The hardest part is that people don't make enough during their day jobs to live. Society has hit a tipping point because of how late stage capitalism works, is if you aren't working every second you're awake, you'll loose the roof over your head
On the contrary, capitalism is the system that has allowed hundreds of millions of people to climb out of the working class into business ownership, which while still a lot of hard work, is satisfying and gives creativity and control. The banking class and socialism forces a taxation level that suppresses or drives away the middle class, forcing everyone to become government-dependent. Not working is not the best thing in the world - just look at the levels of mental illness among both the rich and the dependent underclasses compared to those working for themselves.
"selling patterns is not a get rich quick scheme" truer words we're never said there are soo many steps and I know you just summarized them but some that I personally spend a lot of time on: drawing designs at multiple sizes, writing pattern testing briefs, illustrating instructions, working with pattern testers on fit and processing feedback... grading is a whole can of worms and I have yet to come across an algorithmic method that actually works well...I always have to do a ton of tweaking especially on plus size end to get well fitting garments this whole video is gold. I've definitely falling into some of these traps myself, I'm glad to have moved to patterns because its made me go back to creating with more intent rather than trying to churn out content. all of the extra time and steps needed to make patterns means I will actually put in the effort to make something good rather than just something for the algorithm.
YES! Also, Also - I know why they are doing it but the 'Sewing as an Extreme Endurance sport' is.. just stop. STAPH. Every time I see a thumbnail with some ridiculous premise like ' I try to sew Four Full Regency dresses plus underwear with fitted stays in four days' it makes me want to scream. I don't watch them anymore but invariably they are just videos of time-lapsed human misery and I wish that creators would stop doing this. The 'I'm doing this thing I used to love in a way that makes me hate not only it, but myself' is a race to the bottom and the end results are just AWFUL and the toll on physical and mental health is just Not Worth It.
Oh my gosh yes, the first time I saw a "I stayed up for 24 hours straight sewing" video I was like WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT. I did that for college and I NEVER want to do it again, even for an internet audience. Even for pay. Nope, nope, nope. Why are you trying to sell a literal nightmare as something fun and quirky.
a lot of people wonder why I freehand most of my knitting and crochet and the honest to god reason is that most patterns only go up to xl if that, and I am a 2x-3x. I follow so many pattern makers on instagram purely for inspiration because 90% of them don't make patterns for extended sizes and I have to figure out a workaround myself if I like a design, and then people tell me that I should sell my stuff. while its nice to get the compliment that my stuff is good enough to sell, I don't think people realize the fatigue that comes from being large in a small world. I watch sewing pattern tutorials that tell you to "just use rectangles" and my body is anything but rectangular so I need to adjust it. fabric bolts don't come in wide enough lengths for me to make a circle skirt or even a half circle skirt. I see a pattern that looks good and get invested before I realize the sizing is only S-L. hell, today I had to put on a gown at the doctors office and I could barely tie it together. a gown. a giant tie back shirt. Its the same fatigue, shame, and frustration that comes from trying to shop for plus size clothing, just transferred to a hobby thats supposed to be fun. I make stuff partially because no one makes stuff for me, and then they want me to make stuff for everyone else. on another note, drop the bra-making knowledge bestie, my plus-size ass can't take target bras for much longer
Yeah this is why I rarely buy patterns for sewing because they don’t make them to fit folk like myself. It’s infuriating that most patterns be it sewing or other fibre crafts aren’t size inclusive at allll
"omg you should sell the things you make/wear! You could make so much money! Why dont you start a youtube or sell paterns or clothes!?!!?" yes its a lovely compliment but honestly, im exhausted when people get so pushy with it and im having to explain why i will never ever sew to sell historical or historically inspired clothes to what usually is complete strangers. I am entirely self taught and sewing and other fiber art is my therapy. I will not never make enough from it to justify the stress and ruining my absolute passion for it. My answer has just become "i taught myself, you could too" because i love my clothes, im proud of them, but no. Its not financially or emotionally viable for me to do it for others. No one wants to pay the price for even minimum wage and materials costs because were so used to cheap fast fashion these days and people dont have money to spare. I made my mum a coat. Fully tailored and mostly handsewn. For my own curiosity i kept track of it as i went along. Final costings came in to just under £900. For a coat. At a push i could throw out two a month if i did nothing else and didnt stop. Its not a viable income and definately not worth my sanity. a well meaning lady in the supermaket the other week asked "why dont you sell thoes clothes im sure people will buy them? How much would it even cost for what youre wearing?" All in? Probably a few thousand easily. "Think ill just wear my jeans and a tshirt!" Point unfortunately proven. Its not affordable unless youre doing it yourself for yourself.
YES!! Living in a fast fashion world has so heavily conditioned people to undervalue all the material, time & skill that goes into making a unique garment... I feel like really the only people who could afford to pay what your creations were worth would be people who are silly-rich! And I'm not sure that's a market most of us are keen to cater to...? Tutoring others in the skills involved is perhaps more financially feasible, but again I think people vastly underestimate how much time, effort & marketing skill would go into setting up THAT kind of business too. Bottom line is, if you want to do things right there's just really no shortcuts - but in a world of hustle culture, MLMs & monetizing everything that moves, people understandably tend to forget that...?
I don't sew, but I've had similar experiences with drawing. I tried to make money off of my art during the pandemic while I was unemployed, and it ended up ruining my passion. I'm still struggling to get it back. I think the push to monetize everything can be detrimental to these communities and suck the enjoyment out of them.
