Serger! Sewing! Me!

[Optimist]

Hi. I actually was a fairly good seamstress in the past. I got to the point where I could make a pretty good lined suit jacket. Well, it has been a while. I bought a sewing machine a few years back but found that I was totally dissatisfied by the seam finishing, and so I did not get into it. So now I bought a fairly inexpensive, but popular serger in order to make those nice professional finish seams. Also the ability to sew knits. (I believe that the serger is called an "overlock" in Britain, and other places).

Why do I want to sew my own clothes? Well, first of all, I am super tall, (6-1.5 feet) and I hardly ever find clothing that fits. If I do it is 3 or 4 times as expensive as other women's clothing. For example, it might be big enough, but it also does not have the waistline in the right place, or may not have long enough arms. I end up buying plus-sized clothing that are for "overweight" woman and so is much wider in the torso, and has shorter arms and legs than they should have. I always have problems to the "rise" area of trousers.

I have taken trousers and such when I like the fit and have "copied" them to make a pattern rather than working with store-bought patterns. I find this is a better way to duplicate clothing that already fits well instead of taking a risk on patterns that just don't work.

So anyway, I wonder if anyone else is into creating clothing?