The economy of crafts

Making clothes used to be a necessity - people did it because there was no other way to get clothes. In my parents' generation it was relegated to something poor people did, because it was cheaper than buying your clothes. Today, it appears to be an idle passtime of the well-off. I mean, just look at the prices of patterns! And even if you're not working from a pattern, the material itself usually costs on par with buying the item already made.

Working with remnants, as I have been doing lately, seems the only economical way to go. However, you can't always get sufficient amounts to make things. Or the properties of the material are not what you expect - this afternoon I finished off a shirt I started last night. The material was a beautiful shiny pale blue, and the form-fitting cut of the shirt - copied near-faithfully from a cotton T-shirt I own, the modification being extra length - would have made a great shirt to wear to work. However, cotton stretches, and this material does not. It is now essentially a size 0 or XXS shirt (I wear size 4 or S). The material only cost a couple bucks, and I was creating it primarily as entertainment, but I am still disappointed I do not get the payout of a nice shirt afterwards. Perhaps I'll try selling it on Etsy, or else donate it to Goodwill.