I would like to make my own clothes, but I have no real skills
 

I would, rather than follow the crowd with the mass produced products of Hot Topic, make my own clothing. What would be the best places to find clothes to make my own bizzare style? I have no real skills with a sewing machine or needle...everything seems to come out crooked, or falls apart.

Tips on clothing styles and accessories would be helpful. :)

I can't sew either :( but, as Xnguela pointed out, thrift shopping is your best bet. You can find some really great cool clothes for a lot less money than some cheap crap at the mall.

I think the best thing you can do is to buy or look at some DIY clothes that other people made. I learned by typing 'DIY, punk, goth' into the Search engine on Ebay. I ordered a few items of the kind of stuff I'd like to make. Then, I inspected them and made my own patterns. Then I sewed my own stuff! I might be able to post a pic tonight of my Sublime corset. Anyways, I think you just gotta go with trial and error - as long as you don't mind your clothes not being perfect, in which case, maybe you should take a sewing class to learn the basics.

I purchased CDs from a store and was given an obscenely large bag. I plan to convert it into a shirt.

That is so cool. I haven't seen/heard of very many guys doing DIY shirts. You should definitely post a picture when you finish it.

If you want some nice, elegant "gothic" clothing without going to Snot Topic, I'd check out the local costume shop for victorian-era or maybe even vampire costumes that you can not only wear, but modify easily into someting even more pleasing.

I go to charity shops - I got a gorgeous corset for about €15 in the charity shop that I volunteer in.

If your not good at creating things from scrath then customize exsisting clothes, like supermarkets, they usually do cheap t-shirts which you can have fun doing! hehe, if you want to get things made, try see if there is anyone around your area that does custom made outfits, or someone that can help you make stuff! :) have fun!

PSHAW! Almost all of my clothes are DIY...definitely the way to go if you want the look you're looking for. Maybe.

I go to the big city in a week, I'll be sure to check out the thrift shops there.
And theres a town-wide yard sale this weekend, theres sure to be some ten cent clothes I can go mad-scientist on. :D
My town has no thrift shops. My town is sad...

-shudders- Not the velvet...I can't stand the velvet. It's so...bad...like that picture of my younger cousin in a leopard shirt and spandex pants. She's also, ahem, large...it just makes it worse :'(

Im currently working on my first DIY clothing piece. I took an old black hoodie and Im sewing a bunch of patches on to it. So far, Im doing pretty good. Ive screwed up in a couple of places..But its still pretty sweet ^^

Tip 1: Buy several prom gowns in sizes to big for you. Then proceed to seam rip the hell out of them and recombine into actual wearable clothing.

Take the net petticoat out of one and sew it to the top of the red silk one, then add the bodice of a third suitably altered. Google: Hand sewing

Tip 2: Uniform pants. The pants sold at hot topic are usually Dickies with chains added and the price hiked.

Any Tips/Ideas from others?

I have no skills, either. I finally decided to start going to a clothing course next autumn.

Even ordinary shops are a good option. Buy there stuff and then by using little time you can make them look totally different and unique. As previously mentioned, safety-pins and ripping make clothes cool but you can also go to a hardware store and buy some chains and buckles. Buckles are cool. Then also things like zippers are nice.

A friend of mine makes a lot of his own clothing by painting designs on cheap cotton t-shirts and pants.
I like attacking old clothing with a pair of scissors, a needle and thread, and beads and making skirts and decorating pants for my friends.

[COLOR=DarkRed]Im good at designing clothes but not making them!!!
i'd rather have my own style in clothing then what eveyone else is wearing from stores like hot topic or fuck the mainsrteam even though they have a llolt of good clothing[/color]

I understand what you're talking about, but that "fuck the mainstream" shit and your "Dark_child*666" name make me think you're just a Spooky Kid.

Like several people have already said, you can make REALLY cool things when you alter 'normal' clothes. Some of my favourite ideas:
-Find second-hand cheap wedding-, prom- and communnion-dresses and cut the skirt off, attach an elastical waistband to it, and you have a gorgeous skirt in half an hour. You could use the fabric of the rest of the dress to make a scarf, a headpiece, or anything you could wear with the skirt. Easy-level: very!
-Find a simple black blouse and decorate it with lace trims and special buttons. You could do many different styles with this: black and dark-red lace with silver buttons for a classic gothic style, white lace with flower-chaped buttons for a more innocent and ******-like look, and so on. Easy-level: it takes some time and patience to sew everything in place, but even a beginner should manage to do this.
-Make a skirt out of a pair of trousers in a cool fabric by cutting open the whole seam on the inside of your leggs and putting another piece of fabric (matching colors are always good, but a contrasting color can also have a very nice effect) between it. Easy-level: not extremely easy and pretty time-consuming, but it can be done, even if you aren't a great sewer.
-Attach chains and straps to a simple black skirt or trousers for a bondage-effect, maybe add some spikes or studds for a little extra. Easy-level: very easy and very fun too, you can basically attach all sorts of things to the trousers wherever you want, it still looks cool.

If you really want to make new clothes, you should try it, but always start with a simple pattern and a cheap fabric. Wide, long skirts are usually very simple to make 'cause noone will notice if one side's a little longer or shorter than the other, when you make tight and fitting clothing two centimeters do matter, but with wide skirts you don't have to bother about that. If you want to make something and you don't have a pattern, take an old piece of clothing that has the same size and look as the one you want to make, cut all the seams open (be careful!) and you have a pattern! If you want to make something difficult in an expensive fabric, first make it out of something cheap like an old curtain, that way you're sure tha pattern is perfect and your sewing skills are good enough to make this without ruining all the pretty fabric.

Google 'DIY clothing', 'gothic DIY', 'punk DIY' and so on, you'll got some very cool websites. Try to find the Morgeve-site and the Antimony & Lace-site, they aren't updated anymore but they give very clear instructions.

Good luck!

But....but I LIKE it.....


:(

First, learn to sew, it's VERY easy. And you can get pretty cheap sewing machines too...The one that I have at the moment was only $60-something and I'm hoping for a Singer soon....As for fabric. if you go to LA to the garment district and find VERY,Very cheap fabric. I got a two yards of vinyl for $6.00!

I design and sell clothes. if it would help draw me a picture and write a desriptive paragraph I could draw out a simple step by step diagram with patterns set up. I will even explain simple stitches for you.

Making clothes is really not too difficult as long as you can deconstruct a piece of clothing in your mind, you can construct it for real.

haha :D I luff sdewing, even though I'm not particularly good at it, I still utilize it for repairs and simple clothing mods, so its not really something to be intimidated by cause its one of those skills you pick up based on dexterity and how patient you are with it :) and if you lack both, then in time you'll learn the skills to get around that........


also I';m gotly at makin drawstring satchels from old pantlegs......so if...you need one...I'll help ya :D