I had a memory this morning of my mother’s sewing table. It was always busy - piled with fabrics and patterns. She was always making something for herself or my sister. This was in the 50’s and 60’s.
She was born in 1924, so she was a child during the Depression, and she married in 1942, just before my dad entered the Navy and I’m thinking that she was probably of the last generation of women who commonly made clothes at home… is this true?
I was born in '54. Thru high school and into college, I made a lot of my own clothes. In this pic I’m holding the dog, wearing a skirt and vest I made in Home Ec in 9th grade. (my mom made the matching outfits my sisters wore.) [brag]I’d already made the draw-string bag and the dress everyone was required to make, and I had enough time to bring in my own pattern and fabric and make this gorgeous yellow plaid number! 
[/brag] I also made several garments for my daughter when she was in high school in the early 2000s.
The last time I was in a fabric store, I was put off by how expensive it’s all become. Add my time to that, and it’s just not worth it to make clothes myself. In fact, in recent years, most of my sewing was upholstery or assorted canvas covers for our boats. Now that we’re boatless, I don’t even do that. My machine is mainly for repairs now.
I still sew clothing at home, though I do a lot of household stuff too; curtains, slipcovers, linens, etc. I do a fair bit for friends who always need some curious thing or other seen to! I even teach a young girl of eight, two hrs every other weekend.
I was born in the mid fifties and learned from my Mom mostly. I still enjoy it and it’s still useful. Just today I was sewing hidden pockets into some of our garments as we’re going away soon, and don’t want to worry about pickpockets.
FCM - Nice train set!
StG
I was born in 1980. Throughout my childhood I always had a couple outfits my mother had made for me.
I used to sew for my daughter, too (born 2011). Since she hit about three years old, though, her tastes are so particular that I don’t care to break my heart over it anymore. Anyway, if you shop sales, you can buy premade clothes for less than the fabric that goes into handmade ones–never mind the time.
My mom (born 1940) is a master of every form of textile art known to man (or woman), and makes clothes among many other things. And to bring it to the next generation, my sister doesn’t sew nearly as much, but still made her own dresses for all her school dances.
I had a girlfriend in the 70’s, and she made all her clothes. She would go to hi-end stores to observe. Then come home, make a pattern, buy material and create it.
I believe she does this today.
Mom, born in 1900, always had a sewing machine handy, and knew how to use it. When we were living on a farm back in the 1930s, all the grocery stores sold things like flour in sacks of printed fabric, with the expectation that these would become dresses for their female customers. Mom and Grandma used a lot of these.
My sisters sewed a lot of their clothes in their teenage years (mid-'60s - early '70s). I have no idea how common this was.
My mom, born in the 50s, made a lot of or all of her own clothes. She used to sew some of our clothes as kids, too, but not much of them. Now days, it’s way cheaper to buy clothes at a discount store than to buy fabric and patterns and such. Fabric is really expensive. I enjoy making quilts, and they always cost at least $100 in materials.
I was born late '50’s, and made almost all my clothes thru high school and college, and a lot of my tops up until about 1997. Since then I’ve concentrated on repairs and alterations. Fabric has gotten really expensive ( and I no longer work for a fabric store chain!) so most of my fabric purchases are for quilts. Used to be able to get really fashionable fabrics for less than $4 a yard, which made an outfit that needed 3 yards of fabric and notions an affordable option. Now it is harder to find fabrics that aren’t either dressy-dressy prom dress fabrics, or really strange prints that you would never find in ready-to-wear, and anything really nice is apt to be $12.99 a yard or more. I have purchased several patterns (which are also way more expensive so you really have to wait for the really good sale days) that replicate some store-bought dresses I have, but I just can’t find similar quality fabric.
My mother (b 1946) is/was an excellent seamstress. She made a lot of her own clothes when she was an older teenager, and continued as an adult. She made clothes, Halloween costumes, and pajamas for me and my brother when we were young. When I was a young adult, she altered a lovely velvet dress for me, and fixed up a theatre costume that included some falling-apart petticoats. Sadly I didn’t learn or inherit those skills from her. I can sew elastic and ribbons onto ballet slippers, and that’s about it.
