I’ve been sewing like a woman possessed by the ghost of a sewing machine lately! My Granma gave me her overlocker, machine and sewing cabinet along with a bunch of fabric so I haven’t really come up for air in the last fortnight. My initial priority was to sew EVERY stretch fabric into booty shorts and leggings but I’ve discovered how ridiculously expensive stretch fabric is so that project has been shelved.
The dress pattern pieces laid out, showing the side panels that are slashed diagonally at the waist.
Lincraft had a 50% off fabric sale so I scraped together some money to buy black ponte (and then went back to get some purple!) and made this dress based on the Burda Style Fatina plus pattern. I’d already cut a pair of leggings that were too small and got turned into short shorts, a second pair of leggings that were a little better (ugh I need to perfect the leggings pattern!) so there wasn’t much fabric left to work with. I decided to alter the pattern and converted the bust darts to princess seams, thus leaving me with three front panels that were much easier to accommodate on the fabric I had available. I also dropped the shoulder length for a little self-sleeve. Thanks to my home ec sewing classes and the internet for helping me out with the pattern adaptation skills!
The dress on a hanger turned inside out to show the seams overlocked in grey thread. The skirt is a lot less a-line shaped than this!
An outfit photo of me (fat and white with white hair) wearing a black sheath style dress with a sheer animal print button up blouse underneath, black tights, Docs and a human tooth necklace.
Some of the seams pucker a bit, I’m yet to figure out the best way to sew using an overlocker, but considering many off the rack clothes often have worse construction I’ll deal with it just fine. (I know people who are super picky about puckering seams but I’ve got more pressing things to worry about in my life, such as hastily sewing new clothes before my old ones fall apart.)
The back of my dress.
Ineffectually modeling my fake human teeth necklace. (Made out of paper clay and the dental records of my foes.)
The teeth necklace laid on a table. I’m thinking of selling these?
Another front view, with hands on hips.
Instagram is my new convenient vehicle of choice for my day to day outfit photos, ever since life started going wonky and pulling out the big camera became too much of an effort. Also, these are some of the outfits I wear daily – nothing fancy – but I feel as if they still contribute to deathfatshion visibility and representation all the same.
But really, I started doing these Instaootds because of the full length mirror in my studio. I was going to remove the sliding mirrors to make way for a storage system but now my vanity has consumed me and I’m okay with it. Since I’m not posting here very often these days due to a pretty significant depression relapse and other events, I figured I’d cross platforms for those who don’t have Instagram.
An instagrammed mirror shot of my outfit, I wear a red maxi skirt with a paisley print, a black top with a green wrap cardigan over it.
I wear a black tee and black cardigan with a lime green apples and pears printed skirt. I carry a green bag full of parcels to post.
I’m wearing a purple print knee length dress with 3/4 sleeves, and black Docs.
My legs clad in pale mint stockings and my feet clad in Docs.
I wear a black tee with coral jeans/ leggings and a denim shirt. And Docs.
I wear my green scallop collar dress and Docs with a black tee and leggings underneath. Two images are mirrored in a ~creative~ way.
A pair of black ponte leggings just minutes after being completed by yours truly.
I wear a cream lacy dress with a pink cardigan, black leggings and Docs.
I wear a black slip, black tee, pink cardigan, turquoise leggings, navy socks and Docs. Also a teeth necklace I made.
You can follow me on Instagram if you wish! My username is, predictably, definatalie.
Don’t forget there are prints and necklaces and patches and fun things in stock on Fancy Lady Industries! They are waiting to make your life fancier!
On the weekend my family celebrated my youngest sister’s engagement and I ran up a dark grey velour skirt for the occasion. I was almost going to wear the floral dress I made a few weeks ago but I wasn’t feeling especially floral that weekend after spending some quality time suffering discontinuation syndrome after stopping Pristiq. I always wonder whether or not I should share mental health stuff on here, but I figure if I can help one person it’s worth it! (PS: Pristiq is a SHOCKER to quit, set aside a fortnight if you can and unplug yourself from reality.)
An outfit photo of me (fat, white, lady with light lilac hair) wearing a black blazer with a black sheer shirt, a grey velour skirt, black tights and black docs.
A photo of the back of me, sans blazer, my shirt has a white/ black sheer panel at the back.
