Like many people, I suspect, in recent weeks and months I have returned to a hobby I used to enjoy – sewing and dressmaking. What I love about making my own clothes is bringing a piece of fabric to life and creating a garment in the colour that I want and the style that I want.
It can be so frustrating when shopping for ready-made clothes to find something that is the perfect style but not the right colour or the right colour but not the right style. Some clothes, particularly those in natural fabrics like linen and cotton can be dyed to a better colour tone but it is liberating to be able to choose a sewing pattern in the right shape of garment to suit my body shape and to choose the perfect fabric in one of my best colours to create it.
Making your own clothes requires an honest look at your actual body measurements and allows for making adjustments to fit your own proportions and height and being able to create a garment with the hemline that falls at the most flattering length for you.
I first started to make clothes when I was a student and ready-made clothes were not as affordable as on the high street today. I also found that the fabrics you could buy to sew with seemed much more interesting than shop bought styles. I don’t claim to be an expert seamstress and have still to master the invisible zip but I have made garments in beautiful cotton fabrics that are unique pieces suitable for my colouring and personal style.
Even if you don’t make garments from scratch, it is worth looking through your wardrobe to see if minor adjustments can be made to clothes to make them more wearable or up to date. Tops or trousers can often be shortened or new buttons added to jackets to update your look.
It’s interesting to see that in Princess Beatrice’s recent wedding she wore a Norman Hartnell gown that the Queen had worn and that had been refitted with the addition of sleeves. Do you have vintage items in your wardrobe that can be remodelled?
Image by J Williams on Unsplash