Making your own clothes seems like a long and arduous journey most of us don’t have the time to go on, but it really can be quite simple. If you know what to do, and how to do it, you can save a lot of time and money – you can even make some clothes that last a lot longer than those you can buy in the shops!
You don’t need to head to Paris or Milan to take an expensive workshop, and there are no rules to what’s right and wrong in fashion; you’re very capable of being your own dressmaker. So here’s just a couple of tips for fashioning up some of your own outfits out of your own head. Won’t you feel very glamorous and very proud when you’ve got a dress from your own hand showing off the curves of your body?
Start with Your Old Clothes
If you don’t know where to start with your clothes making quest, turn to your wardrobe. You don’t necessarily need to go out and buy a load of fabrics and threads to work with; instead, you can pick out a few tops and bottoms you no longer wear, and cut and hem them into the perfect starting tiles for your new outfit.
This way will ensure you’re working with colours and patterns you know you like, and that you’ll be up for wearing again. You’ll also be working with pieces that have already been primed for outfitting a body, and they’ll be already shaped to someone of your size. After all, you don’t want to be wasting money on fine and workable fabric, only to realise you hate the result and wouldn’t like to see it in the mirror!
Mix and Match Your Patterns
Pattern mixing is a big deal in the style world at the moment. We all love to mix and match with our fashion tastes, and a lot of us are still experimenting with our tastes when that clothes making bug bites us. So, why not take that curiosity to the mix? If you’re going to make your own clothes, you can invest in a lot of different patterns to make it happen!
You can buy these from your local sewing shop; a few yards of printed fabric won’t cost too much on the budget. Or, you can come up with a pattern of your own, and get it printed onto a piece of fabric – if you’re a creative person who loves putting pencil to paper, this is definitely a great option for you. And seeing as the UK has a great textile base to start off with, you can check out the process for digital printed silk right now if you like!
Making your own clothes can be quite technical, and it’s definitely recommended that you get a sewing machine. But once you get the technicalities out of the way, make sure you believe in your ideas, and find faster ways to make them come true.