A photo of me sans blazer holding my skirt out to the side so you can see how fancy and luxe it is.
Blazer: Target
Shirt: Domino Dollhouse
Skirt: Made by me
Leggings: We Love Colors
Docs: hand-me-across from Sonya <3
Brooch: Gift from Kathleen, wish I could remember the maker!
Deer antler necklace: That Vintage
A photo of me being cool and casual, wearing my green dress against the green fence.
A photo of my legs clad in black leggings and black Docs standing on our new grass.
This morning I had to hop to it when I realised I had an appointment in the city! So I pulled out my Kermit dress and now compulsory Docs. I haven’t worn another pair of shoes since Sonya so graciously gave them to me! I never thought, after all these years, that Docs would be wide enough for my feet but they are, so when I can save up some money I will definitely be investing in some 1914s.
A photo of me circa 1996 at 15, sitting on a bus with some friends trying to be really cool wearing cat eye sunglasses and listening to my Walkman. COOL.
Last week I wore my new (to me!) Docs with a black and white patterned dress and cardigan and put some Tommy Girl perfume on. It’s like I’m the teenager now that I wish I was in the 90s! If you weren’t a teenager in the 90s do not believe any of the cool young bloggers trying to sell you a 90s revival right now. The 90s was, by and large, pretty daggy. I am your elder. Trust me on this. At my very coolest I wore brown corduroy flares and little velour t-shirts but you don’t see anyone bringing back corduroy flares, do you? (Someone should, I am really into corduroy flares.)
An outfit photo of me standing in the backyard wearing a green dress with a patterned scalloped collar, a black top and leggings underneath with Docs.
OK back to my outfit.
Dress: Made by me
Black t-shirt: New Look
Black leggings: Asos Curve
Docs: From Sonya
And just because I like to embarrass myself to my very fullest potential… Here are some jumping photos. It doesn’t really work out when your ankle is still tender from being fractured!
Me, jumping for joy, with the giddiest and silliest facial expression.
Me, just after I came back to earth and nearly keeled over. Text overlaid: WHAT HAS GRAVITY DONE?
~~ YOU’RE WELCOME ~~
I was going to write a big post about my (and Nick and Miffy’s!) appearance last night on The Project but I have compiled a rushed recap instead because I had to get off the couch to do this and we are in a co-dependent relationship. First, here is the video for your viewing pleasure (if you are outside Australia it may not work but give it a go anyway.) I’m anticipating that this embed won’t work, so here’s a link to the video on the website.
We open with the classic fat zinger footage, headless fatties and motorised scooters. Fat people going about their days having their butts filmed without permission, drinking drinks and shopping for food like they aren’t essential requirements for living or anything.
Dr Cat Pause arrives and is cute! I want to be sure to stress that we need to step away from the good fatty/ bad fatty dichotomy. It’s not helpful. Also, some fat people are unhealthy (i.e. live with disability and disease) and it’s not for reasons you might automatically assume by looking at them. Some thin people are unhealthy (i.e. live with disability and disease) and you might dismiss that because their bodies are read as healthy. Quit the oversimplification of body size, health and disability, ok? It harms people.
Screencap of Nick and I sitting on our couch.
It’s not really called Fat Pride, or that’s not what Nick and I identify with. We say we are fat activists. There are zero things wrong with being proud of your body (at whatever size) but it’s hard for many fat people to find pride because of the burden of stigma, and “fat pride” doesn’t welcome those folks. We talk about stigma, frustration, ill treatment and at a very basic level, try to reach people with the message that fat people are humans and we have heads.
Nick and I arrive. We talk about stigma against fat people. Dr Sam Thomas arrives, talks about overstatement of risks of being fat.
Screencap of Anna Peeters, expert of not letting fatties into her club. Hand drawn text says “No fatties club soz”.
Anna Peeters arrives, we are worrying her with our fatness, she is part of a society for obesity. I wonder if any fat people are in that society? Probably not. Her testimony about health risks makes aforementioned fatties seem all footloose and fancy free, but fails to consider the non-fat related illnesses they have. Also it’s very nice they care so much about scaring fat people, I wonder if Stephen King advises them on their thriller skillz. Can we get a price check on who is funding the ANZOS please? Considering Peeters worked for C.O.R.E at Monash, who are funded in part by Allergan (A LAP BAND MANUFACTURER), I am highly dubious.
