Jessica Fenlon is 6'2" and skinny, with tattoos on both arms and a cigarette in one hand. She flicks her smoke deftly with a finger — these are the swift hands of a knitter.

Fenlon is a self-described "tall petite," and for someone with her figure, off-the-rack clothes never seem to fit just right. Out of frustration with her options, and out of her inherently creative nature, Fenlon took up a needle and thread, hook and yarn, and started to make her own clothes. She is just one of many Gen-X girls who has redefined domesticity and joined the "Do it Yourself" — "DIY" — fashion movement.

For the past few years, a clothes-making craze has taken hold of the university crowd in a big way, and an entire community has sprung up around the homespun hobby. The Eye art gallery in downtown Pittsburgh hosts periodical "hipster flea markets," at which DIY craftsters can sell their wares. And around the nation, groups of young women are meeting up at coffee houses like Squirrel Hill's 61C Cafι for communal knitting and conversation, events they informally refer to as "Stitch 'n' Bitch."

There are numerous books and periodicals devoted to DIY fashion — one of the better known is the design award-winning Readymade magazine, which offers instructions for projects like a skirt made from an old pillowcase — and entire Internet web rings are centered on amateurs' adventures in sewing. Fenlon, who is the day manager at the Pittsburgh Knit and Bead in Squirrel Hill, is a contributor to Knitty, one such online crafting Mecca, and maintains her own DIY web log. There, in addition to posting her favorite knitting tips and tricks, she shares her self-designed fabric patterns. 

Fenlon attributes the DIY movement in large part to the sense of community offered by forums like these, and says that they offer much more than just directions for making cool clothes. They also let crafters discuss the reasons for their creation.

Sarah Smith, a HSS senior at Carnegie Mellon, has many motives behind her DIY fascination. Smith has been piecing together her own clothes since her early high school days. By making skirts, scarves, and t-shirts for herself, Smith says she not only saves money, but also saves herself from the pre-fabricated, unoriginal look of mass-produced, mall-purchased attire.

"One of the reasons I make things in the first place is that I can't afford certain clothes that I like conceptually," Smith says. "I'm from a rural area — the nearest mall's an hour away — and the only clothing options were thrift stores or the Gap….  I suppose it came from necessity at first, but I really like being able to see ideas through to their fruition….  It's very liberating not to feel the pressure to have all the clothes in the Gap."

Smith and Fenlon agree that thrift stores are the best place to stock up on supplies, because so many DIY garments can be made by "repurposing" other clothes. Fenlon, for instance, adds her own touch to Goodwill t-shirts and men's dress shirts: she cuts the collars off and cinches the waistlines, giving her a better, more feminine fit.

Smith works in much the same way.

"Most of what I do is fairly simple sewing and alterations — to make things fit better, to mend them, or to iron fuzzy letters on them," she says.

 Though Fenlon herself is a painter — whose work has appeared at the Three Rivers Art festival — she believes that projects like these are so appealing because they can be so small-scale, and therefore so approachable. She says the DIY trend makes artists out of people who have no other creative outlet, or who don't otherwise consider themselves talented.

"It's a very accessible creative process," Fenlon says. "And it doesn't have that loaded meaning of 'real' art."

In addition to being unfussy and unpretentious, DIY fashionistas like Smith and Fenlon are also notably resourceful. A fundamental trait that sets them apart from conventional seamstresses is their drive to experiment with nontraditional materials; instead of silk, dye, and thread, the do-it-yourselfer might make a dress from pillowcases, spray paint, and safety pins. But perhaps the most hallowed, versatile, and cultishly cool of all DIY "fabrics" is an old toolbox staple — duct tape.

Since the 1980s, kids in alternative circles have been using the sticky silver strips to make wallets and other small accessories, but as the popularity of the material grew, so did its applications. Duct tape vests, skirts, and other large-scale garments are increasingly common and chic: a recent episode of the MTV series Made featured a homecoming queen who made both the bodice of her gown and her date's corsage completely out of red and black duct tape. The product is now available in over 18 colors, including "island lime" green, "funky flamingo" pink, and army-issue camouflage, and Henkel Adhesives, the nation's leading duct tape manufacturer, sponsors an annual "Stuck at Prom" contest in which high school kids can win cash for creating the most inventive duct tape formal wear.

Fenlon says the DIY crafter is drawn to unusual materials because you just can't walk into an Old Navy to find duct tape attire. If you want it, you have to make it yourself — and if you make it yourself, you'll be more proud of it and more pleased with it.

"There's something very satisfying about making an object and using it," Fenlon says. "It's yours alone, exactly how you want it. You never have to settle for second best."

Smith agrees, and cites a denim patchwork skirt — "It's crazy. It's sewn so the seams are on the outside" — as her favorite homemade piece.

"I find it really great to be able to make things that fit me exactly the way I want [them] to," Smith says.

And just as the do-it-yourselfer never has to settle for store-bought clothes, neither does she have to settle for the traditional image of domesticity. The DIY fashion trend is overwhelmingly female, but these girls are neither returning to the housewife imagery of the 1950s, nor departing from it completely. Smith calls the phenomenon "a complicated series of representations:"

"The idea of women as inherently nurturing is essentialist and therefore of no use to me. At the same time, I enjoy being able to do things myself, and I enjoy being able to do something kind  — like bake cookies for stressed-out friends during finals — even if that complies with certain elements of the stereotypical domestic role."

Fenlon doesn't consider the trend's gender issues so heavily, but gives much credit to Smith's theory that the movement is rooted in compassion. And more important than anything else, she explains, is the feeling of completion that DIY projects offer.

"Most Americans are working in jobs that are not concrete," she says. "It seems like an endless process. So there's something very satisfying about making and object and actually getting to use it."