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?