I have an idea...

I’m sure I’m not the first one to have this idea. It’s not even a first for me. I love knocknoffs. There’s a whole website and more dedicated to plans to build furniture that looks like certain expensive brands for hundreds of dollars less. 

High price doesn’t always equal quality unfortunately. Especially when it comes to clothes. High price also doesn’t mean fair/ethical. Their high price tag doesn’t mean higher wages for the person sewing the garment.  

I sew for a couple reasons. It’s a creative outlet for me. I get to create something that has purpose, and I LOVE that. I also like quality made clothing, with quality fabrics. I can get those 2 things together when I sew. I also don’t have a lot of money. I love to support small ethical clothing manufacturers - and I do when I can. Being on a tight budget means that doesn’t happen often. But I DON’T want the few dollars I do spend to go to companies producing clothes in sweatshops. So I sew when I can, buy used when I can’t. 

Back to the point. Knocknoffs. There’s a couple mainstream clothing brands that I love the look/style of. They’re way out of my price range normally, AND they’re not always a great quality for the price they’re asking for. Add that my hard earned dollars are only helping build the wealth of the people higher in the company, and they become a non option. 

I’ve decided therefore to start a project. I’m not sure how often I’ll do it, but at least monthly. Im going to scour catalogs and find clothing pieces I LOVE. But instead of buying them, I’m going to find a pattern with a small family owned business that I can use to make the garment. It will be made with fabric purchased from another small family owned business. Sometimes, the total price tag may not end up much cheaper. Being comfortable with where my money is going will be worth it though. 

I started Pinterest board of some sort to organize my thoughts and ideas. You can follow it if you’d like. https://pin.it/zeihrh4sp33enu. I wish there was a way for other people to share their ideas too! 

I’m excited and maybe a little bit anxious. My brain asks for perfection, and has a hard time not recreating something as an exact copy. That will be near impossible - and I’ll be training my creative side to be happy with the overall look, rather than how exact a copy it is. I’ve made knocknoffs before, though not as a project  like this, and it’s always been an issue for me. Still excited though!