Good grief, are the "How to UA-cam" tutorials really advising people to just reproduce existing content as a good way to build skill?!😳 That's not learning, it's just plagiarism! And entails such a devaluing of any unique vision or skills that might make your own output valuable... 🤮 I really love the fact that people are sharing their own creative journeys on YT, but I agree re the need to be clear and up-front about whether one actually has skills & experience or is sharing a "here's what not to do and what I learned"! Definitely seeing the burnout problem frequently too, esp. with the more regularly-posting costube channel creators, and it seems to be very much driven by how the algorithms work? Even though their supporters are completely happy to wait while they take the time to refresh or to tackle a difficult project, they themselves often don't feel they can, because of how it will affect not just their income but their marketing through YT. It's sad to watch! 😢 Hopefully having other avenues for fan support (Kofi, Patron etc) helps reduce some of that pressure eventually?
This is true across all creative platforms - sewing, drawing, painting, resin, cosplay, etc - and the reason the internet used to be better is a fundamental reason: people used to make YT videos simply to further knowledge, and to help others. It was never a way to make money in the Beginning Times. Now it's so much less about furthering the community (of like individuals out in the world, connected by passion and dial-up), and it's become all about internet fame and money. And not in that order.
I feel like I've seen a lot of this in the lolita world as well recently. People starting brands when they don't have the skills to pull it off. And I think I get why it happens a little bit. I have relatives and whatever tell me that I should sell stuff all the time, but I know that my skills are not quite professional. Or at least I would have to spend more time than I could charge for in order to make something with that level of quality. I'm a bit anti perfectionism in personal projects, but if someone is going to pay hundreds of dollars for something they better be getting a perfect product.
I think the boss thing that's starting to trend in the community can be traced to the OG's of the Cos Tube world. We've all watched B. Banner, Abby Cox and Nicole Rudolf grow their channels into something that can support a household. Which is amazing; well done humans. And we are all taught to dream about having a job that you can do from home, no commute, you set your own hours and objectives... The sewing community has reached the stage of 'cottage industry' (kind of like the crafters of the 1970's & 80's). Because our collective economic situations are so dicey the impulse is to somehow monetize what gets dismissively referred to as our hobbies. Other people are making money off of this, so why can't you? Same thing is happening in the online leatherworking and fishing communities (yes, I am the oddest collection of skill sets you'll meet). All of a sudden, everyone is offering courses and merch and whathaveyou. I type this as someone who wants to start their own sewing channel. At the moment I know enough to know that I don't know enough, so that's been relegated to future plans / slash / daydreams. But the impulse is still there. Apparently as a T2 teacher's kid I now want to teach? Who could see that coming; not me, apparently. And yeah, I've run across 'experts' who know less than I do hoofing it for dollars... And, yeah, agreed that there seems to be more commentary and latest fad chasing than actual sewing going on at the moment across the spectrums. The pendulum will swing back to creating again. Hopefully some time soon. - Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi
I think something people also miss is that many of the CosTube OGs have actual expertise in what they're talking about. Abby and Nicole worked for years at Colonial Williamsburg. Abby wrote the literal book on sewing 18th century fashion. Nicole has a Masters of Arts in Material Culture. Bernadette has a degree in theatrical production and worked in costume shops on Broadway (though she's a bit more self-taught when it comes to certain areas of fashion and sewing). They studied for years and have deep wells of education and skill to draw from. . . And not many people on UA-cam have that (because not many people in the world go to school for sewing-related stuff). They're not monetising their hobbies. They're being paid for expertise in their field. And I think that's part of why they're 'successful' on UA-cam.
@@lyndabethcave3835 Exactly. The Cos Tube OGs have put in their thousand hours. And then some. Fashion History is still sitting under the umbrella of Art History. It's an emerging field so the academic positions don't yet exist. Hence, what for the OGs, is the YT side-gig as income. And the Chicago-style usage of references/bibliography in their videos. They were professionals before they started the YT grind.
Many gurus on UA-cam promise the world, but to quote The Crow "This is the really real world". There is way too much bull sh** out there and we have to teach each other how to sniff it out. Great vlog.
About the blogs and the connections- so much of the European historical costuming stuff I wind up looking at these days are from 2014-2016 or earlier. New stuff about the subject thats connected and helpful isnt really being made anymore i think, not in the same way anyway. And like yeah, get that bag i guess, but to me, sewing should be more communal! People used to be more comfortable sharing patterns and hacks for making shoes that look accurate from modern ones in a way they aren't anymore. In some ways it reminds me of how- sewing and baking yur own stuff was either classless or specifically a poor thing, and now baking is turned into a middle and upper class thing.
12:44 when you talk about the community being forgotten, I think that’s happened in a lot of online communities, in part because of monetization but I also think there’s two other factors that all tie together: algorithms/feeds becoming the dominant way people find online content, and the devaluing of recommendations/linking as a contribution to a community. When someone has a personalized feed, they’re more likely to passively find content instead of searching it out. And the format of websites like UA-cam makes someone who only/primarily connects people with good resources or other people-previously one of the valuable members of a community-into someone who isn’t a content creator, isn’t on the same level as the people making video content, and moreover into someone who has difficulty finding or being found by the people they used to help. This seems to reinforce the creator-viewer dichotomy, instead of another sort of community like on a forum where the boundaries are more between lurkers and posters, whether that be showing of your beginning projects, your masterpieces, going over mistakes, explaining how you fixed something, tutorials, making a masterpost of tutorials, making a masterpost of references, or even just talking about stuff that’s happening in your life. That sort of atmosphere helps foster community ime-though of course others may have had different experiences! And webrings are a whole separate topic that I only know of through Pokémon fan sites and webcomics 😆
There’s a UA-camr I like in a different space who used to make a community post almost every month that showcased a video from another UA-camr, and it introduced me to so many interesting smaller UA-camr, which I really appreciated :)
I would love to see something similar on YT! Just finding the smaller awesome costube creators can be super difficult, esp. those who are in some way a minority? (culturally, by gender, English as 2nd language, etc). The algorithms really don't seem to work in recommending similar content. Would love to see the big channels doing even more collaborations with genuinely awesome smaller ones, that really helps.
