Burda Style For people who sew

Hi all, at the moment at school i am completing a task. i was wondering if i could get some differnet opinions on what people think are the differences between homemade and bought garments, or pros or cons about each! Anything will help! Thanks!

May 24, 2011, 09.12 AM by elyssey

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6 Posts

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  May 24, 2011, 11.07 AMby sabrina

  Hi elyssey,

  One of the main pros of homemade clothes is that you can get them to fit you and flatter you. You can get them to be the right length. And you are responsible for the quality of the sewing and more confident in redoing parts.

  Shop bought clothes are good in an emergency, like when you’ve spilt something over yourself. But as far as fit goes, when was the last time you got a really good, comfortable and flattering pair of jeans? Even if you eventually find one, the chances are they will stop making them and your pair will wear out! If you make you own, you can fit the pattern and then use it over and over again.

  Shop bought clothes are usually overlocked/serged whereas homemade clothes are more often neatened with a zigzag stitch. Shop bought clothes are usually rather poor quality and the blouses are virtually all see-through. The stitching is often rather bad. Even if you go for a designer label, you can very easily get rubbish.

  Home made clothes are totally up to you and often get better the more you sew.

  Then there is the ethical matter of sweatshops, but I have to go for lunch and will have to leave it there.

  Sabrina http://thesewingcorner.blogpot.com
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  May 24, 2011, 12.29 PMby lizziemonster

  I am quite new to sewing clothes but I agree with everything sabrina has said. For me I think the biggest difference is that I can walk around a shopping centre all day and never find the item I am looking for and pretty much have to ‘make do’ It would seem that shops simply do not stock the items I wish to wear. Now I have started to sew all of a sudden my wardrobe is slowly filling with items that I love and I know are exactly what I want to wear.
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  May 24, 2011, 03.02 PMby sewingfan1

  With homemade clothes, I love that you are in control of which fabric you choose so you can get exactly the colour you want. You can add whichever detailing you want and adapt it to your style and make it unique…so you can take a fashionable style but make it up in your own choice of fabric and be sure you won’t see anyone else in the same thing.

  I love to go shopping though and actually try garments on to see if the shape/style suits me which is a big plus of shops and for inspiration. The immediacy of shop bought is a big plus – I can see a style I like and buy it then and there whereas if I see it and decide to make my own version, it could be a LONG time before it’s actually ready to wear.

  On the other hand, now I’ve started making a lot more of my own clothes, I find when I go shopping that I’m thinking “oh, but i’ve got the pattern for that at home so can make my own”. If it’s an item that has a lot of detailing on it or that’s very tailored though, I’d much rather buy it shop ready than struggling and sweating/swearing over it making my own so shops are a big plus for buying things that would be difficult to make.

  Homemade, a big plus for me is that silk maxi dresses for example were well out of my price range (the ones I liked at any rate) although they looked pretty simple to make so I made my own at a fraction of the cost. I love that a lot of the nicest designs are actually straightforward to make and where you’d pay over £200 for it in the shops in a good fabric, you can buy good quality fabric and make it yourself for a quarter of the cost.

  I love when I get compliments on things I’ve made and can say it was made for me when they ask where I got it and I know they can’t get one the same !!!
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  May 25, 2011, 06.40 AMby bohemiannow

  I agree with sewinfan1 and sabrina. Having totally personalized garments is a wonderfull thing. You are totally responsible for it’s quality and since most people don’t have a clue about sewing, fabrics and pattern lines (at least my friends don’t, they can barely sew a fallen off button), they look lovely and others can’t tell if you’ve made a mistake.

  Last winter I could only find black, grey and brown skirts on the market. I wanted colour! I bought my self a pretty green cotton/wool fabric and another one in plum and I’ll sew them in fall.

  Homemade clothes have wider sewing allowances. So if needed you can alter them. Bought clothes barely have half a centimeter and you can’t let out even one minimeter.

  Budget is an issue for me. With home sewing I can have taillored clothes, in fine fabrics that cost 1/5 of what they do on the market.

