Teenagers and sewing

I don't think being able to use a sewing machine is absolutely necessary, but simple things like how to sew a button on and a take a hem up , start at threading a needle and work up from there, while that might sound silly but if you can't to the basics , you won't be able to do the More complicated things.

This is interesting.
I've been wondering whether to buy DGD a sewing machine, she loves fashion and designs allsorts of garments on her computer.

As a young mum I used what I had been taught at school to make clothes for myself and my daughter, as I could not afford to buy new, but I was never very skilful. Now, I can still turn up a hem and sew on buttons but that’s about it. My daughter recently bought some vintage clothes and has taken them to a dressmaker to alter, as she is a size 6.
I tried to teach my granddaughter but she was not interested.

unless you can find a pattern in a charity shop the patterns alone can be about £20 then there is the cost of the material. a nice hobby but an expensive one.

JaneJudge I am a weaver - though admittedly mainly of woven art.
Some of my wall-hanging pieces take a working day to weave a few centimeters.

Obviously simple cloth would be much much quicker but nevertheless!

It would be a shame if craft skills die out but w hat we have now means everyone people can afford to buy clothes. I used to either make my own or go to jumble sales. No charity shops then. I don’t really need to now but still like recycling rather than everything ending up in a huge tip in so far off country,

My daughter’s 14 and been using a sewing machine since she was 8. She struggles with hand sewing due to her hypermobility. She has had sewing lessons in secondary school.

it is a well made point it is why restoration and heritage craft skills are dying too. People just see a price and compare it to a mass marketed item - be it whatever that is - lets use weaving as an example. How can a weaver earn the money from their weaving when they are competing with textile manufacturers that use heavy machinery for quicker turn out? It cheapens people's skills.

I was reading about a Welsh weaver who couldn't employ an apprentice as he didn't have enough money to install water in his workshop. It will be a terrible shame when all this disappears

I take the point about the loss of skills though and do regret the loss of our manufacturing industry.
I just wanted to point out to younger grans how hard it was to afford clothes then.

I can only sew on buttons and take up a hem.

Didn’t like dressmaking at school but we also had the option of what was called textiles which I did enjoy. This was embroidery on to a hessian base and also using scraps of fabric. I did a picture of a peacock type bird. I think it may still be at my dad’s house somewhere!

Sewing in the 60 s and 70 s was very common because clothing was so expensive. There was little choice apart from mostly independant dress shops.
I have a woman’s own magazine from 1974 with a Dorothy Perkins advert for an ordinary everyday coat, costing 34 guineas , ie over £35.
I earned about £15 a week then so the coat was over two weeks wages probably why we only had one coat at a time.
Working that out at today’s minimum wage x 40 hours £500 or £600 pw would make an ordinary coat cost well over £1000. I recently bought a nice coat for £25.
Clothes are so affordable now, no one needs to sew their own clothes, the material and patterns as well as time taken to make the article, is hardly worth the effort.
Though my gd has made her clothes, just for fun, but am glad I don’t need to do it any more.

Learning bout fabrics and textiles runs across a lot of industry though, not just fashion. Engineering, car manufacture, furniture manufacture,aerospace. They are skills we are losing in this country. When I was growing up we had local factories that used to make clothing for Farrah and Marks and Spencers. I wonder how difficult it would be to hire a factory load of seamstresses these days? and what happens when developing countries such as Bangladesh and India stop making clothing also or this an excuse used to keep those in poverty in these countries
Sorry for head dump

Newly engaged and not having a clue about cooking, I looked for lessons. I found one at my local education centre which advertised the class as ‘Can’t cook? Learn the basics here!’
Right up my street, I thought, so I joined.
My first lesson was making Chocolate Eclairs!!

I hate sewing with a passion, I can sew a button on and take up a hem if I had to, but I hate threading a needle and rarely get beyond that stage. Two of the worst things I remember from my junior school sewing and learning catechism by rote, sometimes it was a double horror when the two were combined into one lesson. We made stupid superfluous nonsense stitching something or other to line a tray and a mini cushion like thing supposedly to buff up shoes. When I got to senior school, I still hated it, by the time I'd finished my hipster short skirt they'd passed out of fashion and maxi skirts had come in. My boys were also plagued with time wasting nonsense like making a frivolous embroidered sampler, who uses these random pieces of uselessness, talk about lessons frozen in time, that was in the 1990s but might as well have been the 1890s waste of valuable school time. I'm all for choice and if a young person knows they want to follow a career in say textiles or fashion or just want to make their own clothes then let them do sewing but don't inflict it on all, it needs to be a choice.

Cooking is a greater life skill imo, my children have both taken to that as adults, they certainly didn't get any inspiration for that skill at school any cookery lessons they had were abysmal.

I’ve tried with the one granddaughter who lives near me but no joy.
It’s not just the making things. It’s the alterations that you can do to something that doesn’t fit properly.
Shoulder seams are my thing to correct.
This is why I’m donating 2 perfectly usable sewing machines to the Tools With a Mission charity.

I'm a sewer and make all my clothes. When my eldest DGD was around 8 years old she was very keen to learn to sew, so I bought a starter machine (Janome) for her. She lost interest but her sister is now (aged 14) is studying textiles at school and has used the machine several times.
Decent fabric is so expensive these days, and clothes so cheap in some shops. I sew for the pleasure of being creative.

Same ViceVersa I tries knitting again a few months ago, still boring and I gave up.
What my children are open to is buying second hand rather than new and recycling clothing amongst friends.
Little mention of any male partners, sons or grandson sewing/knitting or being encouraged to do so!

I’m 74 and can only sew on buttons!
Can’t knit or crochet either. Never caused me any problems.

Given the school curriculum these days, I don’t think it would be practical to include the kind of domestic sciences, as I had to undertake in the 60s.

When I was at school, sewing was all by hand and no machines. No-one would consider making their own clothes all by hand! My mother taught me to sew with a machine and taught me knitting.
Neither my children nor grandchildren have done any sewing at school. Like cooking, sewing should be taught at home anyway. It is useful to be able to put a button back on or sew up a loose hem.

I had lessons in sewing and knitting at school - and guess what, I couldn't do either if my life depended on it! Even my mother, who tried numerous times to teach me to do both, eventually gave up in disgust. As others have said, I don't think lessons on their own are enough - it's something you really have to want to do.

I made my first shift dress when I was 10. I didn't know how to put a zip in, so put presstuds on the shoulder seam! But then, I could buy a yard of material for a few shillings, and clothes were quite expensive, so it made sense to sew. Now however, clothes are far cheaper than buying material, so even I, who loves sewing, don't bother to make clothes any more. Being only 5' tall, I am however kept busy doing alterations!
I have an 11 year old DGD, and fully intend to show her how to use a sewing machine and hope she gets the bug like I did.

I should add that quality fabrics are super expensive as well.

You have to enjoy the actual sewing I think (as my mother, a tailor, did).

Sewing is a hobby rather than a necessity, younger people have different hobbies than we had.

The cost, time and expertise needed to make clothes that people want means most of us do not do it, not just younger people.

Do they want to sew?
Even my daughter who worked in fashion design and can sew/ cut patterns/ grade patterns etc isn't a fan of the process of sewing!