Sunday 13 February 2011

Etsy and Ebay

I even after my questioning the whole making my own clothing things, I'm going ahead with it because, it keeps me away from the shops and I already brought about 4 vintage patterns. I started looking on Etsy for vintage patterns after i found a blog (no longer updated) by a girl my size sewing vintage patterns. I had given up hope they come in my size, but in truth i never really looked.





 After i received them I started to wondered what Half-size meant, it was on all the patterns I had picked. A quick look on the Internet and I found out that all the of patterns were for people who were 5ft 3in. Half sizes were for matrons (people over 30 apparently)  the photo below explains it all. I'm 5ft9in or 5ft 10in so while they fit in the measurements, they will be too short in the body.




I'm going to make them anyway, they seem to have details on how to lengthen them built in. I also have a new pile of fabric as lincraft had 50% off all fabric. I was slightly good, I only got material based on how much I needed for a specific pattern.

and because I shopped




Why    I had started to crochet again and I thought it would be cute to make
           Matilda wear a frog hat, the maker also gave me a cute bear one too.
When  Aug 2010
What   I never even started it, but I will one day....
Do      It's a PDF... and Yes I do want it.

Sunday 6 February 2011

Craft Questions


So while trying as hard as I can to not buy anything new, I'm drawn to the idea of making things for myself. Clothing, aprons, blankets etc. using what I already have in my house.
Skirt by Me

When I was a student I had many grand-plans that involved using all my free time to be crafty and sell things at markets. These were encouraged by friends who also had similar aspirations; we would plan trips to spotlight and spend hour picking out material and different trimmings. Patterns were never on the list as we had the internet which provided us with free printouts, or we figured we could guess.

We would then meet up once or twice with the intention of being super crafty but instead of making anything we would just sit around drinking and chatting. The supplies would go into a storage box for safe keeping as we all because too busy with exams and work.  

I was a bit of a friend-whore with this, I had a few different circles and I did it with a different group each time and in the end I accumulated a lot of sewing supplies.


 So Much Material  

I did make it to one market, with two friends. One of us was already experienced at making toys so she was set, me and the other friend had no idea. We spent one very frustrating but hilarious day trying to help each other learn to sew with no patterns or clue as to what we were doing.  We produced 3 aprons, called it quits and started drinking. In an attempt to fill our table I spent a few days at the uni making fabric covered brooches and on the morning of the market made like 100 mini cupcakes  (thank god for the 50cent cake mix!) . We discovered that day how hard it is to be in the craft business. Not one of our aprons sold, maybe 5 of my brooches went and the creator of the toys had become attached to them and removed them from sales. The only thing we sold out of was the cupcakes.


I still have the aprons and the brooches and I also still own way too much material. I gave a big chunk away to my nieces for Christmas mainly just the odds and ends (I loved the off cuts bin at spotlight $5 bag) along with a book on how to make cute softies. This left me with only material I have a meter or more of.
So far I have made one skirt, and partly made a caplet. Before I started them I looked through my fabric to find what could be used and it turned up nothing suitable for the skirt. Most of it is not something I would wear or more of an upholstery fabric. I was lucky enough to see the fabric I wanted on special for $1.99m so I grab 3 meters. For the caplet I had purchased some material ages ago for this purpose but without have a pattern I ended up with 3 meters of material when I only need one.

Skirt by Me

So I'm faced with the question 
Is making my own clothing any better in the long run, as I have to buy material and a pattern, but may end up with excess material that has no use? I obviously already have too much fabric, which just shows another manifestation of my shopping addiction. 


Why     I didn't buy them, I made them
When   Oct 2007
What   As explained above I made them to sell at a market, but didn't do so well.
Do      I want them, to do to people who want them. I want someone to see them and get excited and 
           wear them all the time. I might get off my butt and sell them on etsy.

Why      For a caplet
When   Oct 2010
What    Left over caplet material see above
Do       I have no use for this, I don't want another caplet, and don't know what else to do with it. So maybe?