[shop] errm… atelier non-progress

If you remember from this post in the fall, I re-opened my Etsy/ko-fi shop with actual sewn stuff for an atelier and listed some cute Japanese-fashion inspired tops and skirts and hair accessories! But alas and unsurprisingly I have not made much progress since then. Mostly because I was busy with an event and then family get-togethers for the holidays. But in my post about the peasant top from Otome no Sewing, I outlined some issues I had in finishing the top to my relatively high standards for quality sewing.  With the materials and skills I had, I could not fully finish the interior of the garments and make them ready for somewhat regular wear and laundry. I could only finish to the level of “con-crunch special” (similar to the “landlord special” for apartment rentals but this time for wearable clothing.)  So the outside of the garment looks great, but the inside is either unfinished and fraying, or clumsily finished in an amateur way that won’t last more than 2 washes and won’t win a master level cosplay contest.

Now technically, I could claim “historical accuracy” for unfinished seams and hems because in ye olde days, some high quality handmade tailored clothing is deliberately left unfinished so they can be resized easily or taken apart for dry-cleaning and they lasted just fine because of the layers of undergarments that people regularly wore in the old days that protected the garment.  Or I could buy an overlocker machine as if I had room for one to at least attempt to professionally finish seams.

Because of these issues, I could not really make clothes (aka items to be worn on your body that are not small accessories) for my online shop, especially Japanese-fashion items which require so much more work than regular clothes. I felt a little bummed, but that is how the cookie crumbles.

So those are the problems, what are some possible solutions? Besides buying an overlocker sewing machine of course.

1. I could limit my selection to items that can be easily hand-finished with a regular sewing machine, all French seams and turned hems. However that would be a very boring set of items, and no one would pay that much for stuff that could be easily made if they had the time/materials to do so.

2. I could… line everything? Not sure if I want to use up the materials to do that if I don’t have to, and some items don’t call for lining, and a lining can’t protect every single seam.

3. I could… try to hand-bind with vintage techniques, but uhh, I already tried and it is not easy to do if you’re not great at hand-sewing and also takes forever.

4. Go back to making doll clothes. Hems and seams are finished with glue or fray-check in doll clothes, if you’re wondering.

I really have to think about this, but I think I’m stuck for now for making accessories and purses and… aprons lol. And doll clothes. If you have any ideas, let me know but I’m pretty sure if there was a way around not overlocking, someone would have already posted about it and they haven’t.