About ten years ago, I started garment sewing because it was a superpower. I could create something that hit two previously exclusive conditions: It fit me properly (tall, long arms) and it was interesting (not the one bland pattern available in my fit).
It gave me a respite from the computer, a nice creative outlet, and was very satisfying. I've made about 140 shirts for myself and others since then, and every one is unique, with wild fabrics not found in any commercial garment. I very much recommend making things for yourself.
The interesting thing is that almost everyone I talk to about it says "you should sell them". Thing is, it takes me about 2-3 afternoons to make a shirt, plus consumables costs (retail $30-40, wholesale would obviously be lower), and scaling the process basically requires scaling the number of people doing it.
So I always respond that I just do it for the benefit of myself, family, and friends, but I have a keen understanding of how much the manufacturers are squeezing costs through labor, materials, and construction techniques to hit that $18 shirt that falls apart in a couple months.
Two people in equation. The brand and the factory. Brand will get bids from the factories. No one owns their factories any more. Factories are always trying to get shit past the brands and brands have QA people at the factories ensure it meets specs.
Cost for a dress cotton shirt with standard fabric(eg: not organic or brand name) will be less than $10. Labor is not that expensive compared to fabric/hardware.
Just start. Most shirt construction is based on a two-piece collar, a yoke, and button front. I started with a cheap pattern (McCalls 2447) that covered those aspects, and started modifying from there, but any dress or sport shirt pattern will give you the same basic construction.
Any machine will do. I had borrowed a cheapo Singer Simple machine from my father in law to make some pillows. Reverse lever broke on my second shirt, made a new one with some D-shaft and coupler from Mcmaster-Carr and still using it.
First shirt was recognizable as a shirt and sort of fit, second shirt was better, and by the third I had mostly dialed things in. Like any skill, practice makes perfect. Mostly sewn woven fabric, except for some TOS tunics with the velour knits. Made a pair of pants that I wasn't happy with and intend to loop back to that one of these days. Thing is, wild fabric is more appropriate for shirts than pants, so that is where I have focused.
Not the commenter you asked but I inherited my mother's sewing machine and decided to make a ball cap by seam ripping apart one that was wearing out but fit really well.
I traced the pieces onto new fabric (waxed cotton) and reused the existing plastic brim insert. It's still in use and I enjoy telling people I made it although there a few things I'd do differently. I watched a few yt videos on constructing a cap for tips on things like machine settings, top stitching, fastenings etc then just winged it after I felt like my theoretical knowledge had plateaued.
It would undoubtedly have been cheaper to buy a new cap, but since I'm unemployed, long term burned out and also newly-diagnosed with ADHD, some things are just gut feeling without making a great deal of sense these days.
Now as things wear out I'm cutting them apart to study the pieces and make new versions. It's surprising what you can make. I just made some quilted slippers for my kid by tracing around his feet and using scrap leather I had lying around. My next project is a pair of trousers. Weirdly, as a recovering perfectionist, I find myself a lot more open to making prototypes and learning from mistakes than I ever was in my career.
So you are able to create better and more lasting clothes because they fit your body better and you likely do better cutting and stitching than commercial products.
How do you ensure that the fabric is high quality enough? Where are you sourcing it from?
Well, that's an interesting question. Most fabric is of sufficient quality, so I select for style and look for bold color. Summer shirts are mostly light cotton, and there are a million places to get that. Quilters and garment sewers are the textile equivalent of Star Wars/Star Trek fandoms and don't cross paths much, but any store catering to quilters is a good place to look for summer shirt fabric.
For winter shirts, I like flannel, and Joann was the best for that, particularly when they would put it on sale for $2.50/yd. I'll miss walking the aisles, scanning a hundred patterns all at once, but will figure something out.
There are plenty of web stores, but it gets tiresome going through patterns one at a time instead of seeing a row of bolts in one glance, but that's where we are at now. Fabric.com used to be the best web store, but amazon bought and destroyed them a couple years ago.
Having favorite designers helps narrow the search a bit. Alexander Henry Fabrics was my absolute first choice for patterns. They did magnificent work, but Marc DeLeon, who was the lead, passed away a few months back and his kids are shutting down the company. Robert Kaufman fabrics and Michael Miller fabrics are two others that have some very fun prints.
One place where quality was an issue was Hobby Lobby. Stopped in to check out their selection when Joanns imploded. They had a nice selection of patterns, but the fabric felt like sandpaper. They also only sold house brand thread rather than Coats or Gutterman. Michael's seems to be expanding their fabric selection in response to recent events as well, so I'm sure the local options will eventually rebound.
Just decided to do it one day. Had done some utility sewing (bags, pillows, odds and ends) since I was little so knew how to at least thread a machine and straight stitch. As mentioned in a previous comment, shirts mostly have the same basic construction, so I just got a pattern, some fabric, and started trying.
Instructions on patterns are obtusely written, with a lot of extraneous steps about basting and other nonsense that can usually be skipped, but everyone here is an engineer of some sort and should be able to figure it out. You cut out shapes, pin them together so they don't slide around relative to each other, and then sew in a line a fixed distance from the edge (seam allowance, usually 5/8"). Most machines have guide lines that help you maintain that.
There are a few trickier bits, like sewing along curves where fabric is bending two different ways at once (like sleeve/body joints) and using the "burrito technique" to topologically invert the yoke of a shirt for easy sewing, but youtube has plenty of videos to help.
It gave me a respite from the computer, a nice creative outlet, and was very satisfying. I've made about 140 shirts for myself and others since then, and every one is unique, with wild fabrics not found in any commercial garment. I very much recommend making things for yourself.
The interesting thing is that almost everyone I talk to about it says "you should sell them". Thing is, it takes me about 2-3 afternoons to make a shirt, plus consumables costs (retail $30-40, wholesale would obviously be lower), and scaling the process basically requires scaling the number of people doing it.
So I always respond that I just do it for the benefit of myself, family, and friends, but I have a keen understanding of how much the manufacturers are squeezing costs through labor, materials, and construction techniques to hit that $18 shirt that falls apart in a couple months.