The "Frugality" of Home Sewing.

I finally finished this shirt over the weekend, and I'm not 100% happy with it, but I already wore it, and I'll wear it again. It's...okay. Mediocre. The print is awesome, but it looks a little weird on. It's just...eh.

Anyway, you know how people claim that it's more frugal to sew your own clothes? It's not, usually. (There are exceptions to this rule, I know. I will explain that in a minute.*)

Let's use this shirt as an example. It was made from a pretty basic pattern (Simplicity 4589). I used good old 100% cotton broadcloth, and regular all-purpose thread. I don't sew particularly slowly, but I have a difficult to fit figure, so pattern alteration does take some time. (I'm not just plus-sized, I am extremely pear-shaped. Like...my hips are something like three dress sizes bigger than my torso. Fun!)

Anyway, by my rough calculation, this shirt cost me about $170 to make.

Go ahead and clean up the beverage that you just sprayed all over your monitor. I'll wait.

Finished? Here's my estimate:
Pattern = $9
Cloth = $19
Thread = $2
Pattern alteration (time) = $34
Cutting out (time) = $37
Sewing (time) = $67
Total = $168
(Time calculated using my normal hourly rate for bookkeeping clients.)

Why did I include my time? Because my time counts. No, no, you may be saying -- it only counts when you're selling. Nope. It counts always -- and that's one of the main reasons why making stuff by hand is so darned hazardous. If you put 7 1/2 hours into a simple cotton shirt that doesn't even fit very well...you've just wasted the equivalent of a whole day's (paid) work. OUCH! You're also choosing to put that many hours and that much effort into something you can get much more easily and far cheaper on the open market.**

Home sewing is a gamble, and not just for the beginner. I mess up all the time, and I've been sewing since my early teens. I don't know, maybe I'm just sort of lousy at it...but I don't think so. I used to get paid to do this stuff -- I was a theatrical costumer for six years!

When you mess up, it feels a lot worse than shopping for a garment that doesn't fit right -- because you're also out the time you spent, and the thing you've carefully made...is not returnable.

I know that there are steps you can take to ensure that your projects don't end in flames quite so often as my own do. You can work with a "body double" or a well-fitted dressmaker's dummy -- that really helps -- or you can make patterns from ready-made clothes that already fit you well. You can also learn to draft original patterns to your exact measurements.

But it's just heartbreaking to make a mediocre shirt for $168. I could get 10 or 15 mediocre shirts at the thrift store for that amount -- including my time spent.

So, beware the "frugal" home sewing project. It may be veeeeeery costly in the end.

(*Special occasion dresses can be made much more cheaply than ready-made...but generally only when you discount your own labor. Using a pattern more than once changes its cost, too -- as well as using free materials -- but we'll get into that later, since it's more of an accounting issue than a crafting issue. **This does not even scratch the surface of sweatshop labor issues and the actual consequences of a $12 shirt from somewhere like Old Navy -- believe me, I understand that. I'm just making a different point.)