dressing for one's shape, how people formulize that, and how unhelpful that is, etc

Wondering how long it takes to learn to do the tailoring oneself. Just getting into using a sewing machine & wanting to go in that direction.
Of course not everybody has the time or inclination to do that. &it is going to take an unspecified length of time and patience to reach that skill level.
Just thinking ideally it would be a skill everybody were taught since we're not a species of clones so shapes vary wildly.

I am by no means a seamstress nor do I even do the basics of sewing, but my mom is quite skilled. Her advice is that it is often more straightforward and satisfying to make up a basic pattern from scratch that fits you well from the get go (because of how you took the measurements, cut the pattern, tried on and pinned during the construction process, etc.) than to try to reverse-engineer something store-bought. That kind of tailoring is a specialty unto itself, and one she avoids (but will whip me up something with darts and pleats and linings and complicated patterns with no problem).

IIRC in orbit can weigh in on this sewing stuff.

She and I can both vouch for the "Very Easy Very Vogue" (Vogue) patterns for pretty simple sewing (her) that looks good made up (me).