Get Creative: 4 Things You Need to Start Designing Your Own Clothes

Get Creative: 4 Things You Need to Start Designing Your Own Clothes

Have you ever thought about designing your own clothes? Maybe you have always been creative and artsy, or maybe you are simply bored of what shops have to offer and are looking to create your own style from scratch. Designing your own clothes is something that many people assume is not possible if you are not a professional, but more people than you may think actually do this straight from their own living room. Here’s how you can do the same.

A Vision for Your Clothing

Before you start the process of creating your clothes, you need to go through a design process and brainstorm some ideas about what you want your pieces to look like, the target audience, the price range and the color scheme. It is not necessary to stick to one specific style, but having a general theme is a good way to define yourself. For instance, the clothing you are designing may be inspired by a particular era, such as the ‘80s or the 2000s, or may potentially be inspired by a culture or a film. Alternatively, you could build your shop on not having a theme at all and keeping items of clothing completely unique and different. It is good to start off at a smaller scale and begin with a few, fairly simple pieces. Once you feel as though you are getting the hang of designing, this is the chance to branch out a bit more with colors, styles and sizes.

An Appropriate Dress Form

Dress forms are an excellent place to begin when making your own clothing, since it will be much easier to visualize the clothes as well as to make alterations to them. Mannequin Mall has many different dress forms for your DIY types all of which vary in price, size and shape depending on what it is you are making. If you are just making tops and dresses, there are some standard dress forms that work perfectly for this, but there are also full body dress forms if you are making other kinds of clothing too.

Some Good Fabrics (and Many Pins)

Seeking out a good fabric shop with some quality fabrics is a must when designing your own clothes, as these will be the foundation for your clothing and this will be somewhere that you will make frequent visits to. Most fabric shops will cater to what you are looking for; however, if you are looking for something a bit niche or different, then you may have to do a bit of research and looking around for the perfect materials. Pins are also an essential part of designing your own clothes, so ensure that you stock up on many of them.

A Quirky Online Shop

When designing your own clothes for a market, having a good online shop set up on Depop, eBay or another similar platform is one of the best ways to begin advertising and selling your clothing. You can ask friends and family to share this around on social media to help you gain more publicity and once you sell a few items, the pace should pick up quite quickly if you are getting good reviews and feedback.

Making clothes can be super fun, whether it is a part time hobby or as a full-time profession. It gives you a chance to be creative and truly throw your personality into items of clothing. It is also very rewarding, as it is difficult initially to get the hang of, but becomes a real project that you can follow from start to end.