Clothes for All Sizes

I am working on developing designs of clothes that are a little more versitile. As a short round woman I have a horrible time finding clothes that will fit my large chest and booty as well as my tiny waist. I have seen similar problems with tall thin girls with big busts and large girls with small busts. It seems to me clothes are being made for the "ideal" woman instead of real women. 

Here are some things I have been working on this week. As I replicate things that work well I will post some tutorials and patterns :) 

This is a large vest that i pinned to fit the model. It would fit comfortably on a large woman, or even a medium one if belted. 

I want to say I use the term woman lightly, simply because i made the items with women in mind. I would encourage any man or otherwise to wear whatever style appeals to the individual. 

This top has elastic that makes it fitting for sizes small to large. The bust only stretches out to a small to medium size. 

I love this piece. Made of four way stretch lycra and an adjustable strap, it can either be a skimpy dress for a small or short girl, or a sexy top for a large one :) 

This simple wrap dress is so pretty! With a large bust but narrow skirt. 

This was my first attempt at a large short peplum. This print is so bold it's just delicious! Its pinned back on the form. 

My absolute fave from this week. The second version of the wrap dress with room for a small to extra large woman with a small to medium bust. I would even say a large set of breasts could be displayed if you enjoy a bit of side cleavage :P

Check back for simple and versitile designs you can make to fit your unique body! 

Anti-Bullying Programs are Not Enough

I am one of the many concerned about the rise in school shootings and teen suicide, but I can't help feeling like the anti bullying tactics, while well meant, are not addressing the whole problem and thus making it worse.

      This is an entitled generation. I don't mean just kids or just teens or just young adults, this whole country is entitled as hell. We all want to blame someone else for our problems. When a teen commits suicide after being bullied the bully is blamed, the bully's parents, the victim's parents, maybe even the community or the crime rate or even drugs are to blame. It seems unrealistic and a very entitled point of view to say that anyone else is responsible for a teen taking their own life. 

       We are all free to have our own emotions and we are all free to make our own choices. I believe in consequences. We need to teach our peers and the children of our communities not just to be in control of their actions and not terrorize other people, but to be in control of their emotions and not allow others to dampen our spirits. If you are bullied at school there are teachers and other students to talk to about it. If you are bullied on facebook, stop logging in. If your choices bring you face to face with this person who taunts you then think of alternate routes. If the negativity is not avoidable then change the way you handle it. Someone only continues pestering because they get a reaction and they get away with it. Stop giving them the satisfaction of seeing you post about how bad your day was. Stop crying and getting mad because thats what they want. 

       I learned a wonderful tool in highschool. We are 70% water. I am a body of water, I choose to remain clear, letting clean water flow through me to wash away murk and fallen leaves. A rock thrown into a pool causes ripples that stretch thin and dissapear, they do not leave a mark. We have to learn not to accept negativity. It is your decision to be happy or sad, no one can decide for you. If i feel under stress simply imagine my body as a clear pool, allowing negativity to pass. 

       I am sad for the lives that are lost, and I agree we should do all we can to let people know their choices. We should do our best to treat eachother kindly and reach out to those who are not. If you take your own life it is no one's fault but your own and instead of punishing your enemy you are hurting everyone else. Killing yourself may be a month of fame but choosing to be a happy person can last a lifetime. 

       This is not my most positive post, but i believe in the simplicity of self governing. If i do not voice my opinion of the world I cannot expect it to change. People would like you to believe your voice or opinion only matters as a checkmark on a ballet but it is much more effective to talk to the people in your community about things you each feel are important, this is the self sufficent way of changing your environment. You can do better than voting, act on your beliefs. 

Gather Strength rather than Envy

One of my main struggles in life is envy. It falls in hand with my other struggles: worry, low self worth. I see people around me doing good. Mary Anne is joining rallies and photo-journaling the injustice towards the homeless in portland. My cousin is touring the mountains on her bike, making many friends and writing poetry. I long to seem as successful. I wonder what it is that they have that I just don't. I envy them, wishing i was in the spotlight of such wonderous adventure. The reality is that I am not them, and I should not hold myself to the standards expectations or even dreams of another person. No matter how much I idolize them. 

