Does anyone get some/all of their clothes made?

[littlepeas]

I've been wondering about this after yet another unsuccessful shopping trip this morning. I am a tricky shape to dress (look much better naked...) and really struggle to find anything that works for me on the high street.

Also very fed up of rubbish fabrics everything seems to be made of - found a wrap dress that worked quite well but it was £200 and 100% polyester - no thanks!

It made me wonder whether it might be worth trying to find someone to make stuff for me. I think I'd rather buy less and for it to genuinely work really well for me.

I’ve wondered about this for a long time. I grew up in a different country and my mum would take dresses she knew fitted well to the tailors to be copied, she enjoyed shopping for the fabric too. I guess here it would cost so much to purchase the fabric and then the hrs it needs for a seamstress to make the item. I sew clothes for my children but haven’t tackled an adult sized item yet, seems too big a task.

I make some of my clothes. Could you start a new hobby OP? Start with a few simple garments?

I sew for myself and my children, it’s not a cheap hobby! But very satisfying to have someone admire something and be able to say ‘I made it’.

Depending on where you buy fabric having something made could be very expensive, but if you can access somewhere like Walthamstow market, Goldhawk Road, Birmingham rag market, you might be able to make it more affordable, and if your usual spend is £200 for a dress then I’d sure you can get one made for that with a higher quality fabric and fitted to your shape.
The other option is buying something and getting it tailored but if your issue is the fabric quality then that might not help.

As a guide, a dress pattern is usually £5-20.
For most dresses you’d need at least 2m fabric, most likely 3m if it’s got long sleeves or is a midi dress. Fabric can cost £2/m if you’re buying something like woven viscose from a market/cheaper shop, up to £30/m or more for fancier fabrics like linens or silks or for branded fabric.
In terms of time, even a super simple pattern is likely to take 3-4 hours of work, at minimum wage that’s £30+, but I’d imagine a good seamstress can demand more than minimum wage.

I make most of my clothes. It's a skill anyone can learn. You do have to learn though. It's not cheap but your clothes will fit and be unique.

I make and also alter clothes to fit. Highly recommend buying something off the peg then having it altered to fit. Buy large so that they have something to work with - Sean allowances in most clothes are tiny.

My friend, a professional dressmaker designer, certainly doesn't work for minimum wage!!! She charges £20 an hour labour, central Scotland location. Pp mentioning minimum wage made me chuckle...maybe in a factory making those primark polyester dresses!

Yes @Baldieheid I pay a good sum of money for alterations I can't do myself. I prefer to spend my money on alterations and dry cleaning though, so I can keep quality clothing for longer, than buying cheap fast fashion with shit quality fabric. I do tend to buy vintage rather than new clothing as I can't afford new quality things though.

I'd like to say I'm wearing an altered hand made dress from the 60s right now, but it's actually a dressing gown

I have a colleague who bought a dress she liked the shape of but didn't quite fit right, took it to a dressmaker who used it as a pattern and made her 5 work dresses- with some differences like sleeve length, fabric etc

I thought it was such a good idea!

I hope we see a return to buying patterns like that. I also love to see women developing their own style and feeling confident in it, rather than just following fashion, if that makes sense? Especially with these fucking awful flouncy frilly abominations currently everywhere.

I try to encourage "confidence in own style v following fashion" in my DDs (and DSs of course but the pressure isn't so great on men). Ironically my DDs are wearing a lot of my clothes I bought in the 90s as it's in fashion

I do have a sewing machine but it has never come out of the box! I didn't think of learning to do it myself - would I need to get one of those dummies made to my proportions??

I am happy to pay for good fabric and for someone's skilled labour and suspect I would need a lot making/altering - nothing is ever quite right for me off the hanger.

Back in the day, when I worked in a very formal workplace and had a disproportionately small waist and short arms, I used to get stuff altered all the time.

I also went to a tailors in the East End to get my favourite suit copied twice: it wasn't much more expensive than a full price Hobbs/Jigsaw equivalent.

I still get stuff altered, normally by a dry cleaner, but for special or fragile garments, or complex alterations I go to specialist tailors. If you understand how a garment is made you can learn what simple and cheap alterations will turn an "almost" dress into a "bang on". But I agree that current stuff in the shops is so baggy and cheap that it makes no sense: the stuff I have altered is normally bought from charity shops. I'm not afraid to spend twenty quid fixing a garment I bought for ten.

What are you finding is lacking in high street clothing that you need shape wise and where do you shop OP?

I have an awkward shape and find some shops just never work for me and others are better. I think everyone struggles to a degree as we are all completely different proportions shopping in stores who use someone else's body and sizing as a fit model.

Since the fashion leaned towards oversized I no longer have a need as much as I did but used to get a lot of things altered to fit and always felt it was worth the cost, depending what you need done it can be done quite cheaply. I think having clothing made from scratch would not be a particularly affordable option. I can't sew and hate doing it but my DM was a seamstress and so grew up learning how to spot what would be an easy fix on clothes I liked that didn't fit off the hanger which made it easier if I found something I liked the look of but didn't fit.

If you dont live near a fabric market, you could look at the site Amothreads - I've used them before - they sell deadstock fabric via post so you can get some cute fabric to play with for less than a store and the stock is constantly changing.

The problem is that it is not just one awkward thing - it is many!

I am essentially an hourglass shape but am long waisted/shorter legs. I am 5ft 6in and size 12 - carry weight on my upper arms, have fairly big boobs and a bit of a tummy.

The 1950's silhouette suits me - full skirts with a shirt tucked in sort of look - but it has to look neat/preppy, anything frilly or too patterned makes me look strangely shrunken (not in a good way). I struggle with trousers because of my proportions - there is never enough room waist-crotch - just pondering whether buying the long length and getting them taken up might help with this.

Not from scratch now, no. But I get many things altered. If it’s simple and the fabric is forgiving (like getting jeans shortened, for example) I will take them to the dry cleaners. But if the fabric needs more delicate handling, I take them to a specialist alterations place which has a changing room and they pin them on me.

When I was in Thailand I had suits (wool mix) and dresses (raw silk) made to measure. And then put on half a stone when I got back!

I've been meaning to try eshakti. All designs can be made to measure. It gets good reviews on YouTube