Yep. Clothes and items should be a little simpler than people, actually, if you're talking about icons like I think you are. Spriting people takes frame-by-frame animation, so everything has to make sense and run smoothly; spriting an icon is like drawing a picture by sticking squares together.
I'd start small, just to get a feel for how things should look. Poses, shading, the way the face is set up, pallettes, etc. It might sound complicated, but you'll instinctively know when something doesn't look right; for instance, if a color seems garish and out of place, it probably doesn't fit with the rest of the sprite.
But yeah, good luck! It's always nice to see someone focusing on creating resources rather than just asking for them.
Of course, I'm very very guilty of the latter anyway.
