Video summary
The video addresses a common misconception within the sewing community: while making clothes can initially seem costlier than buying ready-to-wear items due to high startup costs and impulse buys, it does not have to be an expensive hobby if approached strategically. The creator outlines ten specific habits that significantly reduce expenses without sacrificing quality or enjoyment. These strategies begin with managing pattern purchases by shifting away from costly indie designs toward a curated list of hundreds of free patterns available online, which are perfect for intermediate sewers who understand garment construction. Additionally, the video encourages shopping for fabric in unconventional places like thrift stores, yard sales, and even repurposing household linens such as sheets and napkins to find high-quality secondhand materials at a fraction of retail price.
Beyond sourcing materials, financial savings come from rigorous organization and smart purchasing habits that prevent unnecessary spending on notions and tools. The creator emphasizes the importance of maintaining an organized stash journal for fabrics and categorizing buttons, zippers, and threads so they are easily accessible, thereby avoiding duplicate purchases when starting a new project. When buying fabric online or in-store, viewers are advised to hunt for sales, utilize loyalty rewards programs, take advantage of end-of-bolt discounts, and use disposable email addresses to capture coupons. Furthermore, the video advocates investing in high-quality essential tools rather than accumulating every gadget available; by using durable items like professional-grade scissors and a massive clear ruler that wear down over time with heavy use, sewers can avoid frequent replacements while maintaining efficiency on their projects.
Finally, the most effective way to save money is to maximize the utility of every yardage purchased through thoughtful planning and pattern manipulation. Instead of letting scraps go unused in a bin where they are forgotten, the creator suggests hacking patterns immediately during layout—such as lengthening sleeves or skirts—to utilize extra fabric for additional garments rather than creating accessories. This approach extends to taking accurate personal measurements before cutting, ensuring that hem lengths fit perfectly without needing to chop off valuable inches of material later. By focusing on cost-per-wear and filling wardrobe gaps with versatile basics made from free patterns, sewers can create a handmade collection they love while proving that sewing is about working smarter rather than sacrificing quality or enjoying nice fabrics.
Read the full video transcript
I know that in the sewing community, it
is kind of like a a running joke that we
get into this because we think making
our own clothes is going to be less
expensive. Haha, what were we thinking?
Sewing is so expensive. Costs more to
make your own clothes than it does just
to buy them ready to wear. But I have
realized something over the last couple
of years. Sewing does not have to be an
expensive hobby. It can be. Don't get me
wrong. I love a splurge. but it doesn't
have to be. So, I wanted to put together
the 10 habits that have saved me so much
money while still making clothes that I
love to wear. First, we are going to
start with sewing patterns. Listen, I
was with you when Joanne was open and we
had those 99 cent pattern sales. They
were the dopamine that was being
released into my brain during those
sales is unmatched. I was buying 20
patterns at a time. It was great. But
those days are over.
Long gone. And because it's e-commerce
now, you're having to tack on the cost
of shipping. And buying even big five
patterns has become very expensive.
Enter the world of indie patterns. Indie
patterns are also really, really great,
but can be super expensive because we're
dealing with a very small staff of
people that all need to get paid. I
mean, it is not uncommon for an indie
pattern to cost $10, $20, even above
that. But one of the easiest ways to
start to cut cost is to find sewing
patterns that you still love that are
completely free. Those indie pattern
companies that I'm talking about really
reputable, high quality patterns, a lot
of them offer free sewing patterns. It's
kind of like as a way to introduce you
to their brand, introduce you to like
kind of how their sewing instructions
work, um, and introduce you to their
company. I started to put together a
list of all of the free sewing patterns
that I could find. And that list has
quickly grown into hundreds, I'm not
even kidding, hundreds of sewing
patterns that are completely free to
you. I have the link to that master list
in the description box if you want to
check it out. Not all of those patterns
are great. I'll give you that. Some of
them, if you're a super beginner, you're
not going to want to tackle some of
those patterns because the instructions
are very lacking. But if you understand
garment construction and have been
sewing even for a year or two, you
should be able to put them together. To
help people kind of navigate some like
finding the best free patterns that are
out there, I started a sewing challenge
this year. Um, every single month we are
all sewing the same free pattern
together. It's called sew together. If
you want sew with me videos, if you want
help from the community of other people
that are making this same pattern, um
tips that they share after they got done
making it, people are posting their
finished garments. All of that is
happening on Sew Together. Okay, so my
next budget saving tip is to shop for
fabric in unconventional places. I'm
talking thrift stores, yard sales,
hitting up that little old lady that
lives down the road from you that you
know used to sew, but she probably
doesn't anymore and she has a huge stash
of fabric that she'll just be willing to
give to you. Facebook Marketplace, all
of those places, looking for fabric
there. I have been buying fabric and
making clothes from thrift store sheets,
curtains, bedding, napkins, tablecloths,
all the things for years and years. And
I'm not just talking. That is a whole
other thing where you take a garment and
that's already made and you cut it up
into something else. I'm talking yardage
of fabric. Think about your bed sheet
and how much yardage of fabric is there.
