#only been sewing for about fifteen years
okay listen.
i’ve been sewing for nineteen years. “but blue you’re only twenty-five!” yes exactly. i have been sewing for nineteen years, which is most of my life. i am literally going the “just make your own clothes” route personally because of inability to buy things that fit me properly in stores. and i will be the last person to ever recommend that anyone else does this.
you know why? because most people who are having issues buying clothes that fit have notbeen sewing for nineteen years. most people being told to “just make your own clothes” have never sewn, or have done only basic, beginner-level sewing. they don’t have the foundations, they would need to learn an entire specialized skill set from the ground up to accomplish this task. learning to sew well enough to make daily-use, regular-wear clothing that is durable enough and well-fitted enough to last you long enough to be worth the effort of making it, and to even understand which fabrics and construction methods to use for what garments in the first place, and allof that, it takes years to learn for the vast majority of people, especially for people who have to make significant alterations to the shape of a pattern in order for the garment to fit them.
not to mention that unless you are very knowledgeable about materials already in order to avoid getting price-gouged, andvery lucky to have been slowly collecting fabric and other supplies at hugely discounted prices over years and years, andyou’ve been incredibly fortunate enough to inherit a working sewing machine or find one inexpensively, getting into sewing your own wardrobe and starting from the beginning of your sewing journey all at once willcost hundreds if not thousands of dollars. it will cost way more than settling for something that fits “close enough” from wal-mart. and the people who are expressing these grievances are often poor people who can’t find clothes that fit because specialty stores are so expensive. if they had that much money, they could have already bought clothes from those specialty stores!!
i do wholeheartedly encourage people to learn to sew. but i recommend starting with learning how to sew basic things like pillows and pillowcases, and learning how to replace lost buttons and close a small hole in a seam and make other small repairs, then work your way up to basic garment alterations like hemming pants and taking in/letting out seam allowances.
the majority of people will not be able to jump right into sewing proper garments from nothing. telling your average random person on the internet who says “it sucks that i can’t find any clothes in stores that fit me properly” to “just make their own” is patently unreasonable.
