how i learned to make clothes

hii :DDD

a question i get a lot since ive started posting clothes i make is how i got started and how i learned to make clothes, so i thought id answer that question in depth today!

i was always intrested in creating since i was little- i liked making crafts, collages, toys, drawings, jewlery, etc. so theres no specific point in time where i suddenly became intrested in making clothes. the first thing i technically made clothes wise was for my american girl dolls by cutting socks and using them as tube tops and skirts or by tying them like a tie back top. I also used to print images i liked and iron them on to blank white tshirts and make graphic tees in like fourth grade, along with diy cutting most of my tops and shorts. in short, i was lowkey always making clothes. 

when i was a freshman in college, i had a party to go to and i wanted to wear something really unique but as most college freshman are i was really broke and couldn't afford to buy something new, so i bought 6 dollar fabric to try and hand sew a top. when i walked into the fabric store for the first time, i was euphoric. there was endless possibilites of fabrics in every color, multiple patterns, fabric types and i thought of so many things i could make. thats the moment where i really wanted to start making clothes. so, i bought satin pink fabric to handsew a cowl neck top following a tutorial on youtube and found out that it was extremely difficult and time consuming to handsew. my fingers hurt, the stiching was messy and the shirt was unwearable. but i fell in love with the whole process-- cutting my fabric, stiching it together, trying it on, and i wanted to keep going.

for my 18th birthday, i asked my parents to get me sewing machine and it changed everything. using a machine versus handsewing is a world of difference amd making clothes because so much more accesible. i learned how to use the machine with tutorials on youtube and the first thing i ever made with it was a orange mini skirt and a matching tube top. they ddint fit me well and there were threads coming loose but i still made it. i didnt know at this time how indepth machines can get, what the buttons on it did or why thread tension and length mattered, but those ended up being things i learned through time.

: the first set i ever made with my machine!!

 

after that, i made two dresses, one using a pattern from etsy and one not just by figuring it out and they both came out pretty good but i was still messing up and not finishing seams and stuff. that school year, i ended up being so busy with work, school, and clubs that i didnt use my machine at all. it kind of just gathered dust which was pretty dissapointing. it wasnt until the fall of my junior year that i started using my machine again. i had my own room and space to make the kind of messes that came with sewing without disrupting others and it really allowed me to experiment. i made tube tops whihc were pretty easy and upcycled tops i have, but didnt make anything serious until i made my dress for my 20th bday. there was no pattern, and i figured it all out by myself: i added lining, i made ruffles, learned how to measure my body all by myself and with lots of help from online tutorials and i loved how it came out.

i didnt stop after this, and i kept making and making and making. i started my account, made by mtf as a way to share my progress with my friends. it wasn't a buisness at all at first, but i just had fun posting stuff i would make.

that winter of 2023, i took my first sewing lessons in brazil. they were private lessons with a local seamstress every other day for 3 hours. she taught me more than i could have ever imagined. everything i always messed up with or was confused about was answered, and she taught me about how to do good finishings, how to gather, how t make circle skirts, how to hide thread, and i didnt even know i didnt know this stuff. i wonder how much longer it wouldve taken me to improve without her. when i came home from brazil, i started sewing more and more complicated pieces, like layered bubble skirts, pants with zippers, dresses with no-stretch fabric, etc. and i started posting on made by mtf more and more.

by the beginning of my senior year, i had improved so much and felt really confident in my work. i fell in love with the whole process and decided to make a winter collection. my collection was based off of old new york city, and i made 9 timeless pieces and had my first ever photo shoot. i drew out the collection, got the fabric as a christmas gift from py paretns and made a powerpoint to plan out the whole shoot. i got my ffriends to model, i made a calendar, i edited the pictures and posted my first shoot! the support was overwhelming and i felt so proud of myself and how far i had come.

 

after the winter collection, i started getting messages from people if they could order clothes, which is something i had not expected. i wasnt sure if my clothes were good enough to be sold, or how to make stuff for other people that dont have my exact meaurments. but i said yes, and bit by bit i started getting more and more dms for custom orders. i had never though making clothes was ever going to be anything esle other than a hobby, but it started to become real so naturally. in april, after about 20 or so custom orders made, i decided to make this website to make ordering clothes easier. it was such a full circle moment to be uploading my designs to a website, i literally remember making my orange two piece set that was falling apart and now a whole wesbite was mindblowing.

 

this summer i made my second collection, infancia, which is pictured on this site! it was inspired by my childhood as a brazilian-american in new york city. this collection was healing for me, because it was the first time i was really pushing myself to design something different that i had never seen before.

 

and that brings us to now! i have so many ideas for by mtf, and so many hopes and dreams of what it will become. i really want to create something thats based in community and is so much more than a brand or a website, but something that brings people together and lets people bring out their own creativity. hence why i made this blog!!!! i hope that in the future, i can make in person events, make more customs and work with other creatives that i look up to, and also my friends. I have lots of exciting stuff planned (coming soon XD) and cant wait for you all to see it. 

a big thank you to alllll my friends and family who watched recieved countless videos of me asking for their opinons on the stuff i was making, for answering quesitons about which fabric is better, for being in my shoots, for reposting my work and for always beliving in me. 

 

and if you have any inkling of wanting to make clothes, this is your sign to start now.

 

beijos,

mtf <3