfortunately I’ve pulled one of the threads around the button hole so there’s now a white line 😬 ah well. It’s otherwise lovely fabric and sewed up beautifully

I refused to learn to sew at school because it was a girls' subject (possibly one of my worst life choices).

SNAP!

Also refused to do cookery for the same reason.

Then moved out and could barely sew on a button or heat a tin of beans.

I'd like to come along for the ride, if I may.

Thank you for your help! I decided to put the fabric aside for a bit because I really don’t want a two rectangles and a bit of elastic skirt from it. A pencil skirt would be better in that case but I’d need to master a) linings and b) zips. So it can wait.

I’ve been playing around a bit with my sewing machine and decided to try out the buttonhole stitch. I’ve got an old Pfaff hobby 307 - solid beginner machine that suits me well. The button hole is done in four steps - there’s a dial you set to the steps but it’s semi-manual. You set the dial to step one and it sews straight ahead until you decide it’s enough. Then you set the dial to step two which is a bar tack. After 4-6 tacks you set it to step three which is backwards sewing to the beginning of the whole, and step four is more bar tacks then done.

The odd thing is it won’t do step three. I thought maybe it doesn’t go backwards automatically but needs me to pivot the fabric but when I did that it did go backwards - away from the buttonhole. So odd! If I’m actually wanting it to go backwards and finish a buttonhole it just sees in one place and bunches up. I just can’t work out why it’s unhappy!

@mouldygrapes colour the white line in with a sharpie then iron it?

banivani you could buy a similar weight and type fabric in a complimentary colour and make a tiered skirt with alternate tiers of the two fabrics, or use the fancy fabric as a main and the other as a trimming fabric or vice versa? It'll make it go further so you have more options.

Light yes i toyed with adding another fabric but generally speaking I’m not keen on it so I’m holding off on the idea. I have some linen in a matching shade already so theoretically there is enough but didn’t fancy it. We’ll see - there is enough for a pencil skirt but I can’t cycle in one of those ;)

Maybe not for this project @banivani but if you cycle you might like these

Haha a bit too retro maybe!

banivani I think the issue might be using a hand-drafted pattern in that it's harder to make sense of sometimes. You could have a look at commercial wrap skirt patterns, for example the Burda 6733, which uses 1.45m of fabric for the Skirt B, size 10 and 12, and 1.80m fabric for sizes 14-20. It does assume a width of 114cm whereas yours is 108 though, but that might be overcome by playing around with the length.

Although the fabric length you have might physically wrap around you as such, it won't leave much room for leg movement or "ease of movement", or ties/seams etc. As a wrap skirt essentially needs to go around 3 times for decency (unless you want a waist-high split! ) rather than just the twice for a front and a back, so I'd consider one which isn't a wrap as essentially it will use less fabric!

Anyway, basically I think searching in commercial skirt patterns might reveal the kind of skirt you could make from the fabric you have, if you look at the fabric length requirements on the pattern listing before you buy.

We are going to be in the Rye area on the weekend and I'm hoping to call into the Merchant & Mills ship for the first time.

Soooo I am soooooo envious. Do make a list I think if they are open in Rye it's very recent the last time I was on their website only the Liberty concession was open.
But oh my oh my you'll have a great time

I made a dress at the weekend simplicity 8878 Dress C but I didn't add sleeves and chose a different method for the pockets I do really like it but would finish the neckline differently next time.

@TheClitterati - Merchant and Mills Rye shop reopens this weekend! What good timing.
Enjoy, their stuff is gorgeous - made a top and skirt from some of their linen and it’s just divine

I'm shopping for fabric for the Assembly Line Cap sleeve dress & other lovely bits!!

I'll have to park the DC up somewhere with an ice cream if only 3 people can go in at a time.

I am so bloody envious of those of you who can make your own clothes.

I would love to be able to do it - choose the pattern, type and weight of a material and then be able to make something that is exactly what I want and that actually fits perfectly.

Tragically I am barely able to sew on a button

I just wanted to let you know I think you are amazing

Just bought a new machine, I’ll join in if I may!