Another lonely category

[Rentochops]

...anyone making their own clothes thesedays?

[Anne]

I'm sure there were a few threads in here before the big crash. I can do hems and sew buttons on. :D

[LorraineJ]

I used to do a lot of dressmaking but haven't made myself or Hannah anything for a while. I have got stacks of fabric, but no inclination to cut out, let alone sew up any garments.

[blueshowbizz]

I made myself a snowman costume for our Halloween party at work on Wednesday night - does this count? :D

<a href="http://s186.photobucket.com/albums/x254/blueshowbizz/?action=view&current=snowman.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x254/blueshowbizz/snowman.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[Pam]

I used to make nearly all my dresses and skirts but haven't made any for years.
I used to be able to find patterns that I liked but can't now so I think that's why I gave up.

Anne, I hate doing hems, would rather start from the beginning. lol

Never do machine hems though.

I like the snowman's outfit. Well done.

[LorraineJ]

I made myself a snowman costume for our Halloween party at work on Wednesday night - does this count? :D

<a href="http://s186.photobucket.com/albums/x254/blueshowbizz/?action=view&current=snowman.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x254/blueshowbizz/snowman.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>


Thats Fab Blueshowbizz.

[artysam]

i do dressmaking, etc have a whole stash of material too LOL!!!

[soopy]

Not me...sewing machines scare the pants off me :D

Sue

[Sandra]

I made myself a snowman costume for our Halloween party at work on Wednesday night - does this count? :D

<a href="http://s186.photobucket.com/albums/x254/blueshowbizz/?action=view&current=snowman.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x254/blueshowbizz/snowman.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Great costume!! Well done. Hope you had fun at your party too.:D

[Wellington]

Great costume BSB - I'm in the same catagory as Soopy. The sewing machines at school used to eat my creations :eek:

[blueshowbizz]

Thanks ladies :D

I'm thinking about putting a new sewing machine on my list for Santa this year.

[Marie]

I have quite a new sewing machine, a Singer which I got last year which is really good and does loads of cool things! I got it to replace the very old (1970s) and basic electronic machine that was my mothers, I used to make things on it when i was younger. I suspect that the new one will really only be used for very basic things as I find that the time that it takes to make clothes isn't worth the effort. My mum used to knit and crochet most of our clothes when we were children as they couldn't afford to buy them, but nowadays you can kit a child out for school very cheaply in comparison. So I guess that's why people don't make their own clothes so much nowadays.

[artysam]

I have a janome sewing machine which I love!! have had it for about 10 years now.

[ERICS MUM]

I'm old enough that I went to school in the days when girls were taught needlework & dressmaking. I know how to roll a seam, french seams, turn and stitch hems, buttonholes etc. Skills that now by and large I don't use (aprt from hems, buttons. making curtains). We even learned how to mend holes in our school tights:eek::eek: which stood me in good stead when I started work and "wasted" my money so I never seemed to have a new pair of tights in the drawer!

I also made lots of baby clothes for my brother's and sister's and friends children but hand knits that really ARE hand knitted don't seem to be fashionable, although I see shops like Next, GAP etc selling machine made "handknitted" outfits.

I sound like an old granny but I'm only 53. To me, its startling to look back and realise how things have changed over the last 20 to 30 years.


Linda:cool:

PS no offence to old grannies, my mum is one.

[Pam]

That sounds like the schooling I had ERICS MUM, I loved needlework but the teacher was very, very strict. We were also taught that you only hand sew hems, never machine them. lol

[Little Jan]

Eric's Mum you are the same age as me,and I remember those type needle work classes , we had a very strict teacher of about 104:D with very thick bent nails on her hands, from as she told us all the hand sewing, enough to put anyone off:eek:I had to make my own cloths back then as I was so small nothing in the shops fitted me,only paper pattens that would fit me at 16 were aimed at 9 year olds:o so the teacher had me making my own patterns,I made all my own outfits untill I was about 25 but then dress making became too expensive and time consuming so I just bought larger sizes and adapted them, now my time is taken up by taking up lol, all my daughters trousers even though she not quite as short as me she is 5,1 but petit is still a little long in the leg ,as for me at a lanky 4,10 I have to shorten everything and have become a dab hand at hemming a skirt or trouser legs in no time at all and may I add all nicely by hand lol so my needle work lessons paid off in the end , most off my daughters mates could not even sew on a button let alone do a hem so I spent many years doing their alterations and making costumes for school plays where they had offered to do it and passed it on to me I have now told my daughter that at nearly 23 and becoming a teacher herself its about time she mastered sewing herself:p

[kookietiger]

I'm afraid my "dressmaking" skills only go so far as to wonderweb a hem or sew buttons so I have much admiration for all you seemstresses :)
My Gran used to sew everything, she made her own curtains & matching furniture covers & was always immaculately dressed (in dresses, not curtains :D)
What is the most complicated thing you've made??

