Are you a sewing professional? Do you have all the equipment to finish seams and make blind hems? I don't think you'll be able to deliver enough product working by yourself to make it worthwhile for a store to buy from you. The simple stuff you're speaking of can be manufactured very inexpensively, and is.

As a plus sized woman myself, I never, ever buy anything with a round or V neck. I prefer shirts and dresses with collars, unless it's a simple T-shirt.

If you decide to make more complicated garments, the labor time and expense goes way up, and the quantities go way down, along with any profit margin.

You'll need to produce these items for very little expense if you expect to make any profit at all. A clothing store will typically mark up merchandise by 100%. If you produce a shirt for $10, it takes you an hour (unreasonable), and you want to earn $10/hour, you would sell it to the shop for $20. They would mark it up to $40. Is the shirt you sell worth that? Only you and the shop owner can tell. If your clothes are a success, how will you keep up with the volume?

Seriously, I think you're setting yourself up to lose massive amounts of time and money on this sort of venture.

You'll likely find a disclaimer on the back of pattern envelopes that will state the patterns are not to be used for commercial purposes. While it's perfectly all right to produce a single garment for a customer who pays you to do so, using a commercial pattern to mass-produce clothing for resale is a violation of the pattern company policy. People will tell you that if you change the pattern 10 or 15 or x percent you can call it your own. They are wrong. I can't tell you that they'll catch you. I can tell you that they'll be well within their right to sue you and they certainly have the money to do so!

Mass-produced clothing is sometimes awfully drafted. I bought a couple blouses in size "large" from a well known retailer. While they fit through the chest, (I'm a commercial size 12-14 by the way) the neck was fully three inches too big around. Plus sized clothing is often made bigger all over, and that's bad pattern making. My bust, at 40 inches, is 33% larger than my size 2 pal, but my shoulders aren't 33% bigger, nor is my neck! It takes a lot of finesse to make a truly good fitting plus-sized garment. Since using commercial patterns isn't feasible do you have pattern making skills to produce your own? Do you have plus sized friends who can try on your garments and model them?

As for your friend's assessment that "if she would carry all plus size clothing she would be sold out all the time" that's interesting. Why isn't she carrying it? What is her market? What are her price points for tops, pants, dresses? What income level is she selling to?

I work in a very small city of about 65,000. A woman who had run a couple successful businesses opened a resale shop for plus sized women and it struggled for a year or so before folding. The prices were *very* reasonable. The clothing was carefully chosen - nothing shabby or dated looking. She knew fashion and had a passion for it. There just weren't enough customers.

So in other words, we have to be sewing "professionals" like the rest of you all to ask questions here??? And yes, I've been sewing for 45 years!! I've been on too many Garden Web forums to know that there are always quite a few "think they know it all's" on every one of them.

This post was edited by donnas on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 12:04

So, catsoup, how did that work out for you?

I am sorry that you got discouraging remarks, but it really is sage advice.

Sewing to fit is a very treacherous slope. It is much more difficult than it would seem. Think about how you try on so many various items at a store, only to reject most of them for poor fit, on you. However, another customer comes along and it suits her to a "T". There are lots of hits and misses in that game. Unless there is a large volume of choices , such as a large manufacturer, it could be fraught with failure.

So, did you ever pursue your idea?

You know this is a 6 year old thread.