@@anna_in_aotearoa3166 Definitely! I think @VBirchwood used to do something like this a while back, you can scroll back through her community tab to find the posts, but I think it’d be fun if more people picked it up
Heck, I am nearly to the point of making a new google account because "you follow too many people compared to your subscribers number... get more subscribers to be allowed to follow more people"... folks, I do not HAVE subscribers, not really because I am not a content creator. I maintain a website based company with a print catalog in my day job (yes, it is seeds), and for my hobbies I want to sit and LEARN from someone who has the skills, and I only expect to be uploading to X and YT well after I retire (at 40 years old that is actually a thing that I will eventually have to do), and I hate having to bookmark creators the system will just not let me subscribe to.
I have seen the same/similar thing in the self publish industry. it seems like because these are low entry industries that people make an assumption of low work/high profit and drown out those of us who are working hard to do our best. I have seen it in the years go by like waves. first the 'get rich quick doing 'low content' books. then the 'master class in making best sellers that don't require knowing how to write'. then after a few years, it happens again by the 'hustle culture'. its a reason that most authors walked from some advertising platforms because there is no return on investment when the platform will take anybody's money and its flooded with scams from your own industry.
This was a huge thing in the belly dance community, and was a large factor in my choice to quit. Now that I've left that world, it seems like a lot of industries are being hit that same way. As a viewer, I want to see people doing things that will inspire me for my next project. I want to see fantastic ideas that will make me want to make something. These "get rich quick" schemes often end up costing a lot more time and money than people realize, and it can make you go broke or result in being outed as a fraud. However, this too will pass, just like it did with belly dance. I think knitting went through this phase at one point, but it also seems to have settled a bit more, though who knows. It appears to be getting trendy again. As someone who hates ads and marketing, I want to watch honest and inspiring things. If some day I make content it will be because I enjoy sharing what I love. There's a place for that too. Unfortunately, not everyone can make it rich from UA-cam, pattern creation, crafting, whatever. Eventually the fad will die when people realize it isn't easy, and hopefully then sanity can be found again.
I just want to sew my little outfits and post my little photos. I understand we are all broke and everyone wants to make money off of their passions but it’s never so simple.
I know this video is older now but I have to ask: why do you say bag lining is bad? And I promise I didn't miss the point of the video, I've just never heard that before and flat lining isn't usually the long-lasting option for garment making.
Speaking of Keep sewing on! I have a Google form you can use to nominate a small creator or someone that you find particularly helpful! I can't wait to see all of ya'lls cool creations! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScvTeWcIra7GmFkOLrHmLEx9USP7zgzuR4qt9D7vkb0ekJ-dw/viewform
A big part of the videos I love on here are the ones that show you all the mistakes they made along the way so you can learn from it. It's the kind I'd love to do because it seems a waste to be making as many as I do and have only me gaining from it. 🙂
Something that drove me away from one of my oldest friends is that anytime she saw me creating she would say ‘oh you can make money from that.’ And push me really hard on it. Now for context I am a highly disabled person who was born into poverty and learned the skills I have because it was the only way we could have clothing and survive by up-cycling and such. She is a nepo baby who is ridiculously rich and likes to flex about how she buys art from First Nations people and trans people (she added that to her roster when I came out as trans even though she somehow also made that about her at some point??) and while it’s great to support minorities when you only do it to virtue signal it’s exhausting. As someone who can’t create the way I used to because a lot of my disabilities get worse over time, being pushed to have to make $$ over them and it being heavily suggested that if I didn’t monetise the small amount of joy I had then it was ‘my own fault.’ That I was poor, it made for such a toxic space. I also just have a huge issue with people gatekeeping a lot of learning within sewing and crafts in general. Whenever I see people on IG ask simple questions like ‘oh you said you used soy to bind the dye to this? Do you mean soy milk.’ And see them met with a ‘these three people have courses sign up and find out.’ … those three people found out how to do that from the many blogs that existed for forever online. That person who asked a simple question is unlikely to be able to afford a $50 course to just find out that yeah it’s soy milk they used to soak fabric in to get a different shade of dye colour from. I understand that it’s important people get paid for their work, but when we ignore that the whole basis of crafts comes from shared traditions, monetising that and locking knowledge behind paywalls is only harming everyone involved. There needs to be a better way to go about so much of this. To return to something thats more community orientated so that we can each share our skills and knowledge and enjoy making together. Instead of showing just enough of something to get people excited then refusing to share that which you probably learned for free yourself. I do believe in things like charging for patterns, if they are free amazing, but a few dollars for patterns is very worth it and the amount of time and work that goes into them, well I think again it’s worth some $$ but once you’re making the pattern so expensive that it’s not affordable for most folk, I do think that’s an issue. Unless it’s ridiculously complex.
