Creative Sewing on a Dime: Find Inspiration in Second Hand Fabrics and Materials

1. Introduction - Creative Sewing on a Dime: Some creative projects can cost a lot of money. But sewing your own clothing or making crafts or clothes for sale can actually be very inexpensive if you know where to look. I'm a thrifty person by nature and I rarely buy things new. I found that by being thrifty with acquiring materials and talking a lot about it, I actually find so many wonderful things that unlock my creativity because there's so much inspiration to be found along the way. My name is Maura. I design and sew shirts and dresses at a vintage fabric. I love '70s, '80s and '90s fabrics because of the fabulous patterns and the high quality. These fun designs get me so excited to create with. I want to share my methods with you. In this class, you will discover multiple ways to shop or acquire sewing materials inexpensively, spark creativity via vintage and secondhand fabrics. You'll learn how to make fun and cherished fabrics last longer over many projects by mixing and matching. You'll set up a sewing space in the least convenient areas. You'll learn how to extend the usefulness of tools and plan a low-cost and exciting sewing project. Let's begin. 2. Find Fabric Inexpensively: Unfortunately, buying new fabric can be very expensive, in my opinion, unnecessary. I pride myself on my ability to find amazing fabrics without paying too much. I'm going to talk you through the ways that I find fabric inexpensively. Older generations like my grandmother and mother, made and mended clothing in their homes. These older folks collected fabric over their lifetimes and are often looking to make room and destash their fabric storage, or maybe they've died and there's stuff needs a new home. That's where the gold is. 1940s to the present fabrics can be found in what we call estate sales in the US. This is where everything in the home is for sale. I'm not sure what they call that in other countries, but in the US it's called an estate sale. Depending on where in the world you live, there should be storefronts to shop for use items in person, whether you call them charity shops or throw stores. I had right to the bedding section where you're probably going to find materials like sheets, curtains, and towels. These can spark your imagination to make something with. Since items are donated, you're going to want to hit up these places on a regular basis. I visit my favorite throw store, which is a Salvation Army about once a month. They usually have a day of the week where items are 50 percent off. I love eBay and Facebook marketplace for fabric shopping because you can seek out very specific stuff. You can also find great deals on sewing notions, sewing machines, and other materials. eBay allows you to use negative terms like negative spoonflower. Spoonflower is a company that makes vintage inspired patterns on lower-quality fabric. I want to omit that from my search because I don't want those fabrics. Maybe you do. Anyway, eBay allows you to use negative terms like negative Spoonflower to filter your search even more. A great thing to do on eBay's to put your item on your watch list. This gives us seller a chance to send you an offer. Then you can negotiate further from there. Unfortunately, on eBay, people use their stores to make money. So you won't often find as great of a deal as you would at a charity shop where the items are donated. But the site does allow for a good amount of negotiations and the item will be shipped right to your house, so it's so convenient. Now Facebook marketplace is a little more personal life found. You can chat with the sellers to see if you can get a great deal. Sometimes Facebook sellers are a little more casual and willing to let things go cheaper. In the warm weather in the US, people have garage sales or yard sales where they're mostly looking to get rid of a lot of their stuff and very inexpensively. In the UK, they do something similar called car boot sales. This is where you can get actual fabric in a big box for like $3 I love yard sales for fabric, but you have to want to go to them because the likelihood of finding a bunch of good stuff is rare so you have to go more frequently. Word of mouth has gotten me the best stuff. I've gotten my best fabric, bins of thread, tins of random stuff from just talking about my sewing practice. I talk about it online and in-person. People remember when they're out and about. I found that they just give you stuff for free. Some of my friends that are vintage clothing resellers find themselves having to buy in bulk. They usually don't want fabric or bedding for their businesses. Release the friends that I have in particular are just looking for vintage clothing. I have a few contacts that reach out to me when they have something that I might be interested in. The downside to this method of collecting fabric and materials is you often end up with a bunch of stuff you don't want. In this case, I tried to give it away or donate it so it doesn't go to waste. 3. Inspiration: I absolutely love to sew, but I cringe at the thought of having to go to Joann, Fabrics, or Hobby Lobby, the big-box stores, and pick out all the fabric, notions, patterns, everything I need to complete a project. Because by the end of the shop, I'm going to be exhausted and I'm going to not feel inspired by the selection and I'm actually going to spend a lot of money. I get bursts of inspiration for new sewing projects from seeing vintage clothing and vintage fabrics. The great thing about vintage is, if you know where to look, you can get it cheap and the quality is so much better. My friend sells vintage clothing and she lent me this really cool vintage shirt that I was so inspired by. I absolutely loved the pockets on this shirt. I studied the pocket design and made some sketches. I made a basic shirt but added this superfine pocket to it and I was so excited to do it. I just love how it came out. I have a pretty big