         Envy is natural, and naturaly it can be overcome. I choose now to take strength from these people who seem to glow with happiness and success. I will admire my cousin's verses and write things I know myself. We used to write together, and often I feel lost without her. Words linger at my tongue and pen, held back by the childish fear: no one will like it, no one will appreciate what my heart has to say. Except maybe one, such as me appreciating my cousin's work, she has no book no fame, only a dazzled few and herself to drink in the pages and sigh with artistic relief. 

       I have been to rallies and protests and i have waved a banner and I have stepped down. Seeing people do good does not mean you must follow them to gain their strength. Simply do. They are doing what they are passionate about. My envy stems from my lack of self worth, telling myself my efforts are useless, I do not start for fear of never finishing. Simply do whatever your heart desires and you will suddenly burn with the flame that draws you to those people. It becomes clear I do not envy their occupations but their willingness and drive to do what pleases them. 

        Gain strength from those you see with bright faces and futures. See them gleam with the success of having taken part in their dreams, and take part in your own. 

Life isn't what I expected

I always dreamed of something different than what i was surrounded by. I felt there had to be more to life than money and work and politics. I am not programed to be happy in the same way that other people are. I would rather be naked in the woods than... anything really. I dream of my warm skin touching silken petals and rough branches and cool wet streams. What do other people dream about I often wonder... I have learned that many people don't dream. They keep their eyes open and accept what is in front of them. I could never have imagined my dreams would lead me to where I am now. I live with my fiance, two room mates, my two dogs, one cat, and five chickens. We grow medical marijuana and blow glass. This seems normal to me now, i know there are a lot of people doing the same things for many similar and different reasons. I feel So Much guilt for being happy, for not checking in from 9 to 5 at some company, for sleeping with this man im not yet married to. I am guilty for the beautiful dresses. I feel guilty for not curling my hair, not wearing makeup, and frankly i havent been wearing a bra or panties much either. But none of those things matter. If i leave this earth tonight, is that what people will remember? My guilt? I dont think so... I think they will remember my cooking, my loud laughing, maybe even my gross jokes. How did i get to this point? Should i be ashamed of my joint rolling skills? I should be thinner... Smarter... Richer.... I feel ashamed that i am comfortable being poor, ashamed that i would rather curl up with my puppy and read a book than go out on the town in hot shoes and drink expensive drinks in small shining glasses. But shouldnt we all be different? If we were all the same we couldnt fit together... Why do i feel so guilty for being different? For surviving comfortably following my own ideals... I feel like my partner can't possibly love me, i am everything they taught us not to be in school. I dont care about modesty, or sensorship. I don't believe in following the government based on laws i didn't help write and dont believe in. I don't believe in caging criminals. I dont believe in paying taxes that will buy the sheriff a new hummer and pave another road where a field used to be. I don't beleive in raising minimum wage, i think everyone, including children, should be able to work for whatever they think their time is worth. I am exactly what they told us in school not to be, i was the kid parents warned their children about. And I survive. I have everything i could want as far as possesions, i have a man who lives to see me smile, i have obedient and happy animals living with me, and a family that continues to lend me their support. So why am i so filled with shame and guilt? And what is so different from me and those against me, do we not all dream of happiness? Am i the only one dreaming anymore?

Natural Deodorant from Scratch

Yesterday I realized I had left my only stick of deoderant in my gym locker. A dire situation for you see.... Ssshhh.... lean in  a little closer.... I sweat a lot. I carry extra tank tops in my summer purses because  I know I will need a new one half way through the afternoon. Secret's out. Though yesterday did not end in a stinky soppy mess of a T-shirt... It ended triumphantly. I made my own deoderant. 

