Excellent article. This post is like a sort of twin to the way I have always thought about why I make clothes. The alienated-labour problem (and going all Marxian about it!) is something gravely absent from the usual discussion about what it means for people to make and do things for themselves.

Whether or not people are aware of it, being divorced from creation of the objects you use and interact with has an accumulative process making us ever less independent. It separates us away from knowledge and skills (there are many more people who know how to eat a cake than how to bake one).

The moral imperative that makes people want to resist outsourcing and exploitation of cheap labour is a catalyst for rediscovering our need for productive labour. I don't think the 'make your own' movement is a challenge to highly developed capitalist production, but it might well curtail its total dominance.

I make for various reasons. It's true that it's cheaper to buy most RTW clothes, but not cheaper to buy clothes that actually fit you properly in the colour/style/cloth you want. It also takes a certain curiosity about making things; some people are not as curious or willing to learn the skills when they can just shell out a few pounds/dollars/euros for something. Or perhaps the alienation from making things has suppressed curiosity. You get the feeling that it all requires lots of money, special tools and secret knowledge.