Oof. I feel you on this one! As a chronically ill person too, I've had similar pressure from certain relatives to try & monetise any creative hobbies I have? But a lot more actually from the way our government financial support works... One is constantly required to annually justify the fact that things are not getting any better, we're still munted. Regardless of that physical reality, there's also still an expectation that you'll try to work at least 15hrs a week... And given the base medical disability support simply isn't enough to survive on without side-hustling, the pressure to attempt that is intense! I'm glad you've managed to escape your well-off friend's area of influence - sounds like a necessary mental health precaution? 😬 That deep lack of empathy around the difficulty & risk involved in trying to turn a creative skill into a marketable enterprise echoes a lot of the capitalist rhetoric I see. "Any activity one does should be monetised", and "anybody can & should be working (regardless of health or capacity)". Ugh. Really liked your emphasis on the community aspects of creating, and the way we can try to support each other in using these skills! Not just by fairly paying small creators who make genuine good stuff, but also sharing our skills for free & empowering others? That's a significant act of political resistance, esp. as economic times get harder & "make do & mend" becomes ever more relevant again!
This really resonated with me. I've had a small channel for a couple of years, and I don't have the time to pump out content at the same rate as some people, but when I do put something out I want it to have value to the people who see it. But I've definitely fallen into the trap before of making something because I think it will get views (it usually doesn't 😂) because so many role models in this community are the people who do this full time and feel like they have to "sew for the algorithm". I finally have a full time job that I love now so I'm actually really excited to make content because I love making it, rather than because I'm desperate for my channel to take off and provide a full time income! I've never seen your videos before, and this one came at the perfect time, thank you 🥰
This is the reason why the Costube calender was started but that's massively fallen off lately. But the whole Idea was that larger full time creators could easily redirect attention to the lil guys who had other responsibilities and poset one very well thought out video a month. I may have just talked myself into trying to revive that XD
One bastion of anti-commerciallism and community for me is the r/sewing subreddit. Not only is it a collection of the nicest people I have found on the entire internet, but the sub is very anti commercial. You cant make posts about commercial sewing or advertise your business, its strictly hobby only
I really appreciated this video as a sewist who isn’t trying to hustle. I have tried a couple indie patterns and have struggled with some of them and thought it was just me not being smart, but until this video I hadn’t considered that some patterns are just…poor quality.
Writing instructions in a clear way is HARD. And understanding amiture technical writing is also hard. Even Profesional technical writing can be done in a way that's borderline inaccessible. So no. You're not dumb!
@@MiahGrace not to be dramatic but thank you again for that. After viewing this video I have taken a more critical eye to some of the indie patterns I struggled with and noticed issues (drawn to a single size, only partially sketched out, no guidelines on which face to cut fabric from to maintain fabric pattern alignment…feels like the technical challenged on Great British Bakeoff where they say, “step one: make a cake,” except it’s sewing so it’s, “step one: make a bodice.”)
One of the things I've found funny/weird recently is how many channels I started following for the sewing content have gotten big enough that they've bought a house and start doing loads of DIY videos instead. A lot of those are still enjoyable content to watch just because you like the person and their video style of course. And I absolutely think everyone should get a decent living wage for the work they do (I personally do not have that) but when creators are getting so much more than that directly from viewers and still pushing hard for more people to sign up it's just a bit uncomfortable for me.
100% on all you points, especially ethical ones. But not on the viewers remark. Since youtube reset the ratings it's like taking about the dead: if you can't say anything good about the content or it's creator do not comment. No. Majority of the viewers are young ppl seeking advice on things they've never did before. If content is not good, not valid advice or just plain wrong, it should be downvoted. Just as any other product review "don't buy, it's a cheap fake". It's good to talk once in a while about problems, even if only for the sake of keeping up some standards.
Oooh and don’t get me started on how annoying it is to buy a pattern, print it out and then none of the lines match up when you’re sticking it together 🤬
Basically the Internet started as this magic, easy way to share inspiring things with people all over the world from the comfort of your home, for free. But capitalism hopped onto the train, the costs of the thing itself started to show (these servers and these programmers need money to function too), it lead to financing through ads, which then expanded to ads as a revenue source for anyone who was using the thing and could attract viewers of the ads... Capitalism in a nutshell, walking on its own tail, somehow. And it's so sad when it deforms things we like - such as the earlier online sewing community.
There was a newbie bra maker teaching bra making???!Bwahaha! I have enough problems with the self-proclaimed "bra mother" giving instructions in her book, that she contradicts in her pattern, and then swears it must be done a third way in the craftsy tutorials she doesn't actually respond to comments on, and deletes genuine questions asking nuanced stuff regarding certain patterning instructions on her own blog. I respect that writing patterns and instructions is difficult. But apparently so is deflating one's ego and saying "I don't know yet", "I'm going to try this...", and "this is what happens to work, for me, because I'm working with these particular constraints".
It just shows the lining from the outside of the garment and can make the edges really bulky. But it's also the method that is most used by home sewists so, speaking for myself here, it's easy to think the flaws of the method are personal skill issues and not just side effects of bag lining.
So what, a majority of tik tok videos advertise...cream rises to the top...the best will be recognized....we are supposed to trust that you know how to sew? Nice ideas? Why did you brake the machine 3 times? You are just talking, criticizing...
The hardest part is that people don't make enough during their day jobs to live. Society has hit a tipping point because of how late stage capitalism works, is if you aren't working every second you're awake, you'll loose the roof over your head
no for real! there are so many factors playing into this!
On the contrary, capitalism is the system that has allowed hundreds of millions of people to climb out of the working class into business ownership, which while still a lot of hard work, is satisfying and gives creativity and control. The banking class and socialism forces a taxation level that suppresses or drives away the middle class, forcing everyone to become government-dependent. Not working is not the best thing in the world - just look at the levels of mental illness among both the rich and the dependent underclasses compared to those working for themselves.
