Anyone make their clothes?

[rosemerry]

I don't like current clothing styles. I'm very short 4'10" and it's difficult to find clothes I like. So I'm starting to make my own clothes. I love historical clothing and concentrating on medieval/renaissance, civil war, and the bustle era which is from 1880's to around the turn of the century. I'm also into the Gibson girl look.

Anyone make their own clothes? Especially if they are historical for everyday wear or any other reasons. Love to chat about it with you.

 

[ritawal]

I don't like current clothing styles. I'm very short 4'10" and it's difficult to find clothes I like. So I'm starting to make my own clothes. I love historical clothing and concentrating on medieval/renaissance, civil war, and the bustle era which is from 1880's to around the turn of the century. I'm also into the Gibson girl look.

Anyone make their own clothes? Especially if they are historical for everyday wear or any other reasons. Love to chat about it with you.

hi
i haven't sewed for awhile i'm recovering from an illness but i use to make alot of my clothes. my mother taught me to sew when i was 8 years old. i'm 42 now. back when i was coming up, material for sewing was really cheap now it's very expensive. i had to find other means to make clothes i liked cheaply. one place i like to look in is second hand stores and salvage places. i found out if you come across an article of clothing and you like the style but don't like the material, you can use a seam ripper and gently take the whole thing apart, lay it out on paper and make your own pattern. also if you like the material of an article of clothing but don't like the style, you can take it apart and make it into another type of fashion. also if you come across certain things that's light in color and has a spot on it but you like the style and material, sometimes you can use rite color remover to remove all the color out of it then dye it a color you would like. don't stick just with clothes to get material from, you can also use bed spreads or anything as long as you like the material and it's enough to make what you want it for. another thing is, if you find an article of clothing and you like the material, say like blue jeans, you can purchase very large second hand blue jeans, larger then your normal size and this would give you alot of material to make what you want to make. look for large sheets of paper in art supply stores ect. this can be what you sue for your patterns. also save buttons and zippers from things you take apart. i hope this helps.

 

[rosemerry]

Thanks alot. It does help. I'm currently working on some civil war clothing and I don't have the material for my petticoats yet so I'll keep your ideas in mind when looking for material for them.

 

[ritawal]

Thanks alot. It does help. I'm currently working on some civil war clothing and I don't have the material for my petticoats yet so I'll keep your ideas in mind when looking for material for them.

hi
maybe white cotton sheets might work for the petticoats.

 

[JudyGarland]

I used to enjoy sewing clothing, but now there is no space for me to do so, and my sewing machine is in storage. I will get back into it someday. :o

 

[Yrael]

Does buying fabric and using patterns count? I've taken two courses in apparel design in high school, but I didn't learn much apart from learning to sew. This hobby's on hiatus for now. I'm trying to lose weight, seems a waste to make clothes that might not fit me later.

 

[pmcleanj]

Back at the dawn of time (BC - before children) I made all my own clothes. I put myself through University on a far-below-poverty-line income, and if I hadn't made my own clothes I'd have graduated wearing the same clothes I graduated from highschool in. Back in those days, sewing involved a needle and thread, because the little money I had for apparel went to the fabric, not to luxuries like a sewing machine! I had hand-made Chanel-styled suits for no more than the cost of fabric (bought at the end-of-season sail the year before).

My first major purchase when I got a salary was an Elnita Lotus sewing machine, and I probably put 300000km on it. I made my wedding dress and going-away suit and my bridesmaid's dress; and classic victorian-styled layettes for my children.

But somewhere along the line my children got opinions of their own about clothes, and I got increased demands on my time at work and at home. Although I still sew (and love historical and folk patterns) I've bought the greater portion of my family's clothes over the last ten years.

That seems to be changing. I'm sewing more for myself again. And I found a lovely Edwardian authentic pattern that should just fit my 13-year-old. Only, it needs a corset for an undergarment before I fit it. I found a picture of a contemporary unboned reform corset, so my next step is to devise a pattern from the photograph. Some of the Reform-movement patterns are very practical, healthful and comfortable, while being graceful and feminine.

 

[ritawal]

Back at the dawn of time (BC - before children) I made all my own clothes. I put myself through University on a far-below-poverty-line income, and if I hadn't made my own clothes I'd have graduated wearing the same clothes I graduated from highschool in. Back in those days, sewing involved a needle and thread, because the little money I had for apparel went to the fabric, not to luxuries like a sewing machine! I had hand-made Chanel-styled suits for no more than the cost of fabric (bought at the end-of-season sail the year before).