collection of vintage patterns accidentally. I've just been acquiring them over time. I love looking through these and setting ones aside that I can't wait to try. The great thing is it will often say right on the package if it is easy or not. Sometimes things get complicated quick so you got to take a close look inside at the directions to make sure that you're at an appropriate skill level or more importantly if you have enough time. You might get a burst of motivation to create from something you saw online like Pinterest or Instagram or even a craft fair. The most important thing is that wherever you find that burst of inspiration, I say, go with that feeling and expand on it. 4. Mix and Match Fabrics: I absolutely love Hawaiian and tropical prints. A lot of times I can only find small pieces of the really good stuff, and not enough to do a full project. A great way to get more out of your small pieces of fabric is to mix and match with something more basic, even if you have to buy that basic fabric new. I love mixing and matching from my fabric stash. This takes that beautiful fabric further and maybe you can even get several projects out of it. It's important to match the weights of the fabric so you don't get weird seams, but have fun with it. Really explore and maybe agreeing with go-go with this or a blue. Just have a good time. 5. Setup Your Space: I'm very fortunate to have a dedicated space to sew and create, but I wasn't always so lucky. An important thing for sewing and crafting is having a big flat workspace. A lot of us don't have a dedicated big table that you're allowed to cut on. A great item to solve this are these folding cutting boards. These you can buy new, but with a little digging you're going to be able to find one of these sitting around at the back of a secondhand store, or at a garage sale, or up in your grandmother's attic. My mom had this one around and gave it to me. I found this other one at a garage sale. These are great because they're cheap, they pack up small, and they make any surface a great workspace for laying out and cutting fabric. If you don't have one of these, you can even use a piece of cardboard, and all you have to do is throw it down on the floor, your bed, your dining room table. You can even pick up the whole project and move it if you have to. Luckily sewing machines, although heavy, are portable, you can set it up on any table or desk, even take it to a friend's house for stitch sessions. I was actually gifted this sewing machine by a friend of my grandmother's, who's currently in her 90s. So it is a vintage, sturdy workhorse. I love this machine. You can find these old sewing machines, but whether it is in good working condition is an issue. I've found for a reasonable price a sewing center that does tune-ups and repair to sewing machines. They grease the insides, tighten and adjust everything for you. It is so worth it. It is something you should really try to get done every so often, like taking your car into the shop or getting a checkup from your doctor. I have two used sewing machines, and keeping them cleaned out on a regular basis is important to keep the needle operating smoothly. Also, make sure you change your needles often. When things get jammed up, it is often the needle that has gotten dull or it might have barbs or spurs on it that's catching. I do buy needles new. You might be able to inherit someone's unused needle collection, which I actually did, but after a while you'll use them up and need to buy them new. I keep a can of compressed air around to blow out the extra fuzz. Sometimes I open everything up and use a pair of tweezers to pluck out chunks of debris. Extending the life of your tools saves you money and is just good sense. Keeping a dedicated pair of fabric-only scissors keeps them sharp and useful. Have another pair around that you don't mind using on stuff like tape or cardboard. I go through a lot of disappearing ink pens for marking fabric. I recently found on Amazon.com the same pens that I like, but they come with a big bag of replacement inks. This cost about as much as the four-pack of pens that I usually buy, but now I can just reuse the pen part and refill as needed. This is going to save me money over time. 6. Class Project - Second Hand Project Plan: The second-hand project plan. After taking this class, you'll have plenty of ideas on where to get your inexpensive fabric or sewing tools. For this project, I want you to take the first step in a creative project, which will be to make a simple plan in order to make sure that you have everything you need to follow through. This is how you stay motivated to finish so you don't hit any roadblocks to the finish line. I'm going to be making several of these little shirt ornaments as holiday gifts for friends and family. Before I got started, I made a simple plan, starting with an inspirational fabric. I filled out this worksheet. This will help me to visualize what I'm going to be doing. I answered simple questions like, what is it? Oh, it's a small shirt ornament made out of fabric. Who is it for? Friends and family for gifts. How many? I'm going to make at least 10. What will I need? Hawaiian fabric, which I already have. I'll need ribbon or cord for hanging. I'll need a sewing machine or needle and thread, scissors, pins, and a paper pattern. I'm hoping this little drawing will motivate me to finish because it's just so cute and I'm excited to get going. Please upload a photo of your second-hand project brainstorm worksheet. I can't wait to see what you plan to create. 7. Thank you!: Thank you for watching and listening. Hopefully, this class gave you some good ideas on where to source fabric and sewing tools inexpensively, and how finding these secondhand treasures can keep your brain motivated and excited to complete a project. If you enjoyed this class, please leave a review, and don't forget to check out my other sewing classes on Skillshare. Keep sewing, keep creating, and keep talking about it.