It's Fashion Story Time!

My mom taught me how to use her sewing machine when I was 7 years old. Pretty much every summer when we were off school my mom would take us to the fabric store and let us pick out a pattern and some fabric to make something to wear. So by the time I was in junior high school, I was a pretty good seamstress.

Now, this was the 1980's and it was still affordable at that time to make your own clothes. But that's not to say it was necessarily cool. Especially in junior high school when everyone just really kind of wants to shop at the mall and buy whatever everyone else has.

Anyway, one of our favorite stores at the mall was Miller's Outpost. If you are of a *certain age* I'm sure you remember Miller's Outpost. So when I was in the 7th grade, they had this madras plaid skirt that I absolutely loved. However, it was out of the budget.

Shockingly I somehow stumbled upon the exact same fabric at the fabric store that summer. So even though my school clothes budget was probably already spent, I convinced my mom to buy me some of that fabric ad I found a pattern that looked just like the skirt in Miller's Outpost.

So, I made the skirt, wore it to school, felt like a million dollars, but there's more!

Remember, I'm in the 7th grade and this girl in the 8th grade came up to me - a girl who I thought was very cool and fashionable and a year older - and she said, "Oh my god, I love your skirt! Did you get it at Miller's Outpost?"

And I was so proud of my lookalike skirt that I said, "Yes. Yes I did."

Now of course, the me of today would be like, "No, I did not buy this, I MADE it myself!" But at that time, and at that age there was a stigma around making your own clothes like, "Oh, you're too poor to shop at the mall," and I was just really proud of the fact I could sew good enough for my clothes to pass as store-bought.

The point of this story is to learn how to sew, make your own clothes, wear them proudly, and be happy that you live in a time where you don't have to be ashamed that you make your own clothes - That's not even a thing anymore!