I hate the idea that sewing has to turn into a business and/or content. Like I just want to enjoy my hobbies in peace pls
"selling patterns is not a get rich quick scheme" truer words we're never said
there are soo many steps and I know you just summarized them but some that I personally spend a lot of time on: drawing designs at multiple sizes, writing pattern testing briefs, illustrating instructions, working with pattern testers on fit and processing feedback...
grading is a whole can of worms and I have yet to come across an algorithmic method that actually works well...I always have to do a ton of tweaking especially on plus size end to get well fitting garments
this whole video is gold. I've definitely falling into some of these traps myself, I'm glad to have moved to patterns because its made me go back to creating with more intent rather than trying to churn out content. all of the extra time and steps needed to make patterns means I will actually put in the effort to make something good rather than just something for the algorithm.
THIS! this though! I'm glad you liked it :)
aaaagh this! This is why I rarely do "sewing" videos anymore, most of my actual making-things happens off camera and is just for me.
YES! Also, Also - I know why they are doing it but the 'Sewing as an Extreme Endurance sport' is.. just stop.
STAPH.
Every time I see a thumbnail with some ridiculous premise like ' I try to sew Four Full Regency dresses plus underwear with fitted stays in four days' it makes me want to scream.
I don't watch them anymore but invariably they are just videos of time-lapsed human misery and I wish that creators would stop doing this.
The 'I'm doing this thing I used to love in a way that makes me hate not only it, but myself' is a race to the bottom and the end results are just AWFUL and the toll on physical and mental health is just Not Worth It.
time-lapsed human misery seems to be a Genre on youtube actually! and not one I'm a fan of!
Oh my gosh yes, the first time I saw a "I stayed up for 24 hours straight sewing" video I was like WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT. I did that for college and I NEVER want to do it again, even for an internet audience. Even for pay. Nope, nope, nope. Why are you trying to sell a literal nightmare as something fun and quirky.
a lot of people wonder why I freehand most of my knitting and crochet and the honest to god reason is that most patterns only go up to xl if that, and I am a 2x-3x. I follow so many pattern makers on instagram purely for inspiration because 90% of them don't make patterns for extended sizes and I have to figure out a workaround myself if I like a design, and then people tell me that I should sell my stuff. while its nice to get the compliment that my stuff is good enough to sell, I don't think people realize the fatigue that comes from being large in a small world.
I watch sewing pattern tutorials that tell you to "just use rectangles" and my body is anything but rectangular so I need to adjust it. fabric bolts don't come in wide enough lengths for me to make a circle skirt or even a half circle skirt. I see a pattern that looks good and get invested before I realize the sizing is only S-L. hell, today I had to put on a gown at the doctors office and I could barely tie it together. a gown. a giant tie back shirt.
Its the same fatigue, shame, and frustration that comes from trying to shop for plus size clothing, just transferred to a hobby thats supposed to be fun. I make stuff partially because no one makes stuff for me, and then they want me to make stuff for everyone else.
on another note, drop the bra-making knowledge bestie, my plus-size ass can't take target bras for much longer
Yeah this is why I rarely buy patterns for sewing because they don’t make them to fit folk like myself. It’s infuriating that most patterns be it sewing or other fibre crafts aren’t size inclusive at allll
The greatest sewing How To's on UA-cam are made by 60 year old women who don't know how to make jumpcuts.
This is the truth. Hands down.
"omg you should sell the things you make/wear! You could make so much money! Why dont you start a youtube or sell paterns or clothes!?!!?" yes its a lovely compliment but honestly, im exhausted when people get so pushy with it and im having to explain why i will never ever sew to sell historical or historically inspired clothes to what usually is complete strangers. I am entirely self taught and sewing and other fiber art is my therapy. I will not never make enough from it to justify the stress and ruining my absolute passion for it. My answer has just become "i taught myself, you could too" because i love my clothes, im proud of them, but no. Its not financially or emotionally viable for me to do it for others. No one wants to pay the price for even minimum wage and materials costs because were so used to cheap fast fashion these days and people dont have money to spare.
I made my mum a coat. Fully tailored and mostly handsewn. For my own curiosity i kept track of it as i went along. Final costings came in to just under £900. For a coat. At a push i could throw out two a month if i did nothing else and didnt stop. Its not a viable income and definately not worth my sanity. a well meaning lady in the supermaket the other week asked "why dont you sell thoes clothes im sure people will buy them? How much would it even cost for what youre wearing?" All in? Probably a few thousand easily. "Think ill just wear my jeans and a tshirt!" Point unfortunately proven. Its not affordable unless youre doing it yourself for yourself.
YES!! Living in a fast fashion world has so heavily conditioned people to undervalue all the material, time & skill that goes into making a unique garment... I feel like really the only people who could afford to pay what your creations were worth would be people who are silly-rich! And I'm not sure that's a market most of us are keen to cater to...?
Tutoring others in the skills involved is perhaps more financially feasible, but again I think people vastly underestimate how much time, effort & marketing skill would go into setting up THAT kind of business too.
Bottom line is, if you want to do things right there's just really no shortcuts - but in a world of hustle culture, MLMs & monetizing everything that moves, people understandably tend to forget that...?
Oooooo yeah, that “inclusive” one-size pattern line….
I don't sew, but I've had similar experiences with drawing. I tried to make money off of my art during the pandemic while I was unemployed, and it ended up ruining my passion. I'm still struggling to get it back. I think the push to monetize everything can be detrimental to these communities and suck the enjoyment out of them.
I'm sorry to hear! I hope you find your passion again soon :) but it really can drain you to do something because you NEED to do it.
Good grief, are the "How to UA-cam" tutorials really advising people to just reproduce existing content as a good way to build skill?!😳 That's not learning, it's just plagiarism! And entails such a devaluing of any unique vision or skills that might make your own output valuable... 🤮
I really love the fact that people are sharing their own creative journeys on YT, but I agree re the need to be clear and up-front about whether one actually has skills & experience or is sharing a "here's what not to do and what I learned"!