I did a scan of the interwebs to discover how other hippys make pit cream and discovered it was very simple and easy to adjust to individuals. There are many different ingredients used and you probably have a good combination of them right in your house. 

I liked a combination of equal parts powder and liquid by volume. This resulted in a thick cream that left behind slight granule traces that I will discuss later. 

INGREDIENTS that I suggest: create your own combination of oils and powders. Add more oil to make it creamier and add more powder to make it drier. If you keep adding powder and packing it together you will form a bar like most deoderant sticks. You can then pack this into a used dispenser. Creams should be kept in a sealed jar.

Essential oils 

Coconut oil

Baby oil

Almond oil

Cocoa butter

Jojoba oil

Arrowroot powder

Baking soda

My combination was cocoa butter, baby oil, tea tree oil, citrus oil. Tea tree oil and baking soda fight bacteria that cause odor. The essential oils can also just be used to scent the cream such as my citrus oil. Warm up the oils a little bit just until they are melted and then add the powders and cream together for about five minutes. When rubbed in I did notice my half-oil-half-powder mixture left tiny granules on my skin. I was worried these would come off more on my t shirt but at the end of the day I noticed nothing left behind. 

I did chores all day yesterday and I noticed my deoderant kept me mostly dry and smelling sweet. 

Let me know if you make something and how it turns out :)

Indoor Herb Garden: Tutorial

My partner and I are indoor farmers more so than outdoor. We rent one side of a very pleasant duplex that gets almost zero light in the yard because of the massive trees in our neighborhood. This is added to the difficulties of simply living in Eugene Oregon where the sun is a coy mistress to the ever-bearing clouds and moisture. I am studying Culinary and my love of food and plants comes together in my next project of my own indoor herb garden. I am going to document my garden so that you too can follow along and reap the benefits...and maybe learn something about sustainable self sufficient living (I am also sending a kit to my family in Idaho in hopes that they follow along as well)

I did not want to go buy tiny plastic germination cups or whatever. I have had them before and they have promptly broken and ended up thrown away and are now filling space in a landfill somewhere. I used newspaper that had been sitting around for a few months waiting to be folded into one of my projects or to become worm food. I see two benefits to making cups from newspaper. It's a material I am reusing, and it is quick to biodegrade. I am going to use the short lifetime of newspaper to my advantage later on when I transplant. But for now it will serve as perfect dirt holders.

I folded a piece of newspaper in half and rolled it around a can of soup and folded over two inches of one end, creating a little round newspaper cup. This is not the most supportive a structure until it has dirt in it. Make your paper cup, fill it with dirt and set it in a tray to keep your cups in. A tray serves as a way to carry all your cups and to catch water that escapes from the bottom. Our homemade cups have a natural opening in the bottom but if you are using plastic or any other material make sure your cup has drain holes in the bottom.

There are a million types of dirt you can use. We use foxfarms potting soil. And we reuse it each season by collecting the already used dirt into a kiddy pool and amending it with different fertilizers. We use a lot of compost, worm casting, and bat guano. This process is why we started our worm box to cut out some of the products we buy and can be making ourselves. We have a friend who owns caves with bats in them and we get the guano for next to nothing. We buy new soil rarely and usually only when all the soil we have is in use. We retire the soil at the end of fall. We mix the old soil and fallen leaves together and spread it into the outside flower beds.

You may choose to germinate your seeds individually. I am beginning a kit of twelve culinary herbs and they each come with specific instructions. I find these are much more important when planting outside and not so much in the controlled environment of the house. I planted several seeds in a finger sized hole. A different cup for each herb. If you label the newspaper with a pencil the letters won't run or disappear but they will fade a bit eventually. Place your cups in a tray to collect runoff and place them in a sunny area like a window ledge or a table near a window. We have a bay window I turned into a garden area because it's on the sunniest side of the house. 

