The past few posts have started to explore ‘what’ I want to make. As I’ve begun to turn my attention to ‘how’ to make it, I feel I’m faced with two different paths: pay factories, or DIY.

Option 1: I Do The Design; Factory Produces The Sample

Approach: Create a tech pack (detailed spec of garment design), including measurements, zoomed-in design details, fabric, reference photos, etc etc. Reach out to factories to have samples produced (estimated ~$200 per sample).

Result: I’ll end up with a sample. But, I’ll be reliant on factories to produce additional samples.

Pros:

  1. I don’t have to understand pattern-making or garment construction. Things will move faster because of this.
  2. I will get experience in communicating with factories.

Cons:

  1. I won’t learn anything about pattern-making or garment construction. So if I want to experiment with designing non-standard garments, I won’t have built any skills to make that easier.
  2. Lack of control over fabric choices.
    1. I stopped by the fabric store last weekend. When you start looking closely at fabrics, you realize that ‘black cotton canvas’ can mean many different things. Slightly different weights; different levels of stiffness; different fabric blends; different levels of shine; etc etc. All of these contribute to a different feel. When I see them in person, I have an instant sense of whether or not I like them. But I’m limited by the screen in trying to tell a factory what kind of fabric I’m looking for.
    2. I guess this isn’t a hard limit. For example, I could work on sourcing a swatch myself, and then mail it to the factory. I could say something like, “Give me this but 3oz heavier, and I want it shinier.”
      1. Downsides: the swatch could get lost, or could take a long time to arrive if I send it affordably, or else, I could send it quickly but pay way too much.
      2. Eh; yeah, not so big a deal.
  3. It’s hard to iterate on designs.
    1. I don’t want to pay $200 for a sample just to find out that, for example, the cotton canvas isn’t stiff enough. And then I have to pay $200 to get something identical made, but with different material.

Option 2: I Do The Design; I Produce The Sample

Approach: I have a pretty good sewing machine. I’ve tried making stuff before. Why don’t I make the samples myself?

Pros:

  1. I will learn about pattern-making and construction.
    1. This means my ideas and work are likely to get better over time.
  2. I feel more free to experiment with outside-the-box ideas. I don’t have to worry (yet) about communicating a complex idea to a factory.
  3. I can select my fabric, either by finding fabric in person or ordering fabric online.
  4. I end up with more stuff I can talk about on this blog that isn’t just, “I paid for something and wrote about it.”
  5. (Technology has improved such that I can make 3D mockups of a garment using software like CLO 3D.
    1. Using CLO is a natural way of spec’ing out the design in detail and making sure it is likely to work before I cut out the pattern and try to sew it in person.

Someone I follow on Instagram, dulse1000, uses CLO to design pants with complex panels. Their account is how I found out about CLO.

Cons:

  1. I have no idea what I’m doing and will have to invest time, money, and effort in learning pattern-making.
    1. The thing I’m most intimidated by is all the measurement/engineering required to get a pattern to line up properly.
  2. Overall, this approach will probably take a lot longer than just finding a factory and paying them to make something.

Outcome

You can probably guess based on the post title that I’m deciding to head down the route of option 2, DIY.

This will incur two additional costs: a recurring CLO subscription ($50/month) and one-off payments for CLO Udemy coursework (5 video courses, about $20 each). I’m opting to pay for their coursework because I don’t have the time to try to cobble together a free education for myself and would rather just learn from CLO’s resources to start.

Taking a DIY approach puts this hobby on a trajectory I’m interested in, allowing it to be a skill I grow instead of something I throw money at and outsource. I’m inspired by people who make crazy, inventive stuff themselves and share it online. As far as I can tell, they don’t have formal training.

First Steps in CLO

I’ve started watching the first CLO course on Udemy, which is mostly just familiarizing the user with the software.

Here are some screenshots of playing around with the avatars as I follow along with the coursework.