Re: Making/altering clothes.
I have been making my own and altering second hand (repurposing I call it) clothing for many years, started because it was a cheap way to get clothes but ended up because I like to be different and don't want to wear what everyone else does. Fashions come and go but I buck the trend all the time.
I too found a bra impossible to make twice although I do now make a wrap because I feel I need something even though I have lost my boobs.
I wrote about my big bloomers in another thread I think people saw it as a jokey way to describe my knickers but I really do make big bloomers. Cotton cover me from waist to knee with a bit of lace around the cuffs. Very old fashioned but so very comfortable.
I enjoy using second hand materials unpicking things and making something new out of them most. When I have to buy new fabric I always worry about wasting it by making mistakes but if I unpick something I feel more confident I'm just recycling. Daft I know as I have only ever made one mistake meant I wasted fabric but that stayed with me.
Most of it I taught myself, my nan taught me to knit I have pictures of me at 3 sat on her lap with her helping guide my knitting needles, but the sewing I picked up myself. Taught myself last year to make lace using you tube videos and pininterest tutorials. Takes a while to make but is far cheaper than buying it.
Something I am making at the moment is a coat, I don't often change my coats as they are not the easiest to make but I decided I need a new one. I have cut out the fabric and am quilting it with a soft padding at the moment before I sew it all together. My sewing machine is in for repair so I'm tacking it all in preparation to get the machine going on it.
My husband reckons if he can't hear clicking needles or the sewing machine going when he comes home I must be ill and unable to be making.
Only thing I really would like to learn to do and probably never will is make shoes, I make slippers and ballet pump type but proper shoes that must be fabulous to be able to do.