 When I first started sewing I thought I'm gonna save so much money by not shopping and I probably could not have been furthest from the truth. I think that I probably I Know that I spend more on sewing than I do Shopping before I started sewing but I think that's because I had gotten so good at Bargain shopping. I had gotten so good at Waiting for sales Waiting for the sales to go on sale Shopping clearance shopping with coupons shopping thrift stores that I had this full robust wardrobe full of Brand new or at least new to me clothes and I wasn't really spending a lot of money on them The problem was is that as we all know they aren't made well They don't fit well and they don't last very long So I know that with sewing it is clearly a much better option to you know Slow fashion is the way to go and for so many reasons But I've also learned a few things over the years about how to save money while still sewing and As I'm sure many of you have on your personal or your family Resolutions for this year is to figure out ways to save money, but I don't want you all to stop sewing I don't want you all to stop enjoying Sewing so I have some money-saving tips that are gonna help you continue to sew but not break the bank several most a majority of the Indie pattern companies often send their new patterns out to regular everyday sewists Beginners you really doesn't matter at what level you are they want to get a handle if it's a beginner pattern They want beginners to try it so that they know if the instructions aren't clear and all of that kind of stuff But they send them out to all of you you test them you sew them up You give them feedback all of that kind of stuff and in exchange for that work that you were doing for them They will send you a free copy of the pattern when it's released I know that a few of them will send you a free hard copy so it's a really great way to a Get free stuff and Be have a new garment You know you get to try the pattern for free to and you're on a deadline So you kind of have to get it sewn So it's a really fun way you get to meet a lot of people because you're all in this one little group kind of getting each other feedback So that's also kind of fun, but it's a free pattern and at the end of the day free is free so taking the patterns that you already own or One of the myriad of free patterns that are available online So really good quality well drafted patterns are 100% free Well, nothing in life is free a lot of times you have to give over your email address But hey, I mean we're all used to that these days But like the Colette Sorbetto free great little pattern they even redid it last year to be more accommodating to all of us The Henley is that no him walk? From grain line 100% free. There's a lot of them. There's a lot of really great patterns out there that are completely 100% free You can take those patterns take the base of them the Sorbetto is a great example because it's just a very very simple Sleeveless woven top pattern. I mean What can you make with the sleeveless woven top pattern? You can add a skirt to it You can add a peplum to it. You can add sleeves to it You can embellish it in about a thousand different ways There are truly so many things make it boxier make it cropped make it longer make it a tunic You know, there's like literally so many things the hemlock tee is a knit Like I think it has a drop shoulder again add a skirt lengthen it widen it narrow it shorten it Take the sleeves off, you know There's so much you can do with all the patterns that either are free to you online or that you already own so go shop your own stashes your own pattern stashes and Think of what you can make you'll learn so much from pattern hacking and you'll have like It's kind of like what I did for the McCall 7 6 6 0 pattern I think three garments out of that and in my opinion and from what a lot of you said in the comments They all look completely different. You would never know that they came from the same pattern so think of patterns as a way as like a jumping off point try and maybe buy patterns or find patterns They're just super basic that you know You can turn into several different kinds of garments my goodwill doesn't have a ton of fabric there They have had like upholstery fabric before but never fashion fabric however, they do have a ton a ton a ton of like sheets and Things like that that you can use in place of Muslins don't spend money on muslin fabric go get a king size sheet. You guys is like huge It's a lot of fabric. You could make several muslins from it and then go to Goodwill and Search the racks for things that you can refashion I'm gonna be doing a video later this month about a refashion that I'm working on But basically it came from like a triple XL dress Triple XL dresses have a lot of fabric especially the older ones because the style back then was for them to be very loose and Baggy so there was just like a lot of fabric going on back then and you can turn a Triple XL dress into a ton of things even if you're not a super super small person like me But Sarah Tiao, I think that's how you say her name. She is Excellent at this she has a way of seeing a garment and knowing what it's what it could be like what its potential is So she's very small very petite so she doesn't have to buy the huge huge huge dresses in order to You know size them down or refashion them into something else But still her it's very inspirational to see what she makes with her stuff I do this all the time. They're called my crazy muslins because in the end you end up with like a fabric or a Muslin that's like four different fabrics or more. Oh, man They're all crazy and then none of them match or anything like that But how many scraps do you have that are this big? Well, this is big enough to cut a sleeve out of or big enough to cut, you know a bodice out of or whatever You you have a lot of fabric in your Scrap stash that is actually big enough to cut out at least pieces to piece them together to make a Muslin so, you know, you have your bodice front sometimes cut on the fold But like this dress not cut on the fold this dress is cut. There's a center front seam So I only needed to find one fabric for this left side and another fabric for this right side the only thing you have to pay attention to is Finding scraps that match your fashion fabric So if you're making a knit top and you want to make it like a slouchy tea You it'd