Definitely seeing the burnout problem frequently too, esp. with the more regularly-posting costube channel creators, and it seems to be very much driven by how the algorithms work? Even though their supporters are completely happy to wait while they take the time to refresh or to tackle a difficult project, they themselves often don't feel they can, because of how it will affect not just their income but their marketing through YT. It's sad to watch! 😢 Hopefully having other avenues for fan support (Kofi, Patron etc) helps reduce some of that pressure eventually?
This is true across all creative platforms - sewing, drawing, painting, resin, cosplay, etc - and the reason the internet used to be better is a fundamental reason: people used to make YT videos simply to further knowledge, and to help others. It was never a way to make money in the Beginning Times. Now it's so much less about furthering the community (of like individuals out in the world, connected by passion and dial-up), and it's become all about internet fame and money. And not in that order.
I feel like I've seen a lot of this in the lolita world as well recently. People starting brands when they don't have the skills to pull it off. And I think I get why it happens a little bit. I have relatives and whatever tell me that I should sell stuff all the time, but I know that my skills are not quite professional. Or at least I would have to spend more time than I could charge for in order to make something with that level of quality. I'm a bit anti perfectionism in personal projects, but if someone is going to pay hundreds of dollars for something they better be getting a perfect product.
I think the boss thing that's starting to trend in the community can be traced to the OG's of the Cos Tube world. We've all watched B. Banner, Abby Cox and Nicole Rudolf grow their channels into something that can support a household. Which is amazing; well done humans. And we are all taught to dream about having a job that you can do from home, no commute, you set your own hours and objectives... The sewing community has reached the stage of 'cottage industry' (kind of like the crafters of the 1970's & 80's). Because our collective economic situations are so dicey the impulse is to somehow monetize what gets dismissively referred to as our hobbies. Other people are making money off of this, so why can't you? Same thing is happening in the online leatherworking and fishing communities (yes, I am the oddest collection of skill sets you'll meet). All of a sudden, everyone is offering courses and merch and whathaveyou.
I type this as someone who wants to start their own sewing channel. At the moment I know enough to know that I don't know enough, so that's been relegated to future plans / slash / daydreams. But the impulse is still there. Apparently as a T2 teacher's kid I now want to teach? Who could see that coming; not me, apparently.
And yeah, I've run across 'experts' who know less than I do hoofing it for dollars... And, yeah, agreed that there seems to be more commentary and latest fad chasing than actual sewing going on at the moment across the spectrums. The pendulum will swing back to creating again. Hopefully some time soon.
- Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi
Collecting hobbies is in and of itself a hobby ;)
I think something people also miss is that many of the CosTube OGs have actual expertise in what they're talking about. Abby and Nicole worked for years at Colonial Williamsburg. Abby wrote the literal book on sewing 18th century fashion. Nicole has a Masters of Arts in Material Culture. Bernadette has a degree in theatrical production and worked in costume shops on Broadway (though she's a bit more self-taught when it comes to certain areas of fashion and sewing). They studied for years and have deep wells of education and skill to draw from. . . And not many people on UA-cam have that (because not many people in the world go to school for sewing-related stuff).
They're not monetising their hobbies. They're being paid for expertise in their field. And I think that's part of why they're 'successful' on UA-cam.
@@lyndabethcave3835 Exactly. The Cos Tube OGs have put in their thousand hours. And then some.
Fashion History is still sitting under the umbrella of Art History. It's an emerging field so the academic positions don't yet exist. Hence, what for the OGs, is the YT side-gig as income. And the Chicago-style usage of references/bibliography in their videos. They were professionals before they started the YT grind.
Many gurus on UA-cam promise the world, but to quote The Crow "This is the really real world". There is way too much bull sh** out there and we have to teach each other how to sniff it out. Great vlog.
About the blogs and the connections- so much of the European historical costuming stuff I wind up looking at these days are from 2014-2016 or earlier. New stuff about the subject thats connected and helpful isnt really being made anymore i think, not in the same way anyway. And like yeah, get that bag i guess, but to me, sewing should be more communal! People used to be more comfortable sharing patterns and hacks for making shoes that look accurate from modern ones in a way they aren't anymore. In some ways it reminds me of how- sewing and baking yur own stuff was either classless or specifically a poor thing, and now baking is turned into a middle and upper class thing.
12:44 when you talk about the community being forgotten, I think that’s happened in a lot of online communities, in part because of monetization but I also think there’s two other factors that all tie together: algorithms/feeds becoming the dominant way people find online content, and the devaluing of recommendations/linking as a contribution to a community.
When someone has a personalized feed, they’re more likely to passively find content instead of searching it out. And the format of websites like UA-cam makes someone who only/primarily connects people with good resources or other people-previously one of the valuable members of a community-into someone who isn’t a content creator, isn’t on the same level as the people making video content, and moreover into someone who has difficulty finding or being found by the people they used to help. This seems to reinforce the creator-viewer dichotomy, instead of another sort of community like on a forum where the boundaries are more between lurkers and posters, whether that be showing of your beginning projects, your masterpieces, going over mistakes, explaining how you fixed something, tutorials, making a masterpost of tutorials, making a masterpost of references, or even just talking about stuff that’s happening in your life. That sort of atmosphere helps foster community ime-though of course others may have had different experiences! And webrings are a whole separate topic that I only know of through Pokémon fan sites and webcomics 😆
There’s a UA-camr I like in a different space who used to make a community post almost every month that showcased a video from another UA-camr, and it introduced me to so many interesting smaller UA-camr, which I really appreciated :)
The Costube Entertainment Network on IG used to do that. It was really fun actually!
