Can you save money by learning to sew?
Now that is a question! The answer is yes , maybe and no.
A lot of it depends on your buying habits. If you mostly buy your clothes from Primark or Shein then I’m sorry – nobody can make clothes that cheap. However, do those clothes last? How often are you replacing them? Are you happy with that? If you are – then fine keep doing that. However, if you want to buy better quality clothing, but dont really have the budget for fancy designers, then maybe making your own will pay off.
Let’s have a look at how much a more upmarket dress costs. This is a picture of a green silk twill dress. You can buy it in Pampas in Glasgow for £419. it’s designed by Copenhagen designer Dea Kudibal and its made in China. Now I know that silk twill is a very upmarket choice of fabric but lets keep going with this example.
As a new sewist – you may think this dress is out of your capability, and you’d probably be right, but after a couple of years of practise this style of dress would easily be within your ability. Silk twill isn’t particularly difficult to sew and this is quite a strightforward style with only one side seam zip.
Lets see if we can find a pattern like it
What about this one from Vogue?
or if you’re an indie pattern fan – this one from Wardrobe by Me. Both dress styles are similar to the Dea Kudibal dress style. You could always remove the tiers on the WBM design and just lengthen the skirt piece for a more authentic copy.
Ok, so how much is silk to buy per metre
This is a super luxury silk twill and it works out at £40/m. I know thats still a bit spendy so what about this
If you hunt for real deadstock fabric you can often find luxury fabrics in odd pockets of hte internet. Another option if you’re an arty type is to have your own design printed onto silk by somewhere like Contrado. Then you really would have a one off design!
So let’s say you want to make this dress – you can’t afford to buy it a £419 however to make it yourself it could cost anything from £60 to £150 plus a little of your time. But think how proud you’ll feel with your achievement.
OK – so that was a very fancy example.
What about something a bit more everyday. Again if you tend to buy your clothes from a supermarket it’s unlikely you’ll be able to sew something cheaper. But lets go up a wee notch to somewhere like Marks and Spencer or Next
These are super comfy stretchy wide leg trousers. The fabric is generally known as ponte or ponte roma- It’s a stable knit fabric so it has a little stretch but its quite smoth and drapey. Now, most people need about 2 metres of fabric to make a pair of trousers
To be honest – once you’ve done a bit of sewing you won’t really need a pattern for a pair of trousers like this but I always think this is a good value pattern because you get three items in one
Do you make much of a saving in everyday wear – well maybe not as much as you did with the fancy silk dress. In this example your first pair of trousers will cost you about £22 after you buy the fabric and pattern – but, you really could make 3 or 4 pairs of these quite quickly in a bunch of different colours at £10 per pair using the same pattern.
So can you save money by learning to sew? Well as I said at the beginning – yes and no. and you probably wont save time. I’m also ignoring the cost of the machine, notions, and other equipment.
However what I find with people who sew is that they have a higher standard for what they want to buy. They’ll choose nicer fabrics and probably take better care of items they’ve made. So possibly in the end – their are savings to be made.
I’ll be revisiting this concept with other ideas – ie doing your own repairs and alterations, buying secondhand and altering them to fit.