  Plus if you know how to constract a garment from scratch, you know how to alter a bought garment to your needs. I often find clothes on the market that would be wonderful if… Well I know how to do it and I don’t have to pay anyone for it.

  I buy ready made garments a lot, but only if their price is reasonable, taking into account how much would the fabric and the rest of the “hardware” cost, or if they have details I couldn’t manage on my own. Since I started sewing I see patterns everywhere and I can’t help comparing fabric to garment prices. I may find a nice cotton cabardine for 5 or 7 euros per meter, why would a pay 40 or 50 euros for a pencil skirt made of such a fabric? I’m making a Venice lace dress these days (I’ll be posting soon). I can’t believe the prices I see on the shops… so extraordinary. It costed me 20 euro tops. Lace and lining of fine quality too.

  And last but not least… the joy of creation. There’s nothing to compare with that. Such a fullfilling feeling!

  Allow me to say one more thing. The last 2 years, at least, all I see in the shops are easy clothes. I mean clothes made of strechy fabrics, or shaped like a tent, or empire waisted. Well I don’t think it’s fashion. The purpose is to fit all. Every type of body. Well being able to get into a garment ain’t fitting. Nope. I refuse to get dressed like a pregnant woman while I’m not or have a closet full of bad sewn jersey, just because companies want to make money with the less possible effort. I refuse.
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  May 25, 2011, 01.47 PMby josephina

  I was discussing this the other day with some friends, who said they will tolerate mistakes and poor seams on purchased garments, but not on things they sew; hence they don’t sew for themselves.

  I didn’t, and don’t wear the first 5 or 6 items I made, but at some point, homemade items started to fit me better, suit me better and feel better. Now that I have the skill to make clothes that are decently finished and have the experience to look at a pattern and know what will fit, I can pick nice quality fabrics in colours and patterns that I like and know I will end up with a superior product to what I see in stores. This applies also to my children, as chain store children’s clothes can often be tacky imitations of adult fashions.

  Unfortunately I’ve found that in Australia, fabrics are not anywhere as cheap, and sometimes I will buy a garment knowing the final product is close to the price of purchasing the fabric for me. There are cheaper fabric stores, but personally, if I’m spending the time to make a garment, I want to use a fabric that is beautiful both to sew and wear. I’m not sure what other Australians’ experience is with this?

  3 Replies

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    May 25, 2011, 02.29 PMby rogue-cellist

    I’m with you! I think it’s because most of it is being imported and it has such a long way to come in comparison to Europe and the USA… and we’re stuck in a market where we have no option but to pay the prices they charge. Locally I have a Spotlight which is great for the majority of what I want to sew- which is mostly children’s wear, but it has pretty limited lines and if I want nice fabric for something special I have to look further afield (there aren’t any other fabric stores carrying dressmaking fabric in my town) and the prices for anything a bit nice (laces, linen, silk etc) are very high. I often end up buying RTW because I can’t find the fabric I want in the colour I want but I can find something in a shop that I can live with.
    When I do go to the effort of sewing myself something I love that I am in control of everything- from fit to quality to decoration. I can sew an item that I will feel comfortable in physically and mentally.

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    May 25, 2011, 04.42 PMby sewingfan1

    Do you have any areas that are heavily populated with people from India? Certainly in England you find plenty of sari shops there with the most amazing fabrics at really reasonable prices.

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    May 25, 2011, 10.24 PMby josephina

    Replying to myself as I can’t reply to sewingfan1. The town I live in, as well as the nearest city, has a large Indian population. One of my friends tells me she purchases fabrics and other traditional items on visits home.

    Despite living in a small town, we have 2 reasonable fabric stores (lots of sewers I guess?) and I know it’s a constant challenge for them to source fabric. I think this is the biggest problem of all.

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  May 25, 2011, 04.57 PMby americanamama

  I like to sew what I cannot afford, lol. I see things in Harper’s or Vogue and think, “geez, I can at least TRY and make that,!” Sometimes it works, other times not. I saw a designer skirt of silver lame with lace at the bottom in a magazine. Went out, bought the materials, and knocked it off in a day. Easy. Love it all!