There is a lot of fabric to be found at
these kind of secondhand
places. I cannot tell you the thrill it
gives me whenever I have made something
from a thrift store fabric and someone
compliments it and I get to tell them
not only, oh, I made this. That's
shocking in and of itself, but oh, this
was napkins. [laughter]
There's this dress I made last year, two
years ago. I want to say it took me
eight
linen napkins. The napkins had all they
came like frayed on the side. I kind of
just sewed them together in like blocks,
made a simple little shift dress, and I
can't tell you how many compliments I
get on that. If you want to see, if you
want to come with me shopping at a local
thrift store, um you can check out the
video that I have linked up here. Um,
and it's kind of like a vlog style video
where I take you to one of the local
Goodwills here and we shop all the
fabric. If you're one of those people
that when Joan was open, you loved to
touch and feel the fabrics, this is
going to give you a similar experience,
um, you're just not going to be touching
bolts, you're going to be touching
hanging sheets and stuff. All right, my
next tip is kind of annoying, but it is
to be organized. To understand what
you've already got so that when you go
shopping for that project, you're not
thinking, "Oh, shoot. Do I have a
zipper? I don't know. Might as well go
ahead and buy one cuz I can't remember
if I have one." If you are not aware of
all of the fabric that is in your stash
and you go to make a new project, your
first instinct might be, "Oh, I need to
buy a new fabric for that." But you
should be shopping your stash first. And
if you can't see your stash, like I can
see mine, if you have it tucked away
somewhere in boxes or whatever, you need
a swatch journal. You need to have a
place where you can cut off a little
piece of square of the fabric and write
down the details of it, where you got
it, how much yardage you have, if
there's a stretch percentage, what it's
made from, all of that kind of stuff.
You can absolutely just do this in a
composition notebook, but if you want to
be a little bit fancy, I have a swatch
journal that I sell on my website. Um,
and just makes it cuter, which, you
know, if something's cute, we're going
to use it a little bit more than maybe
we would if it were not cute. If you
need buttons, yes, is tempting to go buy
the cutest new buttons you can find, but
you should be looking at your button
stash.
Um, my button stash is here. You can see
that I've got them all in one of these
like trays that is for beads, I think.
So that I can see every single type of
button that I have. So when I'm looking
for a brown one, I can go right to the
browns and pick up pick a button from
there. Same thing with your zippers. You
need to have all your invisible zippers
together, all of your polyester zippers
together, metal zippers. you know, you
need to have everything kind of
organized so that um you know what
you've got when you go to make that
sewing project and you're not just
frustrated because you can't find it,
can't find those zippers, whatever. I'll
just buy another one. That's when those
little costs of notions outside of the
fabric, outside of the pattern, that's
when those things start to add up. You
can see I can clearly see all of the
thread that I've got, regular thread and
serger thread. I don't have it in a box.
I don't have it thrown around in a
drawer. I've got it all organized so
that I can see exactly what I've got.
All right. So, if you do need to go
shopping, I get it. I love shopping for
fabric, too. It's one of my favorite
things. But you don't always have to pay
retail prices. Now that we are doing a
lot more shopping with these ecommerce
websites, we need to start thinking of
them as we would think of any other
store. We need to be looking for sales.
