Question of the Week: Is it cheaper to buy clothes or make them yourself? What about buying used?

 

Photo Credits; Thank you: Phillip Collier

Question Of The Week:  Is it cheaper to buy clothes or make them yourself? What about buying used?

My answer:
Both. There are particular items where the rule is basic: quantity verses quality.


Rule #1  Men’s clothing is generally the same. It is usually the best to just buy new. For some reason a lot of men can do perfectly fine wearing the same pair of casual jeans for ten  years and they still look a week old. How this is possible I simply can’t understand.  If you or your spouse is a different kind of male, then it might be worth looking into buying used. Working clothes are best bought used, but in fair condition.

Unless you have found an extreme amount of fabric at an old thrift shop and some decent patterns, for shirts at the very least at a good price then I would say go ahead and make the man’s shirt. But normally, I wouldn’t think it’s too worth it.

Rule #2 For women, it’s a different story. Sometimes at a thrift store I can find a used shirt in good condition for $5. And then I can walk across the street and look on a clearance rack and find a brand new shirt for $5. Jeans in my opinion are always best bought new for the best possible fit. The stronger the material, the longer they will last. I will provide a link below for the shorter ladies like myself who need to hem jeans to keep their shoes from wearing holes in the bottom.

Rule #3 For children, I would say buying used is far better than making clothes. For the sake of time. My son, being four years old, I can find perfectly new clothing at the thrift store in excellent condition for $1.99 each. I have spent $40 on an entirely new wardrobe for him, 20 pieces. For me to have sewn 20 pieces of clothing, it could have cost quite a bit more and a lot more extra time.

Rule #4 For knitted or crocheted pieces, I never like to buy used. They are usually covered in lint from not knowing how to be washed, or quickly worn, or somewhere along the line having a hole somewhere or a straggled piece of yarn that could tear the whole piece loose, and well.. that would be embarrassing.  But if you can afford a $5 pattern that you can use again and again and create with your own abilities you might just be able to make a sweater you would have bought for $60 brand new for less than $10. Provided that you managed to find some cheap yarn. Cheap yarn, can be made into a good yarn. But that’s a post for a later time.

Or a cute pair of baby booties for less than $3. I am just learning, but I have a feeling my favorite will be the socks. My main reasoning being that I prefer things of high quality and I can’t stand the low quality of socks in stores.

That said in my personal opinion the sewing and fabrics are better left to arts, crafts, handbags, blankets, pillowcases, potholders, etc. Unless you’re going to reuse old fabric.  In the older days, women would take old towels and cut them into pieces for washcloths and cleaning rags. Or old sheets that were torn would just be patched and matched with other torn sheets.
You can be broke, you can be having trouble financially, that does not mean you have to sacrifice quality. It only means that you do things differently.


Skills a homesteader or preppers may need…
Knitting Crocheting Sewing Hemming and Tailoring