I totally tricked you guys! You thought I'd be posting the lunchbag tute, but due to yet another note requesting more school accouterments, I had to make a gym kit bag first. I hope I don't get a note telling me to sew something else tomorrow, I'm not sure I can keep up with this pace.
My sister in law said about The Lunchbag of Injustice yesterday, 'Its so cool that you can need something and just make it!' Of course it's cool. It's very satisfying to make things that people need
Do other makers feel this way? Have you found that the ability to make things has influenced your ability to buy things without guilt? Or do you just let yourself off the hook?
This is an easy one - I suck. So it's very easy to buy things that I know I would make in a crappy way.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest problem is the feeling that I *should* be able to make Rylee's entire wardrobe so cool fabric piles up and I sit paralyzed wondering just what Perfect Item I should amake.
When time is an issue, I'll buy it and then be annoyed with the crappy quality or the many ways I could've made it better/more suited to our purposes/more specific to the use of said item. I wouldn't call it guilt though.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on what the item is and how desperately it's needed - I will only buy Kathryn a jumper or other woolly item if it's hip deep in snow *and* she's suddenly outgrown all other woolly items because I resent paying *all that money* for a ready made one, but I'm prepared to spend *twice as much* on wool to make her a unique, one off, knitted with love, jumper. Sewing I'm only just getting into, and also have very vivid memories of my mother forcing me and my sister into identical, home sewn, clothing which looked awful and that we hated, so I don't want to go that way with Kathryn... But lunch boxes are a different matter!
ReplyDeleteI'm completely with you here...because I know I could make something I find it incredibly hard to buy the inferior shop version. Especially school uniforms - when skirts for wee ones are so easy to run up, I resent spending money on something that's not made from as nice fabric and doesn't fit my skinnymalink daughter half as well.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I do sometimes find it overwhelming. My husband, who is very wise, tells me "Just because you can make it doesn't mean you have to". And, I think, sometimes the time (and sometimes money) saved by buying something outweighs the virtue of making it yourself.
I'm very twitchy about store-bought these days, unless it's definitely cheaper to buy in terms of either materials or time. I bought a red polka dot trench coat recently that I know I could have made myself, because it was £10 in the sale and the last trench coat I made took hours and hours and hours.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm only buying/making for myself, so there's no guilt
I definitely feel the guilt when I COULD make something & just don't get it done. There are other times when I fully give myself to buy items instead of making (when ready to wear is cheap, with lots of cute choices, etc - example, bought my wedding dress. And dresses for my three girls to wear at the wedding. I could have made them. Having hair for the wedding took priority, so I bought them cheap off ebay) However, I "have" to make a paint shirt/smock tonight. I could send an old adult t-shirt, but it's just not the same! (and she would know it!)
ReplyDeleteI completely know what you mean! Not only are you making something special but completely individual. However there are only so many hours in a day (must sleep more!) so the real challenge is deciding what to add to the to do list
ReplyDeleteI HAVE to have a tutorial for that gym bag!! Izzy starts school in Sept and I promised I would make her one and yours is gorgeous. I'm the opposite of you I think. I always feel really bad because if I'm sewing to make stuff for a market I just cant be bothered to make extra things as well so I will happily buy some outrageously priced Disney princess bag or lunch box if it lets me off the hook!! Also I think you like the challenge of working out how to make things whereas I just don't have the patience. If someone tells me how to do it (i.e tutorial) thats fine but otherwise not a chance!
ReplyDeleteCompletely know what you mean. My 3 year old starts nursery tomorrow and I want an early night watching reruns of the west wing but instead I am making a little back pack for him because I can make it so therefore in my head I must make it or I am a big failure as a mum. Though I don't think this of anyone else. In fact, I see all there store bought stuff and think, bet they got to watch re runs of the west wing last night.
ReplyDeleteI make clothes, lots of them, swim bags, swimsuits, all manner of things, but not if they make life harder for me! I enjoy making, not washing and ironing.
ReplyDeleteI buy certain things, like school uniforms, because I feel that I'd only knit something that needed hand washing or skirts or shirts that need ironing....I'm all for making clothes, nice ones, just not uniforms.
As well as making most of their clothes, we also get tons of hand-me-downs from cousins, so I hardly ever buy clothes for the kids.
I made my son a MadebyRae rucksack, (sized up) and he got teased that it was a "Baby's bag"...it wasn't..he chose the fabric. He persevered for ages with it..I left it up to him, but eventually he asked could he use another (shop bought) rucksack. He now (proudly) uses the "baby" one for swimming.
I tend to make things either because I love the pattern / fabric, or because they are a lot cheaper than buying new (curtains, duvet covers etc.). I don't feel like I have to make *everything*, but then I'm not as good a seamstress as you, so like auntninn said, it's easy to buy something that you know you'd make a pigs ear of anyway. I still feel the guilt about buying new, but from an environmental perspective, so I try and buy secondhand when I can.
ReplyDeleteJust today I almost bought some fleece winter zippy-foot-thingy-pajamas for my 12 month old, but I just couldn't do it. I just told myself "Oh, I could so make that for twice the price and four times the effort".
ReplyDeleteI don't tend to make uniforms because he wears the school shirt and jumper and as for the trousers @ £2 a pair I can't make it for less and considering how he treats his uniform I'd be gutted at the lack of love shown it! I also worry about that whole conformity, sometimes kids want the same as their friends. My mum made most of my stuff as a kid and I just wanted to fit in...
ReplyDelete