We need to be looking for discounts. We
need to be looking for coupons. All the
things. A lot of these retailers do
offer those things. You just kind of
have to go hunting for them a little
bit. If you go onto a website and you
spend, I don't know, a few seconds on
there, you're going to get a popup. The
popup will likely say, "Join our
newsletter and get 10% off your first
order." I mean, it's not a lot, but it's
something. Um, I know websites like
Stylemaker Fabrics will give you a
special discount on your birthday. A lot
of times there's loyalty rewards. I
think Mood Fabrics has loyalty rewards,
but you can get discounts on fabric the
more you shop with the same store. Makes
sense, right? So, some key words when it
comes to sales that you need to be
looking for um would be end of bolt
sale. That's when they're getting close
to the bolt being empty and they don't
have like three yards. They'll put it on
discount and you can buy, you know, two
and a half yards. Sometimes it's less
than a yard. That might be their
trigger, but sometimes it's more than
that. Sometimes you can find some really
good deals. Loyalty discounts, we
mentioned new customer discounts. I
mentioned, yes, you have to give your
email, but that just give them any
email. Just make a trash email and give
them that. Get your coupon and then go
shopping. And then also remember around
the holidays there's going to be tons of
discounts. All right, this next one is a
little bit of girl math because we're
not actually saving any money, but what
we're doing is making sure that the
projects we make are going to be things
that we are going to actually wear,
things that belong in our wardrobe,
holes in our wardrobe, things like, "Oh,
I made those pants last year and they're
really great. I wish I had a
coordinating shirt to wear with them and
I would wear them a lot more." That kind
of thing. Building out your M-made
wardrobe with basics is super easy,
super affordable because a lot of those
patterns are on the free sewing pattern
master list. So instead of thinking what
do I want to make this weekend, think
what do I need to make this weekend?
What do I need to fill out my wardrobe?
What do I need to be making that will
make my current Made wardrobe more
wearable? What is something that I know
I need that I will wear a ton of and
make that thing because if we're looking
at cost per wear, which is how a lot of
people justify buying ready toear
clothes, cost per wear also applies to
garment sewing as well. If you know that
you're going to wear that t-shirt 100
times if you spend $30 on that t-shirt,
yes, it's more than ready to wear, but
your cost per wear will be pennies
because you wear it all the time. and
wearing something that you love. Loving
to wear something. There's value in
that, too. This next one is to kind of
think about what do you already have
out. Okay. When you're done cutting out
a sewing project for a t-shirt or a
dress or whatever, and you have that
scrap fabric currently laying on your
cutting table, go ahead and cut it into
something. Whether that is a hair
accessory if you've just got a little
bit. Whether that is a scrapbuster tank
top if you've got like a yard or so
left, you're much likely going to go
ahead and sew that up rather than if you
took the scraps, folded them all up, put
them in a scrap bin, and they disappear
and you never see them again. Because
who's digging through the scrap bin?
Really, really, let's be honest with
ourselves. But if I have it already out,
I know exactly how much I have. I know
what patterns I have and make like a
cute bag, make a a garment that's a
little that's a less of a fabric hog.
Um, make a hair accessory, make
something for somebody else, a gift, all
of those things. So, don't put the scrap
fabric away. Go ahead and turn it into
something immediately. Next up, we're
going to talk about sewing tools. And I
am in recovery, okay?
I used to need to buy every single tool
that was out there. The number of tools
that I have. The things that I own will
blow your mind. Some of them are so
silly. Like so so silly. So yes, I'm
kind of talking on my butt here because
I do own a lot of tools, but I'm also
here to tell you I don't use hardly any
of them. There are a few tried andrue
tools that I use on every single project
that are easy for me to get to because I
reach for them all the time. The rest of
the tools that I never use are in a
closet or in a box underneath this table
right now. So, invest in quality tools,
not the quantity of tools. Instead of
buying a new pair of Fisker scissors
every single year, get yourself a nice
pair of Gingers or Kai or, you know,
quality fabric scissors. Instead of
using that little rinky dink yard stick
that you've got or the ruler that you
got from your kids craft room, invest in
the clear 6x4
massive ruler that you can use on every
single project. Mine I've used it so
much that all of the notches. Do you see
how here there's lines? No more lines.
I I've literally rubbed this thing raw
with how much I've used it. But this is
what should be happening to your tools.
You should be wearing down your tools.
There's a million more examples I can
give you. I'll probably make a separate
video on tools altogether. The last one
I did was a few years ago. Still very
accurate. I'll link it up here for you.
It still all applies, but it's not the
latest and greatest. Um, but the seven
tools and notions that I mentioned in
this video, I still use all the time.
Okay, back to patterns a little bit.
Let's say you have bought a pattern.
Let's say you made that pattern and out
of the envelope you love it. You should
be making multiple versions of that
pattern. Let's say you bought a pattern
and it didn't fit right out of the
envelope, but you spent a lot of time to
get it to fit. You should be making
multiple versions of that pattern. You
should be taking the patterns from the
free master list and hacking them. There
are so many t-shirts on that list just
because that seems to be what everybody
wants to offer for free.