I would love to see something similar on YT! Just finding the smaller awesome costube creators can be super difficult, esp. those who are in some way a minority? (culturally, by gender, English as 2nd language, etc). The algorithms really don't seem to work in recommending similar content. Would love to see the big channels doing even more collaborations with genuinely awesome smaller ones, that really helps.
@@anna_in_aotearoa3166 Definitely! I think @VBirchwood used to do something like this a while back, you can scroll back through her community tab to find the posts, but I think it’d be fun if more people picked it up
Heck, I am nearly to the point of making a new google account because "you follow too many people compared to your subscribers number... get more subscribers to be allowed to follow more people"... folks, I do not HAVE subscribers, not really because I am not a content creator. I maintain a website based company with a print catalog in my day job (yes, it is seeds), and for my hobbies I want to sit and LEARN from someone who has the skills, and I only expect to be uploading to X and YT well after I retire (at 40 years old that is actually a thing that I will eventually have to do), and I hate having to bookmark creators the system will just not let me subscribe to.
I have seen the same/similar thing in the self publish industry. it seems like because these are low entry industries that people make an assumption of low work/high profit and drown out those of us who are working hard to do our best. I have seen it in the years go by like waves. first the 'get rich quick doing 'low content' books. then the 'master class in making best sellers that don't require knowing how to write'. then after a few years, it happens again by the 'hustle culture'. its a reason that most authors walked from some advertising platforms because there is no return on investment when the platform will take anybody's money and its flooded with scams from your own industry.
TBH that sound like a nightmare to manage!
This was a huge thing in the belly dance community, and was a large factor in my choice to quit. Now that I've left that world, it seems like a lot of industries are being hit that same way.
As a viewer, I want to see people doing things that will inspire me for my next project. I want to see fantastic ideas that will make me want to make something. These "get rich quick" schemes often end up costing a lot more time and money than people realize, and it can make you go broke or result in being outed as a fraud. However, this too will pass, just like it did with belly dance. I think knitting went through this phase at one point, but it also seems to have settled a bit more, though who knows. It appears to be getting trendy again.
As someone who hates ads and marketing, I want to watch honest and inspiring things. If some day I make content it will be because I enjoy sharing what I love. There's a place for that too. Unfortunately, not everyone can make it rich from UA-cam, pattern creation, crafting, whatever. Eventually the fad will die when people realize it isn't easy, and hopefully then sanity can be found again.
I just want to sew my little outfits and post my little photos. I understand we are all broke and everyone wants to make money off of their passions but it’s never so simple.
I know this video is older now but I have to ask: why do you say bag lining is bad? And I promise I didn't miss the point of the video, I've just never heard that before and flat lining isn't usually the long-lasting option for garment making.
Speaking of Keep sewing on! I have a Google form you can use to nominate a small creator or someone that you find particularly helpful!
I can't wait to see all of ya'lls cool creations! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScvTeWcIra7GmFkOLrHmLEx9USP7zgzuR4qt9D7vkb0ekJ-dw/viewform
A big part of the videos I love on here are the ones that show you all the mistakes they made along the way so you can learn from it. It's the kind I'd love to do because it seems a waste to be making as many as I do and have only me gaining from it. 🙂
Something that drove me away from one of my oldest friends is that anytime she saw me creating she would say ‘oh you can make money from that.’ And push me really hard on it. Now for context I am a highly disabled person who was born into poverty and learned the skills I have because it was the only way we could have clothing and survive by up-cycling and such. She is a nepo baby who is ridiculously rich and likes to flex about how she buys art from First Nations people and trans people (she added that to her roster when I came out as trans even though she somehow also made that about her at some point??) and while it’s great to support minorities when you only do it to virtue signal it’s exhausting. As someone who can’t create the way I used to because a lot of my disabilities get worse over time, being pushed to have to make $$ over them and it being heavily suggested that if I didn’t monetise the small amount of joy I had then it was ‘my own fault.’ That I was poor, it made for such a toxic space. I also just have a huge issue with people gatekeeping a lot of learning within sewing and crafts in general. Whenever I see people on IG ask simple questions like ‘oh you said you used soy to bind the dye to this? Do you mean soy milk.’ And see them met with a ‘these three people have courses sign up and find out.’ … those three people found out how to do that from the many blogs that existed for forever online. That person who asked a simple question is unlikely to be able to afford a $50 course to just find out that yeah it’s soy milk they used to soak fabric in to get a different shade of dye colour from. I understand that it’s important people get paid for their work, but when we ignore that the whole basis of crafts comes from shared traditions, monetising that and locking knowledge behind paywalls is only harming everyone involved. There needs to be a better way to go about so much of this. To return to something thats more community orientated so that we can each share our skills and knowledge and enjoy making together. Instead of showing just enough of something to get people excited then refusing to share that which you probably learned for free yourself. I do believe in things like charging for patterns, if they are free amazing, but a few dollars for patterns is very worth it and the amount of time and work that goes into them, well I think again it’s worth some $$ but once you’re making the pattern so expensive that it’s not affordable for most folk, I do think that’s an issue. Unless it’s ridiculously complex.
Oof. I feel you on this one!
As a chronically ill person too, I've had similar pressure from certain relatives to try & monetise any creative hobbies I have? But a lot more actually from the way our government financial support works... One is constantly required to annually justify the fact that things are not getting any better, we're still munted.
