My wife wants to make me some clothes

[Gwinnie]

So not only does she approve of me wearing dresses and stuff, she wants to make some clothes for me. I think it's also she wants to learn to sew, but doesn't want to have it be perfect for out in public view. And since I never go out dressed then I can be the guinea pig. Sounds great to me!!! :D So I've been finding patterns of clothes that are no longer made but should be. Big skirts and ridiculously large puffy sleeves here I come!!!

[Robbin_Sinclair]

I crazily think of myself as a clothes designer. I ordered a(n) (vintage) Italian Singer sewing machine on ebay. It probably won't come until March, knowing Homeland Security but there is no doubt that I will use it. The plan is first to just learn straight stitches in some clothing. Then to re-do clothing that I like to make outfits for me. My wife and I were doing Spring cleaning early and I scored a whole bunch of my wife's good stuff but also male suits to practice on. If it was a man's suit, it can be a wo-man's suit. I have tons of great material.

Congratulations. Another post today paralleling my life today...except your's is better. Duet design team. I'm still solo on that. xr

[Gwinnie]

I think I need this flowered dress.
http://img0.etsystatic.com/001/1/5415818/il_fullxfull.362879040_5iid.jpg

[Leslie Langford]

O.K., now - that would be a pretty ambitious project for your wife to start off with since she still seems to be a newbie when it comes to sewing. You two might consider something simpler at first so that she doesn't get discouraged with her initial attempts, and then give up on the sewing altogether.

[lilly_anne]

Omg that is so awesome and I totally agree with you. They should still be making dresses like that , I like the pink one a lot. I would have to say that I think bows look pretty on ever dress.
My wife and I do the same thing. We have made a few skirts and purses, its not the best looking stuff but it is fun.

[mikiSJ]

I think that is a skill all of us should have. I paid the same amount as the purchase price of three outfits to have a seamstress tailor the clothes to my Size 16/18 shoulders and Size 14 waist.

[Beverley Sims]

I made myself a bikini once. I buy them now.
The dresses look awesome I like the pink one too.

[darla_g]

she might want to try something a bit simpler. that dress looks awfully complicated

[Justbgone]

this is exactly what I've started doing for my beau! Stuff out there is so expensive and usually doesn't hold up to his unmanicured nails and/or his yanking and pulling. In fact I am actually enlisting a couple friends who sew well to help me make some of my own designs for the over 40 crowd and hopefully I can segue into creating some stuff for crossdressers.I mean men are built differently and yet they deserve to look as feminine and pretty as they want to with it least a modicum of comfort. Right? So go for it and good luck.

[sue ellan]

has your wife ever done any sewing before? if not it might be a good idea to take some sewing lessons. my mother sewed a lot and taught my girls how to sew when they were in 4h. it will take a lot of patience.

sue ellan

life is like a roll of tp. the closer to the end the faster goes.

[Gwinnie]

yeah it does look complicated. I was just looking for patterns this morning. Will want to start with something much simpler I think. But, I would love to have a flowered dress with huge puffy sleeves, gathered skirt and a big pretty bow.

[Leslie Langford]

Well, you know the mantra here, steve - "Baby steps, baby steps..." ;)

[DanaR]

It is very cool that she is going to adopt you as a person to sew for. You both will benefit from this. There are some easy to sew patterns out there and depending on where you live, sewing classes; which is probably a good place to start, unless she has friends to learn from.

This is something that I've wanted to get into as well. My wife doesn't sew, so whenever I need something fixed, I have to fix it myself or pay someone to do it.

[Stephanie47]

I remember the days in junior high school (early 1960's) when girls took home economics, sewing and millinery, and, boys took woodworking, metal shop, electrical shop and printing. No reason you and your wife cannot take classes together on operating a sewing machine. Is there any difference between a seamstress and a tailor? Also, don't over buy on the sewing machine. My wife's sewing machine repairman recommends machines of the 1950's and 1960's for simple sewing over computerized machines.

[noeleena]

Hi,

Theres about 6 yards of fabric in the pink dress, The white one is about 4 overlays, to try doing that is very ambitsous .

I would advise for starters do something plain because the time involved is not a hour or 2, think days of work the seams alone take a lot of time, & then the blind seaming if you wont a nice finish .

