Hilarious to me they think that way. Im a dude in my 40s and when I was a kid it was ingrained in me that I needed to know how to sew because repairing clothes was a necessary skill. At minimum I needed to be able to make a shirt and pants and to fix buttons. I took two years of home ec my last year of middle school and first year of high school to learn to sew and make clothes.
Clothing really is a thing we have an overabundance of and you can very easily dress yourself with affordable thrift store items or even donations. Of course sewing can help getting more out of it, but it‘s not exactly a cheap alternative. Refurbishing interior or even simple electric devices like lamps is pretty easy to learn though and a very useful life skill precisely because we throw away so many things that still have value to others.
Darning socks and replacing buttons/zippers are absolutely cost effective unless you’re making money money. Depending on the size/shape/location of tears in other pieces of clothing it might be, but it takes approximately one minute to sew a button back on and once you get the hang of it, under ten for socks or a zipper, working without a sewing machine.
Sewing your own clothing is a totally different ballgame. There you need patterns or significant planning time, and fabric is not exactly cheap. I’m sure people still do it by hand, but that’s hella time consuming and much more difficult than with a machine, which is also an investment (though you can often find them second hand at very affordable prices).
I told my parents that by learning to refurbish old things and learning skills like how to sew my own clothes, I was actually gaining necessary skills
They still think I was joking
Hilarious to me they think that way. Im a dude in my 40s and when I was a kid it was ingrained in me that I needed to know how to sew because repairing clothes was a necessary skill. At minimum I needed to be able to make a shirt and pants and to fix buttons. I took two years of home ec my last year of middle school and first year of high school to learn to sew and make clothes.
I learned to sew in middle school.
When I enlisted in the navy, I was handed a sewing kit and told I better learn how to use it because uniform repairs were my responsibility.
Still I hear grown men mocking any male why knows or wants to learn a basic skill.
Clothing really is a thing we have an overabundance of and you can very easily dress yourself with affordable thrift store items or even donations. Of course sewing can help getting more out of it, but it‘s not exactly a cheap alternative. Refurbishing interior or even simple electric devices like lamps is pretty easy to learn though and a very useful life skill precisely because we throw away so many things that still have value to others.
Darning socks and replacing buttons/zippers are absolutely cost effective unless you’re making money money. Depending on the size/shape/location of tears in other pieces of clothing it might be, but it takes approximately one minute to sew a button back on and once you get the hang of it, under ten for socks or a zipper, working without a sewing machine.
Sewing your own clothing is a totally different ballgame. There you need patterns or significant planning time, and fabric is not exactly cheap. I’m sure people still do it by hand, but that’s hella time consuming and much more difficult than with a machine, which is also an investment (though you can often find them second hand at very affordable prices).
I run a cut/sew shop. Clothing is a small section of the trade of sewing.