Regardless of that physical reality, there's also still an expectation that you'll try to work at least 15hrs a week... And given the base medical disability support simply isn't enough to survive on without side-hustling, the pressure to attempt that is intense!
I'm glad you've managed to escape your well-off friend's area of influence - sounds like a necessary mental health precaution? 😬 That deep lack of empathy around the difficulty & risk involved in trying to turn a creative skill into a marketable enterprise echoes a lot of the capitalist rhetoric I see. "Any activity one does should be monetised", and "anybody can & should be working (regardless of health or capacity)". Ugh.
Really liked your emphasis on the community aspects of creating, and the way we can try to support each other in using these skills! Not just by fairly paying small creators who make genuine good stuff, but also sharing our skills for free & empowering others? That's a significant act of political resistance, esp. as economic times get harder & "make do & mend" becomes ever more relevant again!
This really resonated with me. I've had a small channel for a couple of years, and I don't have the time to pump out content at the same rate as some people, but when I do put something out I want it to have value to the people who see it. But I've definitely fallen into the trap before of making something because I think it will get views (it usually doesn't 😂) because so many role models in this community are the people who do this full time and feel like they have to "sew for the algorithm". I finally have a full time job that I love now so I'm actually really excited to make content because I love making it, rather than because I'm desperate for my channel to take off and provide a full time income! I've never seen your videos before, and this one came at the perfect time, thank you 🥰
This is the reason why the Costube calender was started but that's massively fallen off lately.
But the whole Idea was that larger full time creators could easily redirect attention to the lil guys who had other responsibilities and poset one very well thought out video a month.
I may have just talked myself into trying to revive that XD
@@MiahGrace That sounds like a lovely idea ❤️ That does involve a bold assumption that even my infrequent videos are well thought out though 😂
One bastion of anti-commerciallism and community for me is the r/sewing subreddit. Not only is it a collection of the nicest people I have found on the entire internet, but the sub is very anti commercial. You cant make posts about commercial sewing or advertise your business, its strictly hobby only
that subreddit is a LIFESAVER and gives me hope for this community tbh.
I really appreciated this video as a sewist who isn’t trying to hustle. I have tried a couple indie patterns and have struggled with some of them and thought it was just me not being smart, but until this video I hadn’t considered that some patterns are just…poor quality.
Writing instructions in a clear way is HARD. And understanding amiture technical writing is also hard.
Even Profesional technical writing can be done in a way that's borderline inaccessible.
So no. You're not dumb!
@@MiahGrace not to be dramatic but thank you again for that. After viewing this video I have taken a more critical eye to some of the indie patterns I struggled with and noticed issues (drawn to a single size, only partially sketched out, no guidelines on which face to cut fabric from to maintain fabric pattern alignment…feels like the technical challenged on Great British Bakeoff where they say, “step one: make a cake,” except it’s sewing so it’s, “step one: make a bodice.”)
One of the things I've found funny/weird recently is how many channels I started following for the sewing content have gotten big enough that they've bought a house and start doing loads of DIY videos instead. A lot of those are still enjoyable content to watch just because you like the person and their video style of course. And I absolutely think everyone should get a decent living wage for the work they do (I personally do not have that) but when creators are getting so much more than that directly from viewers and still pushing hard for more people to sign up it's just a bit uncomfortable for me.
100% on all you points, especially ethical ones. But not on the viewers remark. Since youtube reset the ratings it's like taking about the dead: if you can't say anything good about the content or it's creator do not comment. No. Majority of the viewers are young ppl seeking advice on things they've never did before. If content is not good, not valid advice or just plain wrong, it should be downvoted. Just as any other product review "don't buy, it's a cheap fake".
It's good to talk once in a while about problems, even if only for the sake of keeping up some standards.
Anatomy drafting
“Uh-not-me!” drafting
Oooh and don’t get me started on how annoying it is to buy a pattern, print it out and then none of the lines match up when you’re sticking it together 🤬
Basically the Internet started as this magic, easy way to share inspiring things with people all over the world from the comfort of your home, for free. But capitalism hopped onto the train, the costs of the thing itself started to show (these servers and these programmers need money to function too), it lead to financing through ads, which then expanded to ads as a revenue source for anyone who was using the thing and could attract viewers of the ads... Capitalism in a nutshell, walking on its own tail, somehow. And it's so sad when it deforms things we like - such as the earlier online sewing community.
Umm girl boss zombie sounds like a FANTASTIC Halloween costume
There was a newbie bra maker teaching bra making???!Bwahaha!
I have enough problems with the self-proclaimed "bra mother" giving instructions in her book, that she contradicts in her pattern, and then swears it must be done a third way in the craftsy tutorials she doesn't actually respond to comments on, and deletes genuine questions asking nuanced stuff regarding certain patterning instructions on her own blog.
I respect that writing patterns and instructions is difficult.
But apparently so is deflating one's ego and saying "I don't know yet", "I'm going to try this...", and "this is what happens to work, for me, because I'm working with these particular constraints".
Thank you for saying that.
16:15 just sounds like an MLM
Gatekeep Girlboss gaslight, or something like that XD
Wait, what do you mean by "bag lining is not good"?
It just shows the lining from the outside of the garment and can make the edges really bulky. But it's also the method that is most used by home sewists so, speaking for myself here, it's easy to think the flaws of the method are personal skill issues and not just side effects of bag lining.
josefina 💜
she's my Roomate Katie's
Thank you
"The algorithm can be naked, it's fine."
Need this on a t-shirt kplsthxbai❤
So what, a majority of tik tok videos advertise...cream rises to the top...the best will be recognized....we are supposed to trust that you know how to sew? Nice ideas? Why did you brake the machine 3 times? You are just talking, criticizing...