be best to use slouchy tea scraps to make your muslin if you're making a fit-and-flare dress. That's woven Use a woven to make the muslin same rules apply to making muslins whether you're making it out of muslin fabric or out of scrap fabric but You just don't want to do all that work for muslin out of a fabric That isn't similar to what you're gonna be using in the end and then end up with like some weird distorted Version of what you thought you were making But it's a completely free way to make muslins and as we all know making muslins also saves us money because We can get the fit right and we can figure out, you know If it's gonna be too small or if it's gonna be too low-cut or it's gonna be too much of anything that will prevent us from Actually wearing it and making something isn't We don't make things for the sake of making them we make them so that we can wear them and wear them proudly So making a muslin, you know We'll save you money in the end because you'll have a well-fitting garment that you will want to wear and it won't You know be uncomfortable or ill-fitting or anything like that I can't tell you how many free stuff I've gotten from winning contests and they cost nothing to enter I've won I won the ginger jeans party just a few months ago Where I got cone mills denim like high-high quality denim. I got a really great jeans pattern I got the hardware kit to make the jeans Completely free. I basically got everything I needed to make jeans But the time no one can give me the time I need to make the jeans. I had to find that for myself I've won really nice fabrics from a boutique in New York City Who is Elliot Bierman on Facebook every week every week picks a winner and they win Fabric from them and they only have high quality nice fabrics made usually from viscose aka rayon Usually imported really really good stuff. So you just need to go through if you don't have an Instagram It's really the best way But find an Instagram that you can use enter the contest. It usually Consists of following that page maybe following another page Commenting telling your friends about the the contest or re-sharing it. It's silly. It's free and Although it's a little bit You know there are a little bit of rules to it and you have to do a bunch of stuff and you know Let everybody know and kind of help promote the the company that's giving away the stuff But at the end if you win like you get a lot of cool free stuff It costs you nothing to enter other than a little bit of time and maybe a little bit of dignity Other than that like it's totally free and Like you can win a lot. They give away sewing machines online. They give away I mean so like so much stuff notions fabric patterns, of course like tons and tons of stuff So enter the contest and remember you can't win unless you play If you don't know about Seamwork or you don't know exactly the ins and outs of it Basically, it is a company owned by Colette patterns very reputable brand where they Provide two digital patterns every month for six dollars But all your credits add up and you can use them to buy Colette patterns if you don't end up downloading the Seamwork patterns But what's best about Seamwork? I think is that in addition to the two sewing patterns that you get You also get pattern hacks for each of those patterns and sometimes you get as many as like three Four different hacks for the one pattern so you could come away with Call it ten patterns for one month for six dollars if you utilize The pattern hacks that they provide to you This will also help you on what was it number two that we talked about in this video Because you'll learn about pattern hacking. They actually teach you how to do it. They teach you slash and spread They teach you, you know how to make the alterations that you need to make To hack their patterns and then you can apply that to other patterns that you have so you become better at Number two in this video in addition to having tons of patterns And different variations of patterns in your stash just from the Seamwork So it's six dollars a month. I'll have a link in the description box below Where you can go and sign up and I just feel like you could probably Between that by between having Seamwork, which is like getting I mean, they're cute pattern. They're really cute Between having that which feels like new patterns and then shopping your old patterns and then hacking Either free or old patterns that you already have you could sew all year long without ever buying a single pattern Like well, I mean, yes, you're paying for the subscription for Seamwork But that's not in my mind in my girl math mind. That's not really buying a pattern. It's buying more of a membership type of thing you get a lot of things with the Seamwork subscription they have like a magazine that comes out in an email and just some information and Interviews and things like that, but the patterns are really what you're paying for so So yeah, I just feel like between all of those things you could really get away this whole year 2018 Without ever buying pattern if anybody is gonna take that challenge I want to know about it and I want to know how it goes as the year is going on. I'm not committing to it not me but if anybody out there is really, you know trying to cut back on Sowing I mean these indie patterns can cost $20 or more. I mean, I would say $20 on average Yes, you can get patterns at Joanne the big four patterns You can get them for $1.99 sometimes 99 cents Vogue you can get for $5 Which is great, but I just feel like Free is better than any of those prices That I mean six dollars divided by you know ten patterns. That's nothing. That's change That's less than we spend on you know stick a gum in some places. You know what I mean So it can be it can be really affordable if you utilize the resources that people have Outline for you. So with all of that said I hope that my penny-pentures that are out there this year my heart goes out to you I've been there before too, and I hope that some of these tips will help you save money all year long Maybe you're saving up for something Maybe you just Love to sew but don't have the funds to sew which we've all been there too Whatever your reason is. I hope these tips help you continue on your hobby You continue to be able to do something that you love without really breaking the bank So thanks so much for watching and I will see you all in my next video. Bye