[Jeanette]

I had needlework lessons like that. OMG how I hated it. Sewing did not and still doesn't. I was much better and woodwork and metalwork :D

[LorraineJ]

I designed and made my wedding dress.

[lolathelamb]

I'm old enough that I went to school in the days when girls were taught needlework & dressmaking. I know how to roll a seam, french seams, turn and stitch hems, buttonholes etc. Skills that now by and large I don't use (aprt from hems, buttons. making curtains). We even learned how to mend holes in our school tights:eek::eek: which stood me in good stead when I started work and "wasted" my money so I never seemed to have a new pair of tights in the drawer!

I also made lots of baby clothes for my brother's and sister's and friends children but hand knits that really ARE hand knitted don't seem to be fashionable, although I see shops like Next, GAP etc selling machine made "handknitted" outfits.

I sound like an old granny but I'm only 53. To me, its startling to look back and realise how things have changed over the last 20 to 30 years.


Linda:cool:

PS no offence to old grannies, my mum is one.

Snap! I'm also 53 and must have gone to the same lessons as you! We made pinnies, cushions and, wait for it, a pair of shorts! Then I moved o Cyprus and never wore the shorts! Later, I had more lessons and made a lovely polyester crimplene frock. Guess how much I wore that!

I can also darn - last time I used that skill was a few weeks ago when I found a very tiny hole in a newish top but didn't think I would/could take it back. Now It's an old top but I can still wear it - around the flat. Good darning but not my best way to present myself.

I knit a lot - friends keep having new grandchildren. But I am now knitting myself a summer cardigan - for next summer? No sewing machine now.

Good idea to revive this thread, Linda.

[Little Jan]

I'm afraid my "dressmaking" skills only go so far as to wonderweb a hem or sew buttons so I have much admiration for all you seemstresses :)
My Gran used to sew everything, she made her own curtains & matching furniture covers & was always immaculately dressed (in dresses, not curtains :D)
What is the most complicated thing you've made??

Oh I've had a few of those.
My mate wanted me to make a christening gown for her son from her taffata wedding dress, no mean feat as I had no pattern and they lived in Lythams St Anns and I lived in Hertfordshire at the time. Measurements were done over the phone and the design was to, She wanted the full gown with lace odd for a boy but Her mother in Law was a stict catholic and wanted it all very formal, so I made a basic over long t shirt shape gathered in the sleeves and added some gold embriodery and I'm proud to say it met her MIL's approval.:rolleyes: I have also been lumbered with costumes to make when daughter was a school all with just rough measurements and also no patterns and then having to take out and add bits where they had got them completly wrong :eek:

[Alice3_2009]

I was a dressmaker too. I made my first dress at Junior School (1965) and wore it in the school fashion show. My husband bought me a Compal Opus, an all-singing-dancing affair, and I only used the buttonholer and straight stitching. It would play up when I'd do my holiday sewing and I'd have to borrow my sister's.
It was easy to make my own clothes as a size10/12 as it was guaranteed to look the same as on the tin. Now 54, overweight with huge buzzoomz, nothing I make fits. I bought my sister's machine from her (she's a quilter) and now I have three sewing machines under my stairs.

Have you noticed that you can buy few machines that include embroidery...now it's either / or. Hmmmm that's a money spinner

[Higgydig]

I used to make my own clothes, too, when I was young and slim. I remember in 1st year of High School we had to make our own PE 'skirts'. Mid thigh length with tons of pleats and a waistband! Never been the same again.

[LoobyLou]

I went to the same lessons as you other ladies, though I am a trifle younger at 51. I remember our needlework O' Level (GCSE I believe now). We had to make HALF a pair of shorts as part of the exam. Just the lefthand side. What a waste of fabric and supplies.

I asked afterwards why half were not making the left and half the right and then someone could have stitched them all into full pairs and donated them to Oxfam at the very least!

We also had a choice of outfits to make for our exam, but made and completed like coursework is today. I remember I made a hideous nightgown and housecoat.

I cringe now when I think what I looked like in it, thank heavens it was for bed. I could have scarred myself mentally for life if I had worn that out in the real world.

Do we all remember Hotpants? I remember making myself a pair of vivid bright red satin ones with a bib. I thought I was the dogs in it. I found a pic the other day. Lord what a sight! My Mother should have tied me up and NOT let me out in that.

I quit sewing when they discovered a problem with my neck as the Consultant told me I was putting my neck under too much strain leaning forwards constantly to sew, but prior to that I made all my bedroom furnishings including the lampshades and wastebins and all my Daughter's clothes. I bet she was grateful when I was stopped from making any more. After all I might have made her the equivalent of hot pants.

Looby