I agree that it is frustrating to "waste one's time on something that cannot be worn or sold" but how else can they learn the process?
The person who originally posted was planning to teach a *beginning* sewing class. A great many people want to learn to sew, to custom fit, and to create patterns, without any intention of entering the ready-to-wear field. This is as it should be. Not everyone can enter that field, and not everyone wants to start a small business manufacturing ready-to-wear. I will not say that everyone can make their own clothes, even if they have the skills. People have time constraints, or they lose enthusiasm. But, it is still much more likely that the person who enters a beginning class can continue to make clothes for themselves, than it is they will find a job in the industry. Therefore, a beginning class that accommodates such students will be much more popular. And as I pointed out, a class that focuses on ready-to-wear sewing techniques, like the one I dropped out of because it was bad for my health, is a course in factory sewing on factory machines. The instructor actively helped to place students who wanted factory jobs into factories in the local garment industry (which used to be much more vital than it is today). But, not everyone wants to sew on the factory floor, not to mention most of that work gets outsourced to third-world countries these days.
But will force those manufacturers who don't care about size to fix their doing issues and thereby bring the industry back to where it should be. That would be the ideal program of study.
No matter what manufacturers do to sizing, they still will never custom fit the human body, unless they make clothes on a custom basis. Nor, I think, will most of them ever use fine seam finishes or do hand sewing except at the high price ranges.
Remember, this is an e-list that focuses explicitly on making historic clothing. Of course, the styles, the fit, etc., vary a great deal with geographic location and historic era, and include garments that are not fitted, but draped around the body. But, most of us are custom making clothing, and much of it is for eras where garments are closely fitted, were custom fitted at the time, and are custom fitted by the people who make them now. Furthermore, everyone has personal fitting issues and sometimes these are discussed in great detail. Many people on this list are making very high-end and elaborate garments, whether unique or duplicated from period portraits or extant garments. Many of them do handwork such as hand sewing, embroidery, beading, etc., or they do spinning, weaving, dyeing, etc. Many list members have been doing all this for many years and have a high level of expertise in specialized fields.
I am not saying that it's somehow wrong to make modern clothes or practice modern mass-manufacturing techniques, but that's not what most list members are doing. Even though some of them make modern as well as historic clothes for themselves, that's not the focus of this list.
Fran Lavolta Press Books of historic clothing patterns www.lavoltapress.com _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
