Anyone ever make their own clothes?

[ellbee]

When I was growing up, I didn't always have the option of obtaining what I wanted for my dressing, for all kinds of reasons.

So, sometimes I improvised! :D


I was naturally pretty decent with a pair of scissors and thread & needle, so I could fashion some pieces fairly easily out of ordinary *non-female* things.


For example, I used to turn all sorts of items into skirts & dresses, such as: a winter hat, my t-shirt, my shorts, a pillowcase, my school book-bag, whatever. I really don't remember everything.

Then just pair it up with some tights or pantyhose that I had swiped, and there you have it! :laughing:


Hey, they actually came out sort of nice, IMO, for what they were. Certainly got me through as a young crossdresser with no GG's in the house besides my mom, whose clothes were oftentimes too big/loose for a skinny little kid.



Anything like that with any of you? :)

[Teresa]

Laura,
I made a tight black pencil skirt out of a discarded taffeta lining as usual the tricky bit is doing a decent job of fitting the zip, I made it slightly too tight and being taffeta I burst the seams when I bent down too quick. Otherwise I just do most of my alterations myself, usually having to reduce a waist on skirts and replacing hook and eyes.
Also learned the lesson to measure twice and cut once, I had a calf length skirt which I wanted to shorten to knee length, instead of taking off 8" I took off 10", so then I had to devise a way of putting something back on the hem . It was a navy skirt in a silky material so I bought a 2" wide cream satin ribbon and added it to the hem , all stitched by hand, it looked so good I added a panel on the waist, I was really pleased with how it looked.
I would love to be sewing machine fluent I'm getting there but you have to be confident to sew at speed to to make a decent job , it's so tedious unstitching when you do get it wrong.

[RADER]

I tried it once, just a simple skirt, failed badly.
I was a Carpenter Foreman, I ran big jobs, I can take a large stack of
blue-prints and build you a Health Care Center. But make a skirt????
I guess I will just buy them on line.
Now I bet I could make it out of wood. LOL Now that's a thought.
Rader

[Roxy]

I made my first panties out of scrape satin and lace and a fish net shirt for a Halloween costume all from scratch.
I've also done a lot of alterations to dresses, shirts and blouses.
Some alterations work out better than others. I've done a lot of seam ripping and do overs.
I have the patterns for a couple of dresses I really want to make. One day they will be at the front of the to-do list

[Savannah_Skye]

Totally did that when I was younger, Laura! Also glad I was not alone in my creativity. GGs were much older so no hand-me-downs or closets to raid and I finally got actual clothes in high-school. So what got me through that wait...while growing up, I prided myself on being a pillowcase seamstress, especially the long body pillow cases but definetly used T-shirts and shorts as well. Used construction paper to make matching pursesm guess I was a fashion diva early) and finding a pair of clip-on earrings I was good to go.

[Lana Mae]

No never made clothing!! My mom used to make a few clothing items. I do counted cross stitch and plastic canvas items! Made a few baskets from plastic canvas but that is not clothes!! Hugs Lana Mae

[DIANEF]

I've never made anything from scratch but I've altered plenty of items, ankle lengh dresses to knee lengh, shortened sleeves, fairly simple stuff. In my very early days of cross dressing I aquired a few things my mum was throwing, much too big but managed to make them wearable.

[Alice_2014_B]

One of my girl-dreams is make my very own entire outfit, mainly a dress and high heels.
:)

[Vale]

Not exactly seamstress work, but can you guess how I used an extra Christmas tree skirt back in the day?

Vale

[phili]

I'm really enjoying altering clothes to fit the way I like- ruching dresses so I get a slanted hem and some nice texture, adjusting skirt length, taking in baggy blouses to accentate my waist, etc. I designed a mixed color satin half slip with slits and waist tie, and had a seamstress put it together- but at $50 that gets expensive, so I'm doing more with hand stitching. I think making artsy boy clothes will give me some of the satisfaction I get from women's clothing - we'll see!

[Linda E. Woodworth]

I've had a sewing machine for years but never took the time to really learn to use it.

No More! I made the time and took a sewing class this past spring. You had to pick a project so I made a skirt for my "wife". The shop wasn't used to having men in the class (some of the women were openly hostile).

