Handmade v machine made clothes

[sewmuchmore]

Thought this article might interest some of you.
Although if clothes are machine made surely the machine is operated by a hand, handmade?

[Kwaaked]

I tend to follow along with Lagerfeld and McQueen. 

I can hand sew, start to finish, a Chanel style jacket in about 96 hours (I am working on making it to that 80 hour mark, lol).  I can machine sew one in about 18.  Or I can merge the two techniques and do the same in about 35-50 (depending on trim).  Thing is, the hand sewn and the one machine constructed and hand manipulated don't look much different from each other.

What I have always found funny about this argument is Worth is largely considered to be the end all to haute couture.  Most of his garments were partially constructed on machines (at least the ones I have seen the interiors to).  If it was good enough for him to be couture, then it's good enough for me making my own stuff.

[Surest1tch]

It's only my personal opinion I think, although machined garments are quick and usually quick and easy to make I honestly don't think you can beat the quality, precision and finish of a totally hand made garment.

[Ploshkin]

I can hand sew neatly but I dont think I could hand stitch a long seam as straight as I could machine it.

[Renegade Sewist]

It's only my personal opinion I think, although machined garments are quick and usually quick and easy to make I honestly don't think you can beat the quality, precision and finish of a totally hand made garment.

You haven't seen my stitching.  Many people can make well executed, quality, precise and well finished garments with a machine. Completely by hand the number of people who can do the same is very small. I've never met one.

That is an interesting article.

Thoughts. It depends on whether you approach it from a buying garments or sewing your own viewpoint. Completely hand sewn garments are prohibitively expensive and out of reach for us mere mortals. But since we sew we eliminate that part of the expense. That works for people with lots of free time but if someone has a hectic work schedule they will have an extremely limited wardrobe. You mentioned that machined garments are usually quick and easy to make. Not all of them and it really varies depending on the finishing techniques you use. For instance allowing something you've pressed to cool before you move it. For every time you press. It does make a difference. I like to sew more than one project at a time so I can do this. But it adds time.

I avoid hand stitching for the most part now. I am however contemplating doing an Alabama Chanin type garment. They are completely hand constructed and embellished with intentionally visible stitching.