My mother sewed. She made tons of clothing both for herself and for me. She made the majority of my dresses for my cotillion dances, my prom dress, and a couple of dresses for my college formals. She made work clothes for me when I first got out of college. She could make anything! She never had an interest in doing home decor items - no pillows or curtains. I absolutely loved going with her to the local fabric store and looking through pattern books! When we added onto our house we got a family room and my mother got a sewing room! She designed it herself. It had a large counter height peninsula for cutting out fabrics and drawers designed to the proper size to hold pattern envelopes. I feel like there was also a lot of compartments in drawers for holding scissors and spare buttons, snaps, zippers, etc. I know the room also had a specific storage system set up for fabric, but I can’t recall what it was.
When my mother died, her sister (who was also a sewer) insisted that I take her machine rather than putting it into the estate sale. She insisted I go take sewing lessons. What a disaster! I had never taken home ec. Cutting the fabric was soooo stressful to me! Sewing just wasn’t in me. To me, taking a pattern, a pile of fabric, thread, and other notions to create an article of clothing is akin to taking a pile of lumber, bricks, and shingles and building a house! It overwhelmed me. I eventually donated her machine somewhere.
I know several of ds’s high school friends (one is male) who are learning to sew. My nephew also does very nice work! He is into cosplay and makes costumes for that. He attended a Renaissance fair last weekend, and made his costume.
I am so impressed with people who sew! I do think it’s an awfully expensive hobby now. My mother made so many of my clothes because it was more affordable than buying them. That meant I could have more!!! There was no, “fast fashion,” back then. I did have a dreadful phase (probably around age 13-14), where I was an unappreciative brat who didn’t want any clothing that was, “homemade.” Eventually I came to truly appreciate the benefit of having clothing that was unique and perfectly tailored to me.