Once you have planted your seeds and buried them, water them so that the pots are very damp and a little water runs out the bottom. Now comes the most important part. Do not water them again until you not only see sprouts but the dirt is Entirely dry. The seeds need to open up to that moisture and then reach out for it as it dries away. This struggle is important in indoor growing. Controlled struggles encourage your plants to flourish just as exercise makes us stronger. 

A Dress For Only Me: DIY Infinity Dress

One of my many hobbies is sewing. I learned to sew from my mother who let me borrow her sewing machine on countless occasions. We made our Halloween costumes at home at least half the time growing up and this enabled me with the skill to envision my own outfits and characters. Through high school I struggled with my weight and this encouraged me to learn to alter clothes. When I left high school and moved to Oregon I began a lifestyle that helped me lose a lot of that extra weight and what I was left with were a lot of overly large clothes. Which any seamstress will tell you is a hell of a lot better than clothes that are too small. My fiancé bought me a very nice sewing machine just over  a year ago and I have been pumpin out my own creations as well as fixing our store bought clothes ever since.
     One of the intentions of this blog is to teach people how to depend on themselves for the things that they want. I wanted a dress that fits me. Most women in America know that popular style is not meant for the average lady. I put so much effort into finding a dress that compliments my bottom, squeezes my middle and holds in everything up top. And then my monthly bloat-a-thon comes and nothing fits anymore. I have been trying to research clothes meant to fit more comfortably, as well as designs that are more practical and versatile. At a friend's wedding all the bridesmaids were wearing infinity dresses and they had each tied them up as individual dresses. I loved the idea and had been shopping for fabric since then.
    An infinity dress is a skirt with two very long thin rectangles attached that you can learn to tie around your body in countless ways. The amazing thing about these dresses is that they compliment any shape because each time you wear it you decide how tight it is in which areas and so on. Making it yourself can ensure that it fits, with a little practice. Making it yourself also means you can be picky as all hell about what fabric you use or you can scrounge up something you have left over from another project.

TUTORIAL: I will use as much detail as I can imagine, that way any beginner should have an easy time following.

You Will Need

sewing machine
scissors
complimentary colored thread
a jersey knit machine needle
3-5 yards of stretchy material
measuring tape

1> The first step to any project is to gather your materials and set up your working space. You want to use a stretch needle on your sewing machine. They are commonly labeled jersey knit needles or stretch needles and they cost about 4$US for a pack of them. The thinner your fabric the smaller the needle you need. Stretch fabrics can be difficult to sew because they move around and their elasticity makes it easy to be shoved into the machine rather than being sewn through. Stretch needles are designed to push around the fibers rather than through them. You want to fill your bobbin and thread your machine before you even touch your fabric.

2> You will need to make a few measurements.
     A: You need to measure around the part of your waist you want the skirt to fit. Infinity dresses are generally empire waists and hug the smallest part of your waist.
    B: Measure from the middle of your arm pit to the center of your chest around the largest part of your bust. 
    C: Measure from your waist to the length you want your skirt.
    D: Next find the radius of your waist by dividing your waist measurement by 6.8. This should be easy rounded math because your fabric is stretchy and there are some seam allowances. So I got 4.7inches and rounded to 5.

Before measuring cutting or sewing consider the elasticity of your fabric. Does it stretch four ways? two ways? If it stretches all over this will not be as important but if you have one way stretch fabric you need to make sure you are measuring it out so that it's stretching goes the right way. You want your fabric to stretch around your waist rather than up and down which can cause a stretched out skirt bottom and no squeeze room in the waist. For the rectangles you want the stretch across your bust measurement rather than the length, that way you have more support holding you up and stretch to cover any side boob. This may not make sense to you yet. I always suggest reading the entire recipe/tutorial before even beginning.

3>Fold your fabric in half twice so that there are four layers together. Each folded side should be at least as long as your skirt length. (I used just over a yard of fabric for this section you may need more if your skirt is longer than mine.)

