Winter fashion is great but it’s also costly. An average coat is likely to cost you at least R699, whereas a summer lightweight jacket costs around R250.
Seeing how expensive clothes are, Sibahle Mthembu decided to make her own clothes to save money without compromising her style.
With 38K followers on TikTok, Mthembu is trending for her sewing hauls.
One of her best coats is the crocodile leather trench coat and, to make it extra, she also made a mini skirt to match. She has a collection of teddy coats in different colours like red, yellow and green.
Most of her followers love her work and have asked her where she buys her material but she refuses to tell them because she also sells some of the clothes she makes.
“I’ve learned my lesson, I once shared, and the next day the whole roll was gone at the fabric shop, I couldn’t find more material,” she said.
Mthembu also makes clothes for people, and one of her favourite clients once asked for a dress at the last minute she had to finish it in one night.
“So one of my favourite clients calls me up and says, ‘Girl, I want to do a photoshoot tomorrow, can you help me with a dress?’ I was like, ‘say less’. I headed to the fabric shop, I saw this nice diamond studded lace in so many colours.
“But I know she likes black, white and red so I was leaning more towards the black ones and the other ones were beautiful too.
“I got my material and headed back home. She gave me full creative freedom so I worked on the design and just thought about what’s the best design that I can do with the little time that I had.
“And also I have her measurements from our long-standing relationship, so it was easier,” she said.
She delivered the dress the next morning and the client was happy with the results.
Mthembu also owns a ready-to-wear brand called Zalou.