My first major purchase when I got a salary was an Elnita Lotus sewing machine, and I probably put 300000km on it. I made my wedding dress and going-away suit and my bridesmaid's dress; and classic victorian-styled layettes for my children.

But somewhere along the line my children got opinions of their own about clothes, and I got increased demands on my time at work and at home. Although I still sew (and love historical and folk patterns) I've bought the greater portion of my family's clothes over the last ten years.

That seems to be changing. I'm sewing more for myself again. And I found a lovely Edwardian authentic pattern that should just fit my 13-year-old. Only, it needs a corset for an undergarment before I fit it. I found a picture of a contemporary unboned reform corset, so my next step is to devise a pattern from the photograph. Some of the Reform-movement patterns are very practical, healthful and comfortable, while being graceful and feminine.

i use to sew so much, i can't seemed to get back into the groove again. lately, i have been thinking seriously about starting up again and sticking at it. in my previous post i wrote how i use to make alot of clothes out of old clothes. i use to find so much enjoyment in this. lately i've been thinking of making some long skirts for myself and some baby clothes for my sisters new baby. about these reform movement patterns, i'm not familar with this style of clothing. i assume it's an earlier version of clothing styles but exactly what does it look like? do you have a web site you can post? the long skirt patterns is what i'm interested in. also, i always loved the ruffle pleasant blouse look. this have been a hard pattern to find.

 

[pmcleanj]

about these reform movement patterns, i'm not familar with this style of clothing. i assume it's an earlier version of clothing styles but exactly what does it look like?

Here's an article about the reform movement, which lasted from 1850 to 1914:

http://costume.osu.edu/Reforming_Fashion/reformdress.htm

This is how they introduce the reform movement on that site:

A growing number of people including feminists, health advocates, physicians, artists, and educators began to believe that women's clothing, particularly fashionable dress, was harmful to women's health.

Solutions promoted by the dress reformers included trousers, reform underwear, and artistic dress.

This is the article where I found a picture of a corset to make for my daughter. Of course, no-one nowadays would put a healthy growing 13-year-old in a cinch-waisted boned corset; but a firm foundation garment is needed to fit heritage patterns properly. So this unboned corset is my hoped-for solution:

This is the dress that I plan to make for her, from past patterns

They sell the patterns by mail-order, and they are reprints of an actual period pattern.

For ethnic clothes, which I also love, I like folkwear: http://www.folkwear.com/ (although many ethnic clothes can be simply cut from rectangles and don't need a pattern. They have some long skirts too. For historic patterns, a great site is this German one where you can download the pattern and draft it to size for your own measurements: http://www.marquise.de If you don't read German it's a bit hard to navigate, but here's the Edwardian era page: http://www.marquise.de/en/1900/schnitte/s1900.shtml

I thought folkwear had a pattern for a peasant blouse, but I guess not. It's such a simple pattern -- take any raglan blouse pattern (widening the sleeves if they're too narrow in the existing pattern), cut the neck down to a scoop, and put a casing along it with a gathering ribbon through it. But if you haven't made them before, it can still be rather daunting. If I run across a downloadable peasant pattern I'll link it for you.

 

[ritawal]

wow, thanks for all the sites!

 

[pmcleanj]

Rita, is this the kind of peasant blouse you were looking for, or were you looking for the kind with sleeves?

 

[pmcleanj]

Here is the folkwear one

 

[ritawal]

Here is the folkwear one

like the the folkwear one because of the long sleeves. i like the short sleeve one because of the ruffles. i think i called the blouse i'm looking for by the wrong name. i shouldn't have said peasant blouse but i don't know what to call the blouse i'm looking for. some years ago, my husband bought me this beautiful blouse. it became one of my favorite tops. i wore it alot, it went with everything, jeans, skirts etc. finally i had to throw it out because it had stains i couldn't get out. it was white. anyway, the blouse was on the peasant style, look sleeves but it had alot of ruffles. very feminine. up at the neck line, it had a small slit in a v shape with 3 eyelets on each side of the v that was laced closed with a lace. it was so cute. i wish i had took it apart and made a pattern from it before i threw it out. i have'nt found that kind of blouse yet. it's so hard sometimes to buy feminine clothes. that's one reason why i've been thinking about sewing again. with sewing, i can make anything i want. thanks so much for sending the pictures. i stored them. i might have to use them as my base if i can't find that blouse.