Help With Self-made Clothes

[RaiseYourVoice]

Hey people,

since now i always bought my clothes (with chains, lots of metal etc., lots of black, lots of red, tshirts with cool phrases etc.), since well i am not proud on it but i was brought up finnancially pretty secure and never had to do it myself. now i am moving out of home, having a low paid mandatory job which i have to do instead of going to the army. on top of it i move into my own apartment far away to my girlfriends.
because of this i dont have money and so i wanted to learn a bit about making my own clothes. (hell its cooler anyway)

they will not look like some mainstream product you can buy everywhere, which is an advantage because for that i have to wear most clothes 3+ years (i am not easy on my clothes) if i buy them in a shop

anyway to get to the point, the only experiance i have with self made clothes is spraying tshirts for protest marches. since i dont use them twice usually i dont know in how far or by which method i could clean them or what other good methods are there to make shirts.
for pants i have even less experiance (its like the same?)
shoes and accesories i guess i wont need any help on.

would be nice if people with experiance could give me some advice, i promise i will post my work in the picture thread too !

[dannie]

hey, if you want to make your own clothes, go for it! but it's not easy, i would go to a charity shop, they got the coolest stuff anyway

[Janus]

This belongs in DIY.

Moved.

[Mujer Libre]

If you want to sew your own clothes you'll need a sewing machine, since hand-sewn things fall apart pretty quickly. They best way to learn is to take something old, that you don't want, or something that you got for free and pick it apart at the seams. Then you can lay out the pieces on paper, trace around them and use that as a pattern to sew other things. That's how my grandma learned to sew, and she did it for a living- so it definitely works.

You could always buy stuff from op-shops and play around with it, change it to suit yourself.

You can just chuck spraypainted shirts in the wash, but they do fade after a while.

[An archist]

I suggest going to second hand stores, they are more expensive then they used to be, but still a lot cheaper then most stores and you can find good stuff there.
You should try to check those shops regularly since they don't restock, you might miss some good clothes.

[dannie]

@an archist: where do you get your second hand clothers, overhere i get a pair of pants for €1.5, shirts and t-shirts for €1 and recently i bought a handmade tux for €7, jacket, tie and pants.
it's really worth going to those shops RaiseYaVoice, it's cheap as hell and you can always modify the stuff you buy.
f.e. i never buy short pants, always long pants and cut them

[An archist]

Well, I mostly go to rawette and 't spit, 't spit is very cheap, they have all kinds of stuff, even furniture and bikes and stuff like that. rawette is a small shop and it's better quality, so it's also more expensive. Oh and of course give-away shops, but good stuff tends to go away really fast in those.

[Enragé]

hmm i dont think there is a second hand store around here :|

so my pants are 60 euros :(

[Sugar Hill Kevis]

Originally posted by [email protected] 4 2006, 04:57 PM
hmm i dont think there is a second hand store around here :|
where do you live? :huh:

they're everywhere

[Enragé]

Originally posted by Kevis+Aug 4 2006, 05:11 PM--> (Kevis @ Aug 4 2006, 05:11 PM)
[email protected] 4 2006, 04:57 PM
hmm i dont think there is a second hand store around here :|
where do you live? :huh:

they're everywhere [/b]
southeastern netherlands, reasonably sized city

there is something which sells second hand furniture, tv's etc but not clothes i think

[An archist]

Hey NKOS, Holland is full of squats, just go look for a give-away shop, there should be one around.

[Sugar Hill Kevis]

Originally posted by NewKindOfSoldier+Aug 5 2006, 12:12 AM--> (NewKindOfSoldier @ Aug 5 2006, 12:12 AM)
Originally posted by [email protected] 4 2006, 05:11 PM

[email protected] 4 2006, 04:57 PM
hmm i dont think there is a second hand store around here :|
where do you live? :huh:

they're everywhere
southeastern netherlands, reasonably sized city

there is something which sells second hand furniture, tv's etc but not clothes i think [/b]
don't you have any charity shops over there?

oxfam and the likes...

