Handmade Sewing and the Dressmaking Trend - Learn How To Sew

Handmade sewing in the past was associated with old ladies sitting at their Singer sewing machines, a picture of a bygone era. Decades ago, if your grandmother made you a party dress, you'd be too shy to let anyone know it was handmade sewing. But it’s a different story today. People are beginning to love sewing again, and most are proud to admit they made every inch of it.

The New Dressmaking Trend

For a while in the 20th century, the art of sewing struggled to stay afloat, but surprisingly, the art is finally making a grand reappearance. The new dressmaking trend has brought a different meaning to the sewing craft because many fashion conscious people, especially the younger generation, have begun to appreciate the art of sewing original handmade styles and stamping it with their own fashion signature.

And for those who are into art and craft works, learning how to sew will help enhance their creativity which in turn will give them a satisfying "originality in style". This renewed interest in sewing is also starting to give a boost to the sewing industry with the new interest among fashion-obsessed teens, as well as the "Gen-Xers" settling down to begin a new life in their first homes.

People are yearning for something tangible and creative and this explains the mass surge toward handmade clothing. This is a welcome turn of events because the sewing industry was greatly affected by the 20th century economic changes of the 60's and the 70's.

This was the time when handmade sewing was moving out of fashion and the mass manufacturing of clothing apparels started to move abroad where it was cheaper to mass produce. The ready-made off-the-rack clothes became much cheaper to buy than to hand make. And so it seemed like a "goodnight call" to the sewing craft.

Cultural changes around that time also led women to give up handmade sewing almost completely, so only a few die-hards kept working on the sewing machines, till they did finally die out in the last few decades of the 19th century

And as the women's movement took hold, dressing became more of a casual style, and so the sewing machine became an unpleasant "symbol of subjugation," says Gary Jones, president of Singer.

There are many bespoke fabric stores on-line that teach handmade sewing and they are seeing their sewing classes fill up rapidly as they keep on adding to their waiting lists of their beginner's sewing classes. These classes may run anywhere from four to six weeks.

Beginners will first learn to read, layout & cut out a skirt pattern. Next they will learn how to insert the zip (zipper), sew and attach the waistband, make pleats and stitch up skirt hems.

All the general basics will be covered to help students get started with any sewing task or project. Classes will span a minimum of five weeks and "x" number of hours per session depending on the store offering the sewing classes.

Today it's a different story because pattern makers are churning out pattern products geared to a more fashion savvy group of people and their efforts are paying off in bigger sales.

A good example of this "blast off" in the sewing pattern industry is Project Runway which is a TV reality show that has helped re-kindle pattern-making and handmade sewing. It has successfully made up and coming fashion designers compete fiercely for a chance to display their works in the New York fashion scene.

Quotes from a gazette….'Toby Haberman, owner of Haberman Fabrics of Royal Oak, Michigan, says interest in handmade sewing picked up in recent years, but in the past year, "Project Runway" "really blew it away". And at Vogue Fabrics in Evanston, Ill., a recent handmade sewing class in the niche area of corset making drew not only middle-age women and costume designers, but also young adults who favour the edgy Gothic look.

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Sewing pattern manufacturers have as their target, young fashion conscious consumers and they are working hard to respond to their interest in handmade sewing. Companies like Simplicity Pattern Co., McCall Pattern Co., which offers Butterick, McCall's, and Vogue Patterns, are rolling out retro lines, vintage lines, and the re-introduction of original patterns from the early to mid fifties, a response to the backward-looking fashion craze.

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On a final note, handmade sewing pattern makers of today are able to re-produce chic and hot stylish looks on the runway, more than it had ever done in the past decades.

So go ahead, join a sewing class and learn how to sew. You’ll enjoy the challenge.

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