While things like Mulan’s bridal clothes were purchased from merchants in town, the three Hua women make the family’s everyday clothes themselves, weaving the cloth and then cutting and sewing.  Mulan prefers using the loom, or the ease of mending clothes that have been torn, to making the garments themselves.  She is tolerable at making clothes but sewing can be a somewhat mindless task and she has been known to, for example, sew a sleeve in upside-down when her attention wanders.  Similarly, Mulan actually enjoys embroidery, but she doesn’t have the imagination to come up with really ornate or original designs, and anyway she can’t embroider for too long without losing interest.