Handmade - good or bad?

Okay, so I'm not actually asking if handmade is good or bad, but what I am asking is whether we should be using 'handmade' to describe ourselves as independent clothes makers.

It might seem like an obvious YES, but the issue is that all clothes are handmade, even those mass-produced in factories. There are no machines that make clothes*

*this is probably a good place for a side note to say that when I use the term 'handmade' I don't mean hand-sewn. We're talking about made by hand, using a sewing machine. And, when I say there are no machines that make clothes, I mean automated machines making clothes without the input of a human.

As a small business, trying to stand out from the crowd and wanting to show that it's just me doing everything, I've fallen into the trap of describing Lizziebug as 'handmade gender-free children's clothes'. Now you might say there's nothing wrong with that, it says exactly what I do and is a snappy way to let people know what Lizziebug is about. But the problem is that it's helping to perpetuate the idea that mass-produced fast fashion is made by machine. When it's not. There's a human being involved in every process, and they're usually highly-skilled makers. And the problem with thinking that fast fashion is machine-made, is that we devalue the work that's gone into it, and ignore the fact that the makers have likely been exploited, because no one's getting paid a living wage if a t-shirt is being sold for £3.99. And to sell a t-shirt that cheaply, as well as under-paying the makers, corners are also cut and the finished product is likely to wear out / break far quicker.

So I guess what we're trying to distinguish between is made on a small scale vs mass-produced. There's an option to say 'homemade' but that gives off a slightly hokey vibe reminiscent of village cake stalls (not that there's anything wrong with that, we all love cake!).

I want people to know that when they support Lizziebug, they're supporting a one-woman business; that everything is made in my studio, by me. I don't have a team helping to make the clothes, and I don't get anything produced in factories. I've sat behind my stall at markets and had people come up and ask if I made everything, and then seem shocked when I say yes.

There's a huge problem with fast fashion - I could write a lot on the subject - and a small part of that problem is the perception of clothing being made by machines. We're so used to automation in other areas of production, so it makes sense that people make this assumption.

I'm not sure I know the answer, or a better way to describe by business in a succinct way, and I welcome all comments on the matter!