Sewing isn’t cheap – Ways to save on sewing

Anyone that starts sewing to try and save money on their clothes, gets disappointed very quickly, right?

One of the things that we all realize quickly in sewing is that it is not necessarily cheap. You go to the fabric store, and you get the fabric, the buttons, the zips, the hooks and eyes, the pattern, suddenly, wow, it can really add up.

That is generally not the way I collect all my sewing supplies. I have developed different ways and systems of doing things to save money and be a little bit more sustainable as well.

Here are my top six ways to save money on sewing, so that you can spend more money on sewing!.

First one, salvage. So, salvage all the hardware and haberdashery from existing clothes. When you go to the thrift store and you see those $5 fille a bag type sales, garage sales or yard sales, check what you can pull off those clothing to salvage!

For example, have you seen the price of a brand new pack of buttons lately? It is like $10 for three buttons. Are you kidding? So, things like buttons are a great way to pull off existing clothing.

Salvaging hardware is just one of the great ways to save money on your sewing, because those are one of the things that add up so quickly to the price tag.

The next is to set a monthly budget rather than a per project budget.

Some projects are big. Some projects are small. Sometimes you find fabric cheap.. Sometimes it’s more expensive. And sometimes there’s so many variables per project.

So, when you set yourself a monthly budget, it allows you to buy things cheaply as you see them and it’s more fluid.

I have collected quite a stash of sewing supplies. When I find them, I collect them. And then I, sew from my stash, that is how I operate and work. So, it allows me to buy all the things I need like fabric, trims, zips, threads, patterns,buttons all these types of things, that we need to construct our garments with.

Don’t just think that you need to go to the big fabric store and buy fabric. One of my favorite things is to use bed sheets. For example, maybe they’re in your own closet already, maybe you thrift them, maybe your neighbor has some old bed sheets you can use for the perfect toile or practice piece.

Measuring your pattern layout before buying your fabric is a wonderful way to save fabric. As we very often have different widths of fabric than what is labeled on the pattern envelope.

So what I suggest is to either get fabric that you already have in the same width, or you can pretend that you have fabric, measure it out on your table, take pictures of the layout and then measure out exactly how much fabric you will need.

And of course, planning. The more time you spend planning, the less time you spend on undoing and unpicking things. So, plan out your projects.

On that note, what works for me the best? Over the years, I have my own system that works for me, my own personal style.

I like to thrift everything and get it for next to nothing. I love a good bargain. I love the treasure hunt and I love vintage and unusual things that you can only really find second hand.

And sustainability is quite important to me and it is a better choice to buy secondhand rather than buying new everything. 

I would love to hear your own best tips for saving money on sewing!