The idea of making your own clothing can be pretty intimidating. Most of us aren’t familiar with sewing machines or even how to keep a straight hemline. The good news is, if you want to make Gothic clothing, you don’t necessarily have to worry about any of that. Here we will explain how to make regular clothing into Gothic clothing for a relatively low price!

Find black clothes. This is the most important part of a Gothic ensemble. Any black clothes will do--T-shirts are great, fishnet anything, and extremely baggy or tighter black pants will work great. You can use clothing you already have, or go to a second-hand store to get them. In fact, the worn look of the used clothing will give you a great Goth look!

Get a fishnet shirt or stockings. Take the shirt and using a pair of scissors cut small diagonal and straight slits all over it. Be sure to leave the arms alone--you’ll come back to them. After you’ve made all of the cuts, take the safety pins and “close” the hole with 3 or 4 pins. Now take the arm and cut the sleeve off just above or below your elbow. Attach the sleeve back to the shirt using the safety pins. If you have fishnet stockings, you can do similar things with them.

Add chains to pants. Wallet chains and sometimes a really cool necklace can work for this. This is great if you have baggy black jeans. Take the chains and attach them around the hips, knees or even ankles. You can attach them by clips or even safety pins. This won’t be permanent, which means you can move them around on the pants. Studs and spikes are a must have for anyone making their own Gothic clothing. You can purchase a pack of them at a craft store. Add them to a collared shirt, jeans or even a dark trench coat. Pierce a hole in the fabric and insert a stud.

Go to your local music store or look online for patches. Iron or sew them onto shirts, jeans and jackets. If you want to sew them but don’t think you can handle it, take them to a seamstress. You can also add color with fishnet shirts or stockings. Fishnet comes in all colors, and a red fishnet shirt with lots of safety pins will look just as Gothic as the black one!

Making clothes completely from scratch is not an easy task, but if you are determined to do so, you will need a sewing machine, patterns to follow and a lot of patience. There are places online where you can get patterns for Gothic style shirts and pants. Everything mentioned above can also be incorporated into your homemade clothing to give it that extra edge that it needs to be Gothic. You can finish off your look with a little black hair dye; nail polish, dark eye make up and some spiked or studded jewelry (see Resources below).