How to design clothes
Have you ever looked for the perfect item in shops or online and never found it? Even though you can clearly picture it in your mind? If you long for a great dress / jacket / t shirt in a certain print or with a certain motif, but it just doesn’t exist. Then you may want to take the next step and think about learning how to design clothes.
Ideas
Got lots of ideas? Get them down on paper. It really doesn’t matter how to start. It could be a bullet pointed list or a description of the beautiful dress you saw in your dream.
Once you have your ideas down on paper. It’s time to sort them. If you have more than one idea, do they fall in to categories? If so, group them by theme / item / style etc.
Are you thinking of designing clothes for just yourself or to maybe start a new business?
If you do want to make it a profitable venture, think about which of your ideas would be more commercially viable. Group them into niches and do some research on each one to see if there is a gap int he market.
Drawing
Picked your favourite ideas. Then start getting them formulated by sketching. Start with pencil so you can correct any mistakes before putting life into your idea with colour and fine liner.
Tutorials
If you aren’t happy with your drawing skills or want to perfect a certain style. There are plenty of fashion drawing tutorials you can check out on the web.
DIY
Once you’ve got those ideas, why not try them out before you make it. You could recreate something like this t-shirt mockup to see if you like the pattern / slogan / etc on an actual item of clothing. It also helps you spot glaring mistakes. Like the eyes on a character unfortunately positioned.
How to make
I’m all for learning how to make things from books. They are a great resource that you can have be the side of you on your cutting table. Don’t have access why not take apart an item of clothing from home and use that as a template before recreating it in your new design.
Alternatively you can always google tutorials or sign up for a dress making / pattern cutting course at a local college.
Next steps
I love the designing process, but have no desire to start outlaying money on maufacturing or expensive material costs. Which is why I love selling on Print on demand sites. They do the manufacturing and you get a cut of the final price as you fee for the design.
It’s worth looking around as there are plenty of them to choose from today. Look for one that’s based in your country / offers better commission cuts to designers and fits your design style.
If you do want to start manufacturing your own clothes to sell for profit. It’s worth doing a calculation to see what you’d have to charge to make a profit. Factor in the material costs / marketing / postage and packaging / tools and equipment and most importantly your wages.
Don’t undersell yourself and don’t effectively work for free. At the very least pay yourself the minimum wage and see how that affects the final price. If it looks to high for people to willingly pay then you may need to reconsider if it’s worth while.
Don’t get disheartened if this is the case. Remember you started this design journey from searching for the perfect non existing item. Now you have the knowledge and skills to make yourself something truly unique.
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