I grew up in the sixties and I still remember my mom driving off to sewing lessons. She made some of our clothes growing up…I remember some pretty scratchy wool dresses! They still had home economics when I went to junior high so I can sew and have made a few things…mostly draperies. My problem, as it is with knitting, is that if I’m going to go to the trouble of making something myself, I’m going to use good materials; linen, silk etc. Which explains the box of very expensive yarn I drooled over in the shop but have yet to use.
I can sew pretty well, and I have a good sewing machine. But it’s really not cost-effective. The only reasons to do it are if you just enjoy it as a hobby–which I do to a certain point, but usually not a finished point. Or if you just must have something in a style, size, or fabric that is not available in stores.*
So for instance I make tennis dresses so I can put pockets in them, because you can’t buy one with pockets anymore. Or at least not pockets where I want them. (Friends, they are putting the pockets upside down in the shorts that go underneath, and I do not like it. I want the damn pockets in a normal pocket place.)
But for ordinary clothes, it’s going to be cheaper to buy them ready-made, considering the cost of the fabric and probably without even considering the cost of your time.
It’s nice to be able to do repairs and alterations though. The last few times I’ve dragged out the old Singer, probably the last 10 times, it’s been to sew up a hole in something or another.
*And actually the last time I tried this I couldn’t even find a suitable fabric at the fabric store. Unbelievable.
Born in '66. Know how to sew but haven’t made my own clothes for many, many years (last time was in the 80’s.) I did, however, used to make my son’s Halloween Costumes when he was 3, 4, 5 years old - I stopped doing it when the expense got to be ridiculous and he said it didn’t really matter to him as much anymore. I do miss that, though - we used to have a ton of fun picking out the patterns and stuff. Good memories. 
I think a lot of people have forgotten the art of how to do things on the cheap. Fabric can be expensive nowadays, but it isn’t always. And that was true back then, too. That’s why folks made things like those flour-sack dresses, and you can still do similar things today. Most of what my mom makes nowadays, she gets the materials for free.
The second hand stores are a treasure trove! That’s where it all goes, when they clean out Mom/Gran’s sewing cupboard! Sometimes beautiful fabric, for a song! Also look for curtains or tablecloths, even with a stain or hole, it’s easy to work around 'cause there’s lots of fabric! Beautiful Irish linen tablecloths make lovely soft sun dresses. Even men’s xxlarge dress shirts have enough fabric to make a lot of things! And those expensive fabric shops always have things on sale, that’s the aisle I shop!
I know how to sew, but I’m not very good, so I don’t make clothes anymore. My mother, though, was a marvel. She sewed clothes for us throughout our childhood; she made life-sized stuffed dolls and stuffed animals for us; she even made a padded trinket box that still sits on my dresser. Her last big project for me was my wedding dress, 25 years ago. And, yes, she was able to make it for less than I could have bought it for.
I don’t know anyone in my generation who routinely makes their own clothes.
My wife makes a lot of clothes, but they’re mostly costumes of one sort or another. We go to burns (local regional Burning Man events), and it’s an event where people wear lots of costumes over the course of four days or so. So it’s not just for Halloween. She gets most of her fabric from the Goodwill outlet store here in St. Louis, where they dump everything in bins and you buy it by the pound. A couple pounds of discarded fabric at 87 cents a pound can go a long way. Gotta dig through a lot of garbage to find decent usable fabric, though.
My mom taught me to make clothes in the late 70s and early 80s, and made some of my nice dress-up clothes. She also made me clothes for my storebrand “Barbie” doll - so little!! But I think you’re right OP; as readymade clothes got cheaper, you don’t save much making things yourself. As FCM says, the fabric for clothes even at Jo-Ann is too high to make it worth it.