Something simple to start with & then build on that as one gets better at sewing, do a skirt first or two doing tops is a lot more work so it fits right, & not to tight, & be prepared to unpick a few times to get it right,

any way enjoy your sewing,

...noeleena...

[Sacpatty]

The flower dress is nice. But I like the bows on the pink one

[Leslie Langford]

I remember the days in junior high school (early 1960's) when girls took home economics, sewing and millinery, and, boys took woodworking, metal shop, electrical shop and printing. No reason you and your wife cannot take classes together on operating a sewing machine. Is there any difference between a seamstress and a tailor? Also, don't over buy on the sewing machine. My wife's sewing machine repairman recommends machines of the 1950's and 1960's for simple sewing over computerized machines.

Much as I dislike assigned gender roles, I am grateful that I, too, went through a 1960's style educational system when I was young and also took woodworking, metal shop, auto mechanics, and printing classes. That was the foundation of my current handyman skills, and these days, if I can't fix it myself, I can at least diagnose the problem and intelligently discuss possible corrective action with a trained trades-person or technician.

Like most members of the succeeding generations, my two children (a girl and a boy) did not have the benefit of that type of training when they went to school, and the attempts by my wife and I to instill these domestic skills in them ourselves met with only limited success because society began to look down on this type of training in preference to more "academic" subjects. The upshot is that while my kids are both very technologically savvy, they are also challenged to drive a nail into a wall to hang up a picture or boil an egg. So guess who is always on call to effect even the simplest repairs around their homes?

My only regret is that I didn't supplement my trade-based learnings with more home economics-type lessons such as cooking and sewing as they were considered to be "girl" courses back in the day, and boys were discouraged from participating in them for fear of being branded with that dreaded "sissy" label. I've picked up a few skills in that area on my own since that time, but not as many as if I had gotten a proper start while still in school as a youngster.

[Ceri Anne]

The cloths you can make are so much more stylish than what you can buy. Love that girl to death!!!

[kimdl93]

seems like a good deal. You can be her model!

[Kat42]

I see sewing as just another "manufacturing process" no more no less than welding, soldering, riveting etc. The only difference is the working material. It's just a matter of how do you join two (or more) pieces of material together.

I learnt the basics of running the machine, I called it "running over the material with a sewing machine". Yea the two pieces stuck together, but it wasn't pretty. An old GF was a wizard with one and demonstrated some really advanced techniques like how to roll an edge over and sew the folded edge sow the rough edge didn't show. BTW, she also won every halloween costume we ever had.

[Miranda-E]

unfortunately most sewing classes today are are quilting. nothing but teaching how to use your machines 80 decorative ducky and bunny stitches on a flat surface. they also don't mention that time with a iron is much more important than time on the machine.

youtube is todays sewing classes.
artisansquare is the best forum for learning

surefitdesigns.com has a great beginner patternmaking/altering system. its perfect for sewing for 1 or a few people because of great measuring.
Lutterloh is another system but is much better suited to making the same design in many sizes. fast but not accurate.


I see sewing as just another "manufacturing process" no more no less than welding, soldering, riveting etc. The only difference is the working material. It's just a matter of how do you join two (or more) pieces of material together.

exactly, cloth is just floppy or stretchy sheet metal and its amazing how similar the layout work is.

I'm going broke "saving money" by making clothes :)
Juki DDL-8700
juki MO-735
Juki MO-644d
Consew 2053R
Janome hd1000
Sailrite LSZ-1
and considering adding a Yamata FY500 dedicated blind stitch machine

[Aaron Zwidling]

Lucky you. Unfortunately my wife and I are both still intermediates at sewing, and she doesn't seem to get around to her own sewing projects never mind making things for me. I'm currently in the process of improving my own sewing skills so I can complete a number of dresses for myself.

One thing I would highly recommend is to fit the pattern to your body and alter it as needed before doing any sewing. I've tried sewing some things without that step and end up spending more time fixing mistakes than it would have cost to set the pattern up correctly in the first place. If you're not sure how to alter a commercial pattern to fit you there are books out there that will guide you through the process step by step, plus a number a people have posted similar instructions online. Alternatively you can also do what I did, which is have an experienced dressmaker help alter the pattern. I just did that a few days ago. It took an hour and cost me $30 but was well worth the time and money. Using the altered pattern I sewed a muslin yesterday and it fits pretty well. A few tweaks and I should be good to use the pattern for some of the dresses I want to make.