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Senior Angela Felion's bedroom looks as if a high-fashion magazine threw up all over.
Skirts are piled knee-high on the floor, and dresses hang from every windowsill like lace and sequined curtains.
Felion's room is full of clothes because she makes 25 percent of her outfits and has done so since high school, she said.
Felion is part of a new generation that has taken do-it-yourself to a new level.
There are many reasons students choose to make things themselves, but the biggest reason for Felion is money.
She makes her own clothes because it's cheaper than buying them.
The downside is that she has to do the labor herself, but in the end, she is rewarded with something completely different than what's in stores, Felion said.
And it's more rewarding when people compliment something made by hand, she said.
Hearing someone say, "Hey, that's a nice shirt you found at a store" doesn't muster the same pride as "Wow, you made that? What a cool skirt," Felion said.
Felion thinks the clothes in stores are limiting, and people would be happier if they wore what they wanted, not what's in fashion, she said.
"Like this frumpy style that's so popular right now - I don't even know what that's about," Felion said.
Fashion is a form of creativity for her.
Felion noticed that once her creativity was tapped in one area, it was easier to be creative in many other areas, she said.
When people try to do things themselves, learning the first skill is the hardest step. Then they follow a series of smaller steps to build a craft, said Carole Witt, owner of String Bead, a bead store that teaches jewelry classes and sells jewelry-making supplies.
People who think they aren't creative often come into the store. Once they learn to use the tools, they start trying all sorts of inventive things, she said.
That has been senior Rina Akashi's experience.
Akashi started making items as a child when her mother taught her to sew, she said. Later she picked up other skills such as knitting, crocheting and jewelry making.
Akashi plans to make a career out of her creativity, she said. She is studying to become a costume designer and has already designed for two Chico State theater productions: "Anton in Show Business" and "Enter the Guardsman."
Working in the costume shop, Akashi has learned skills such as hat and pattern making, she said. Her mind is always churning out designs that she doodles in the margins of her notebooks.
Akashi even makes a new pair of earrings in the morning if she can't find a pair to match her outfit, she said.
Working on these self-made objects is addictive, said freshman Michael Ravizza.
"Once you start messing around with one thing, you've got to keep messing," he said.
His first do-it-yourself project came from helping his father build houses.
Over the years, Ravizza has learned how to do a lot from building houses from scratch to customizing his BMX and slalom bicycles, he said.
Sometimes the physical work is more satisfying than intellectual work because at the end he has something tangible, he said.
"It's rewarding to see a house come into completion, to see a barren lot turn into a place where someone is going to live," Ravizza said.
That kind of satisfaction can't be felt from having someone else make it, he said.
Emanuella Orr can be reached at eorr@theorion.com
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