Farmgirl Fashionista: The Joy of Sewing your own Clothing

Loulouthi Clippings in Lichen

While the rest of the city dwellers are either sitting on cloudy beaches in bikinis or at their favorite chain store soaking up Labor Day sales, I am seated at my sewing machine crafting a vintage inspired skirt for myself.  If you make your own clothes, you do not do it for thrifty reasons.  Sewing garments for oneself is a labor of love.  For the price of the 2 yards of fabric that I purchased on Etsy for this skirt I made, I could be taking my place on  long checkout lines with savvy consumers with a small armload of bargains.  True, the clothes I would buy at the retailer would be "disposable" (only survive one season due to poor quality) and the skirt I am crafting will last at least a decade.   So I suppose it is less expensive to make your own clothes if you look at it that way.  But this is not the reason I do it.
The skirt I made today was with a velveteen fabric with a garden pattern of flowers and butterflies in colors that make me drool designed by Anna Maria Horner.  The pattern is a vintage inspired one that I picked up at one of the aforementioned chain stores for about $3.99.  So far I have made 2 skirts from it, and it is now one of my favorites.  Four bucks well spent.  But the thrill for me in crafting this skirt is 1. my addiction to beautiful fabric and 2. knowing that this is the only one like it in the whole world.  Unlike the items I could have bought at the mall, it is also not likely that I will step out onto the sidewalk and see someone else wearing my exact same skirt. And oh yes, there is great satisfaction in the art of sewing itself.  :)