Our local fabrics shop has a clearance rack with ends of fabrics on hangers – each piece is usually 1-2metres (but you do have to take the whole piece). I barely look at the fabrics at regular prices. I’m usually looking to update my wardrobe without a particular colour or design in mind, so I’m flexible, and there’s usually a good selection.

I sometimes make tiny dresses for baby girls, and I figure that the cost of materials plus the value of my time makes that an appropriate gift, where I might have felt I should spend more had I been buying it.

I harvest buttons, zippers, ribbons, lace, and even swatches of material from old items that couldn’t even be donated.

Finally, I like to make matching accessories, or slightly match up fabrics – such as lining a skirt pocket with fabric that I’ve made a shirt from. It’s a nice touch that they are coordinated, and you can’t usually get that buying retail.

Factoring all these in with my hatred of clothes shopping, the cost of any other potential hobby I might take up if I didn’t sew, I think it’s a great frugal hobby, not to mention a doomsday skill worth having.

Mending and altering your own clothing saves money. I picked up a $4 pair of $45 mall-brand jeans at the thrift store. I rarely find petites when purchasing used. I spent 20 minutes ironing and hemming the pants and saved another $10 for this alteration. Being a short woman, the skill of hemming is quit helpful.

Additionally, putting a tuck or dart in clothing is useful too. Don’t forget to learn to sew on buttons. Sweater repair pays too (Pull snag to back of garmet with a crochet hook. Snip the loop of yarn in the middle and tie a knot without causing puckering on the sweater front. Snip the ends of the knot short.)

Repairing and modifying household items cuts costs too. Reupholstering furniture yourself with old thrift store drapes or a highly discounted bolt of fabric saves a lot too and you get slip covers that don’t slide around or come undone.

His sister also made her own wedding gown. They learned a lot from their mother, as she sewed, knitted, crocheted, embroidered, etc. in the most fascinating styles. She also taught sewing to 4-H clubs. She also made lovely dresses for my daughter when she was young. I do have pictures of those. I could never do all that work, but my daughter seems to have caught the bug. Her regular clothing sewing is not top notch, but all her craft work is fantastic.

Any old-timers on here who remember clothes made from feed sacks?

Sewing from scratch gets pricey, and patterns are a mixed bag. However, it can make sense for unique items…or more importantly, it can make sense as a hobby. I have friends who have made wonderful stuffed toys for kids or quilts they plan on passing down.

However, sewing becomes great frugally if you can alter and fix clothes you have…or clothes you find at a thrift store. You can make clothes last longer, and find great quality pieces for less and make them work for you.

There is a learning curve, definitely, and some time and equipment purchases are involved. I don’t lose my time making low-end stuff (such as children’s clothing, plentiful at all prices) but like to do stuff that is near impossible to find, such as nightshirts for men……. (a special request from a dear relative).

The net is full of forums and blogs of people who do any kind of creative sewing…. most of them will also tell you that they save money in many ways with their hobby.

1. She enjoys it. She’s been doing it since she was a teenager some 40 years ago and it’s something she does well and has fun doing.

2. We do a lot of costuming at science-fiction conventions and the like. If that’s your inclination you can make a much better costume based on your favorite movie or TV series than you can buy anywhere, at any price.

3. Similarly, there are some clothes you just can’t buy off the rack. Want a Western cut shirt where the yoke displays a pattern of skulls and crossbones? You probably have to make it yourself.

4. Some people are of odd sizes and can’t find clothes off the rack that fit properly. For instance I have a, um, substantial waistline and short (27″) legs and arms. I can’t find pants off the rack that fit, but it’s trivial for my wife to take a pair of jeans with 32″ legs and the proper waist size and cut 5 inches off the bottom and recuff them.

If it were solely a matter of frugality I doubt anyone would make their own clothes. It’s more of a matter of getting exactly what you want and/or clothes that fit you properly.

Andre’s comment about social responsibility, responsibility for ecological matters raises another important reason to repurpose materials.

i can’t find the exact comment but my main beef with making clothes is i can’t sew and they would look awful :) also no sewing machine, and even if i wanted one i don’t have the space for it.
THAT SAID- i repair most of my clothing at some time or another. holes, buttons coming off, loose snaps, etc. just very basic needle-and-thread stuff, but it’s kept my wardrobe going for a few years longer than if i had just let everything go to pieces.

ohhhh, i blew $250 on a winter coat 4 years ago- last winter i saw someone in the same coat. all the snaps had fallen off, and the decorative clasps were being used as the real clasps and it was falling apart. my coat is still in great shape- it’s been worn for four years, but all the snaps are there and the buttons work great. if i’m dumb about spending too much on a coat, i’m at least going to be smart enough to make it last.

On the issue of avoiding buying clothes from prison labour – be very careful about this. There are a lot of poor people in the world who work in sewing factories not out of slave labour but because it’s the best of a bad set of choices. If you avoid buying non-US made clothing because of wishing to totally avoid prison labour, you harm those people as a consequence. It’s much better, if you want to help the poor, to buy items made overseas from places that avoid slave labour.

There is no way you can beat the price of casual clothing by sewing them yourself (tshirts, jeans…). If you go for more dressy stuff, yes the price of the fabric will be less this way, but to make it look really good you will need to have a lot of experience and time to make a suit for example.

I usually make repairs/alterations of my clothing, as my body is eternally difficult to dress properly with stuff straight from the rack. In the case when there’s nothing decent to find that fits you properly, sewing is certainly the way to go.

What I like to sew most is some little thingies for my apartment: curtains, cushions, covers for books…

That being said, you can save a TON of money making other stuff, curtains being the big thing. We have enormous picture windows (about 20 feet wide) and buying new curtains for them would have cost us a small fortune. €60 in fabric and €5 in thread, and we have new curtains. The key, obviously, is to find cheap fabric–I have never spent more than €3/meter for anything.

I also make aprons (for the cooking-inclined and myself) and bags, skirts, and things like that. It’s not really a hobby for me; that is, it’s not something I would do if I had nothing else to do. But it is something I’m glad I have the skills for.

Why am I mentioning all this? Because I just picked up a new symphony job and need a black dress for next week. The requirements for the dress (contract rules + having range of motion to play) are pretty hard to meet off the rack, even with standard alterations. Right now I’m picking apart an $18 consignment dress, adding long sleeves and increasing the size by adding tuxedo stripes down the sides. I know it’s within my skill set thanks to all that t-shirt practice!