[Rollo]

I know for a fact that the netherlands have a fair lot of charity stores. I remember seeing two of them next together in a town outside amsterdam.

[Black Dagger]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2006, 02:57 AM
hmm i dont think there is a second hand store around here :|

so my pants are 60 euros :(
Arent' there any charity bins where you live? Bins were people leave clothes and other random items that are then collectd by charities or NGO's? You can find whatever you want there and it's free.

[Enragé]

Originally posted by An [email protected] 5 2006, 12:19 AM
Hey NKOS, Holland is full of squats, just go look for a give-away shop, there should be one around.
nearest squat is Tilburg i think, or maybe Maastricht. would cost me quite alot to even get there


oh and about the charity shops...
well
im not someone who needs charity, i have more than enough actually, so it wouldnt sit right with me going to one of those. There are people who need it more than i do, alot more.

[Black Dagger]

Originally posted by NewKindOfSoldier+Aug 6 2006, 12:24 AM--> (NewKindOfSoldier @ Aug 6 2006, 12:24 AM)
An [email protected] 5 2006, 12:19 AM
Hey NKOS, Holland is full of squats, just go look for a give-away shop, there should be one around.
nearest squat is Tilburg i think, or maybe Maastricht. would cost me quite alot to even get there


oh and about the charity shops...
well
im not someone who needs charity, i have more than enough actually, so it wouldnt sit right with me going to one of those. There are people who need it more than i do, alot more. [/b]
Why not look into establishing a squat nearer to where you live?

And on charities, they get more stuff than they need that they throw it out/give it away, don't feel 'bad' about it.

[sav]

Originally posted by NewKindOfSoldier+Aug 5 2006, 02:24 PM--> (NewKindOfSoldier @ Aug 5 2006, 02:24 PM)
An [email protected] 5 2006, 12:19 AM
Hey NKOS, Holland is full of squats, just go look for a give-away shop, there should be one around.
nearest squat is Tilburg i think, or maybe Maastricht. would cost me quite alot to even get there


oh and about the charity shops...
well
im not someone who needs charity, i have more than enough actually, so it wouldnt sit right with me going to one of those. There are people who need it more than i do, alot more. [/b]
I think you misunderstand the principle of a charity shop.

People donate items for the shop to sell, and the money they raise goes towards charity. The items on sale are not an act of charity for people who need them.

[Enragé]

i'll look into it.

As for establishing a squat, well cant do that on my own now can I? :P

I'll be gone in little over a year anyway (london, here i come...if everything works out ^^ )

[Black Dagger]

Originally posted by [email protected] 6 2006, 12:44 PM
As for establishing a squat, well cant do that on my own now can I? :P

Dont ya have a crew to squat with? Maybe you should try to get one :P There's plenty of squatting-types in the Netherlands after all.

[Enragé]

Originally posted by Black Dagger+Aug 6 2006, 12:17 PM--> (Black Dagger @ Aug 6 2006, 12:17 PM)
[email protected] 6 2006, 12:44 PM
As for establishing a squat, well cant do that on my own now can I? :P

Dont ya have a crew to squat with? Maybe you should try to get one :P There's plenty of squatting-types in the Netherlands after all. [/b]
not around where i live :P

Or well not the people i know :mellow:

[Tetsuo]

If you want cheap, durable, personalised clothes, buying stuff from charity shops and customising it is probably your best bet.

Making your own clothes would be pretty difficult and it's going to take a lot of practice (and a sowing machine) if you want to make clothes you can acutally wear.

[RaiseYourVoice]

well i was more thinking about designing them myself, sewing might still be good for editing them or repairing old stuff, i think we have a sewing mashine somewhere.

sorry for the missunderstanding, i meant like what paint is best and washable. stuff like that.

thanks for the answers though

[An archist]

Well, fabric paint is pretty good, just paint it on and iron the backside
If you want real nice pictures but you can't paint, check out the stencils section.

[Taiga]

Here on RevLeft:

Stencil guide (http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=40202)

Stencils (http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=42078)

Pics of DIY clothes (http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=41352)