How difficult is it to make clothes? As in, for myself. Does

You're probably better off buying clothes that almost fit & going to a tailor to alter it.
If you really want to DIY, you can learn to alter clothes yourself.
Making clothes is pretty damn hard though. Don't do it unless you want something unique that can't be bought.

>>932770
>Don't do it unless you want something unique that can't be bought.
well that is pretty much my goal.

For most clothing, you're not going to get much cheaper than super mega bulk purchase fabric and third world child labor.

Making clothes takes a fair bit of knowledge, a durable sewing machine, a good fabric source, and plenty of time. Them again, third world children can do it, so can you.

Start with premade clothing templates, learning stitching patterns, and start altering things.

>>932787
do you think a sewing machine is a requirement to make something durable?

Time is not a factor to me. I'm not doing this out of pure poverty.

>>932768
Its not really that difficult. Knitting is time consuming and I'd think sewing is the same. Having machines can make it go faster but then you have to watch out for snags and do maintenance on the machines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GFXAGRynNM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaNU2qGo7ts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7bGt_BZk7Y

>>932768
What kind of clothes are you trying to make?

>>932801
well i'm not trying anything yet, just exploring it as a possibility. But i'm thinking T-shirts, pants, shirts, coats.

In that order of me developing as a clothesmaker, too.

I have been wondering this as well. I am a poorfag and it seems like such a waste to pay so much for something the company got out of Indian sweatshop labor for a tiny fraction of what they are charging. Fashion and brand names are not something I care about. I'd like to make some basic winter clothing such as a simple heavy wool button up coat, or maybe an oilcloth raincoat, and from there perhaps move on to more advanced things. Or am I getting too far ahead of myself?

Well anyways, are there any /diy/ recommend books on the subject of getting started at tailoring? (I unlike OP do have access to a sewing machine if that matters a lot)

>>932768
Sewfag here. Clothes are not difficult to make, making them cheaper than you can buy them... depends. Tshirts, nope. A nice wool coat, probably. Something custom you want that the stores don't sell, yeah, you can certainly do that.

>>932788
No. If you do your hand stitching in a solid manner and straight enough for your tastes (matching thread helps for sure, contrasting colors is for when you're really good), hand sewing will certainly suffice. Use a thimble for tougher fabrics. It will take much longer, but it will work. Double thread and knot it off properly, google if you don't know.

My suggestions would be to research what you want to make, look up blogs/youtubes, and learn "the basics" of what materials you are working with, what patterns, and the different basic seams and when they are used.

>>932808
Learn all you can learn about working with wool, what thread to use, different patterns (even if this means a trip to a clothiers for some research) what seams to use and where, no reason you can't focus on a "harder" project, although you are going to want to play with some of the wool scraps first, to get a feel for it, and perhaps try something cheaper first for confidence.

>>932787
>Start with premade clothing templates, learning stitching pattern, and start altering things
Do this. And look at your clothes, closely. Examine how they are constructed.

I started out just altering thrift store clothes by hand in my poorfag days. Now I mostly work with gear, and have bought a sewing machine. But the freedom to make whatever I want... priceless. Also, much cheaper than stores. Except Tshirts, cotton goes for three dollars a yard around here, and my time is, uh, I can't beat five dollars in the store. But I can make a duffel bag with padded straps for tenbux, so it evens out for me.

>>932768
>>932911
I've made some out door gear; I'm trying to get into every day clothes, and I want to agree with this guy.

The common wisdom among the people I know that make stuff is that you're never going to compete on final price with the cheapest stuff, not even if you count your labor as free. But you can get high quality results for moderate prices.

My big problem is that I wast to play with some weirder high quality fabrics, and it's hard to find. I doubt anybody even makes hemp/nylon blends, much less a high quality oxford.

And if you have patterns stashed away somewhere, please do share!

>>932806
No, you will not make t-shirts any cheaper than you can buy them for. Obviously, look at either 2nd hand stores or factory outlets etc. I consistently find t-shirts for $3-5, I think people who pay $25 for one are crazy unless it's an unusually fun design.
Start with cloth. You can absolutely make clothes without a sewing machine, it'll just take FOREVER. handstiching, call it 4 inches a minute to be generous. so for 30 in inseam pants, you'll have to stitch something like 45 minutes just to get basic pants shape, at which point you can start sewing the button/button hole, the zipper, pockets, and hemming the bottoms. So I'm guessing probably at least 2 hours per attempt, hand cramping.

Traditionally, back in the great depression era kind of thing, you would make your own: dresses, socks, sweaters, and overalls, but would buy shirts, shirt cuffs, shoes, nice pants and the rest, unless you were unusually talented at sewing. If you think about poor person stereotypes of the time, poor farmers had no shoes and overalls for a reason.

>>932808
My suggestion would be to get unwashed wool yarn, and make a sweater/poncho. raw wool still has the lanolin, and is almost as good as oilcloth, traditional scottland kind of thing.
Or just plain wool button up sweater jacket thing and sew up a raincoat out of a plastic tarp or dropcloth.
FYI, for a wool coat, you have to have woven cloth, whereas sweater stuff you can knit without needing a loom. Although I guess you could buy cloth and sew it, so nvm.