There's no reason why you couldn't take
one t-shirt and turn it into four
garments. I did this one time again a
few years ago. I ended up making a like
the regular version. I made a I
lengthened it into a dress. I lengthened
it into a dress and then put a big like
a thick elastic waist on it. And I did
one that had like a tie front. So, same
pattern. All four looked totally
different. You don't need to buy a knit
t-shirt dress pattern if you've got a
knit t-shirt pattern. And vice versa.
you can do some very easy basic hacking
um and get completely new garments. That
brings me to my next tip. And this one
is kind of a little bit you got to go on
the fly. You kind of got to just go with
the flow. But if I am, let's say I'm
making a t-shirt, right? And I'm laying
out my t-shirt pattern pieces and I can
see that I'm going to have
half a yard of fabric left.
I'm going to make that t-shirt longer. I
am going to intentionally at that moment
decide to hack that pattern so that I
can use up that extra half a yard of
fabric so I don't have scraps. Same
thing like if you have a sleeve um and
you know you have some extra fabric,
make that sleeve longer so that you
don't end up with a ton of scrap fabric
and have to think of something else to
do with that. There is not that much
difference in a mini skirt, kneelength
skirt, midi skirt, maxi skirt in terms
of inches. So, if you're already at one
of those lengths and you have a little
bit more fabric and you don't mind a
midi skirt, for example, or a maxi
skirt, go ahead and lengthen it. I
promise you, going back to the idea of
having a scrap bin and never looking at
it ever again, this also applies. This
way, you don't have to cut a whole new
pattern out of the scraps that you have.
You don't have to make another accessory
or whatever. You can just use up that
entire yardage that you have and making
one garment that you know that you're
going to love and wear a ton. And my
last tip is to take your measurements.
You guys take your measurements. The
biggest measurement that people miss is
the length measurement. Okay? When
you're measuring from the nape of your
neck and you're trying to make a
kneelength skirt, right? And then you go
to try it on after you've got it all
together. You're getting ready to hem it
and you realize it's 3 in too long. So
then you chop off all those 3 in. Do you
know what you could have done with your
pattern Tetris? Had you already known
that you didn't need those 3 in? Could
you have used a different fabric that
you had a little bit less yardage of
that you liked more but you didn't know
you could use it because you were basing
it off of the original pattern which is
drafted for someone sometimes 5'6 5'7.
I'm 5'5. So you know where your shorts
and skirts you know you what you want
the Mseams and the hem lengths to be. So
measure measure. Same thing um when it
comes to the bodice length. So, if you
are short-waisted,
long-waisted, those things you need to
know so that a your garment fits
whenever you're done, but b so that
you're not wasting fabric by making
something too long and then having to
chop it off and then not being able to
do anything with a 3in thing of fabric
except maybe a silly little headband.
Same thing with your waist. If you're
short-waisted and you're chopping off an
inch, an inch adds up whenever it comes
to fabric yardage. So, just to show you
that I practice what I preach in my
sewing planner that I sell, um, I have a
length measurement
page and a width measurement page where
you can take all of those measurements
every single month if you want. So, I am
jotting down what my length measurements
are and I'm comparing them to the
patterns. there is some a little space
to put your cutting size, what size
you're actually going to cut out, and
then what um alterations you're going to
make. And a lot of times these are
length alterations. So, I think the
important takeaway from this video and
these 10 tips that I've shared is that
sewing on a budget isn't about
sacrificing. It isn't, oh, I can't use
nice fabrics or my fabrics can't be
quality fabrics. They absolutely can.
You just need to sew smarter with those
fabrics. It's not that you can't buy
that $20 pattern. You can. You just need
to sew smarter with that $20 pattern,
hack it, making it multiple times, yada
yada yada. Over the next few months, I'm
going to be sharing a lot more about
sewing smarter. I'm going to keep adding
to the free patterns master list. I'll
be sharing some more tips on finding
affordable fabric, sharing with you some
tools that are actually worth buying and
help you build a handmade wardrobe that
you love without overspending. So, if
that sounds interesting and helpful to
you, please be sure to subscribe to my
channel, click the notification bell,
and give this video a thumbs up so that
other people will find it, too. As
always, please leave a comment. I love
reading them. It's my favorite part
about making YouTube videos. You can
leave those down below. check the links,
all the things. But that's going to do
it for me today, y'all. Thank you so
much for watching. I will see you all
very soon. Bye.