Anyway, I still haven't finished the skirt, it still needs to be hemmed and have a button sewn on. I'm proud of the result.

Unfortunately it looks like we picked the wrong size and it's too big!

Oh well, with experience I'll be able to handle problems like that.

[CD_DIANE]

I have made skirts and half slips. Learning to sew is relatively easy (at least the basics) and the good news is the cost of fabrics can be low AND the clothes FIT ! (or at least should).... Now where did I put that seam ripper ?

Take a look on Overstock.com Janome is a good brand . Fabrics can be purchased online. Suggestions Corduroy, charmeuse, pleather (fake leather) .

Diane

[MissTee]

I recently purchased a sewing machine with the intent of altering some skirts. I am still in the learning mode, and are practicing on a few pieces I don't really care to keep. At this point I don't plan on making my own clothes, but one day I might.

[Amelie]

I make all my clothes. I even made my bras and a couple of corsets. I would like to make shoes and boots but don't have the tools to do so.

[Jenni Yumiko]

I make all of my cross plays and wife n kids cosplays, mostly no pattern stuff and a lot of Eva, Sinatra and wonderflex.
My most ambitious sewing endeavor has been Reginas black dress from Once Upon a time. And wonderflex was elrics arm.

[Traci H]

You are all putting me to shame. I have helped my wife fix her sewing machine but have never used it. The stitching process baffles me. I am going to learn how to use it one of these days. That being said, I have hand sewn quite a few things for repairs. I have a flower charms bra that someone shortened the straps on and I pulled the stitching out. I either have to hand sew or put on the machine which would be zip-zip by comparison.

I figure if I can run virtually any power tool, I should be able to handle that damn sewing machine. It's on my list.
Traci

[Ressie]

I've been doing a few alterations lately. Never attempted making clothes from scratch, well I tried once long ago and the shirt turned out terrible. About 10+ years ago I cut off the top of a purple sweater and wore the rest as a mini skirt!

[Judy-Somthing]

In 8th grade I took sewing and while all the other guys in the class were just screwing around I got pretty good at it.

I ended up making two nice dresses for my girl friend. Little did she know that I tried them on first.

I was going to make a dress last year, I bought some nice red fabric and a pattern but never got around to it.

[BLUE ORCHID]

Hi Laura:hugs:, My mother taught me how to sew as a very young teenager and it has served me well for the past 60 years.

I have made a few skirts and I do a lot of alterations and any sewing or hemming around the house.

I even taught both of my grown daughters how to sew.

I make rollup drill bit indexes out of a piece of denim by sewing lines evenly spaced and tapper it as the drills get longer
and add a piece of shoelace to roll it up and tie it up and put it in the tool bag,

The guys would ask where can I get one and I just say get your wife to make you one....:daydreaming:...

[April Showers]

I am just finishing this sailor mercury piece off right now. I made it from scratch with no pattern,it is actually an apron but it has a full circle skirt and with a white t shirt underneath would look just like a full cosplay costume. it can be worn with a petticoat underneath to make it look fuller. It will be great for doing the housework LOL. I also just finished a fully boned waist cincher which takes 4 inches off my waistline which I love.[ATTACH=CONFIG]266734[/ATTACH

[Dana44]

Actually I have a skirt in progress and will finish it soon.

[HollyGreene]

My mother was a seamstress, so I grew up with home-made clothes, sewing machines etc all around me, and it was pretty difficult to avoid learning about the subject.
I have my own sewing machine, and I have made several items of clothing including dresses and underwear.

[Taylor186]

The first time I went out (Halloween - mid 80s) I wore a 'shortish' denim skirt I fashioned out of a pair of my old jeans. I ripped out the crotch seam, cut off the legs, and sewed and hemmed it using a basic machine straight (top) stitch. It was easier than I thought and looked quite good, to me. I received a lot of compliments on the outfit, but was never asked "did you make it?" Not sure if I would have admitted it back then as I was still deep in the closet. I took some heat at the time from my then wife, and she even brought it up to our marriage counselor. He, to his credit back then, had no problem with a man using a sewing machine.