 

Add your skirt length measurement to your waist radius. (mine was 25inch + 5inch)
Pin your measuring tape to the corner.
You are going to pin the edges of your skirt at this new length. I measured 30 inch from the folded corner and put pins 2-3 inches apart to create the arc of my skirt.

Make another smaller arc at your waist radius from the folded corner.

 

 

 Cut out your skirt. When unfolded once you should end up with a big full skirt with just enough room for your waist inside. ( I used a rotary cutter and a self healing board. Stretch fabrics are tricky to cut but can be managed with regular scissors if you practice patience.)

 

Don't beat your self up over an imperfect bottom edge. Mine certainly wasn't the best, but for a first try it was awesome. As long as its not a drastic imperfection it wont show because the skirt is so full and flowy. You have the option here of adding a bottom hem. I chose not to do this because I absolutely hate hemming circles. If you want to hem the bottom I suggest reading the manual to your specific machine to decide on what stitch to use. Search for some hemming tutorials and practice on smaller scrap circles.

4> Next make your waist band. This needs to be a small rectangle with your waist measurement as its length and a width of 4-6 inches. This provides support for your skirt and can act as an elastic channel should you chose to add some. (Mine was 32 inch length and 5inch width)

5> Next create your very long rectangles. It is up to your cutting abilities, cutting space available, and fabric length to decide on how to cut them but I greatly encourage you to pin every inch or two along your measurements before cutting. It's the most time consuming part of the whole project but for such an easy dress it is worth it to get it right. I did not add any seam allowances to my rectangles because I don't want a seam. Most jersey knits do not fray. A seam may be more professional but I find the smooth edges more comfortable. Measure the length your height + 1/2. (I am short so this came to 5ft+2.5 feet) Measure the width as your bust measurement we made earlier.

6> Next comes the fun part of getting all these pieces put together. First experiment with some scraps of your fabric so you can ensure you are using the correct needle and stitch. I used the industrial double stitch for stretch fabrics. I used the same stich through the entire project. If you do any hemming you will probably want an edge stitch. 

 

First attach your rectangles together at one edge, overlapping about 4-6 inches. This distance will have an effect on how much cleavage slips out so if you have a bigger chest you may want to go to 6 inches.

 

 

 

Next connect all your layers. Go Slowly. Start from the center of your chest. Pin the center of the rectangles to your skirt. Keep in mind if you have a right and wrong side of your fabric you want to press the right sides together so your seam is on the inside of the dress. Next fold your waist band once into a long tube with the right fabric out and pin the edges along with the edges of your skirt and rectangles. Pin all the way around the skirt keeping the waist band pinned all the way around. Your rectangles will only be sandwiched in there part of the way. I recommend pinning the front of the dress then the very back of the dress with the direct other side of the skirt with the edges of the waist band overlapped to be seamed together later on. The stretch in your skirt will mess up how it aligns if you don't start with the back and front pined first. I also pin the opposite sides together before filling in the spaces to make sure any stretch length from my waist is evenly distributed. When it is well pinned together it is easy to sew all the layers at once. If you have a difficult machine or really thick fabric you may want to sew the rectangles on first and then the waist band. After you have sewn around the waist sew the last edges of the waist band together.

 

 

7> Now comes the rejoicing because it's done! Look on youtube for some tying tutorials. Or just experiment with the straps yourself.

Front A

Back A

Front B

Back B

 

I hope you enjoyed by tutorial and that it was not too difficult to follow. I encourage you to play with different lengths and fabrics and make yourself a couple of these because they are super comfortable and multi purpose. You can style them casually or make a silky cocktail dress even. If you ended up with too big of a waist or you need it to be tighter later on, use that waist band as an elastic channel and thread a piece of elastic in there. This is also a good idea if you have used heavy fabric for a long skirt. I am super happy with my dress. I like to wear it braless around the house, if you tie it tight enough and just right you don't need one but i'm not so confident to have my nipples poking out in public. Enjoy your hand made creation and  revel in the fact no one else has this dress that you just made. It is just as unique as you are.

 

Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for future posts.