Screencap of me walking Miffy on a leash, the camera is at her height! Also hearts are everywhere.
Peeters redeems the case for fat stigma when she says it exists. Unfortunately most viewers probably didn’t believe us when we said that first. Thomas agrees, SOCIETY IS FIGHTING FAT PEOPLE. All we wanna do is have a groovy time and daydream about unicorns — WAIT THERE IS MIFFY. Nick and I demonstrate that we can walk.
Screencap of a close up on my hands typing. Hand drawn text says “bloggin bloggin bloggin”.
Screen cap of me concentrating really hard on sending out laser beams.
Happy music, focus on our blogging! Dramatic music change, I am concentrating very hard on doing up a jump ring on my fat necklace for the 100th time. Peeters bastardises the Sound of Music and stages an elaborate number called, “How do you solve a problem like fat people?”
Screen cap of Nick concentrating on making people fat with laser beams.
Screenshot of The Project panelists: Lehmo, Charlie, Kath and Waleed. A speech bubble says “We have opinions” and text saying NOT FAT with arrows points to each person.
We return to comments from non-fat panelists because they have feelings and opinions.
Charlie Pickering says we do judge people based on weight. Another thin person legitimising things fat people said first! I would give him a cookie but I ate them all.
Waleed Aly pulls out the concern troll card, which coincidentally wields an internet connection and a false sense of entitlement if you look closely. He thinks we are driven to being fat by stigma. Oh so it’s not like our bodies and personal health, environment, class, race, gender have anything do do with it. Thinking is hard for many non-fat people.
Kath Robinson admirably doesn’t even bother with concern – FAT PEOPLE ARE INTENTIONALLY BEING FAT AND STIGMATISING THEMSELVES. “These people could potentially be unhealthy and risk bad health problems!” Like suicide and death by neglectful health professionals or NOT seeking medical help because they know they’ll be treated awfully! At this stage I am laughing bitterly and bringing fat forehead to fat palm with rapid and great energy.
Lehmo, who only has one name because he is special and important, winds up for his big finish: “if you need a motorised cart to get around then you need to lose weight”. What ableist guff that doesn’t consider the intersection of fat & disability! (Not that I expected that degree of nuance on a light entertainment teev program.) Fat people on scooters don’t do it because they think it’s cool and hip and that people will say “SWEET RIDE YOU ARE COOL”. Fat people on scooters get abused because they are fat and SO RUDELY using mobility tools to move about their lives!
EVERYONE LAUGHS AT A FAT JOKE
THE END
A selection of four of my prints sitting on my shelf: Pastry Queen II, Babe on a bike, DGAF and Donut Baptism.
If you missed out on the pre-order, quit your fearing because I now have a selection of the most popular prints stocked on Fancy Lady Industries. Horah!
The Fat Cow print sits on my shelf with a few other prints,
A close up photo of Glutton.
My absolute favourite is Fat Cow, but the people’s choice seems to be between I get what I want and Pastry Queen II. Which one is your favourite?
Check out all the prints available over here in the print boutique!
(It sounds fancier if I call it a boutique, yeah?)
If you want to hear about new items, restocks and other Fancy Lady Industries news FIRST, then you simply must subscribe to my newsletter. Because it will make you special and put hairs on your chest.
Nine garments from the modcloth website: a white sheer long sleeved shirt with a small dark print; a navy peplum top with a deep mustard v feature; a pale pink short sleeved blouse with a peter pan collar; a simple sheer orange fish print top; a short sleeved sheer orange collared shirt; a yellow polka dot blouse with black peter pan collar; a navy dress with mustard and white collar feature and belt; a dark red dress with lattice yoke feature; a yellow dress with long pointed collar.
I’ve been altering the famous Colette Sorbetto top but then I ran out of sticky tape, which is basically a nightmare; so to scratch the sewing itch I’ve been browsing Modcloth for inspiration and venturing boldly into the land of billions of clothes that are Not For Me and that are all named so obnoxiously I gave up after three pages.
I do not have any qualms about making clothes inspired by retailers who do not deem to serve my body size. I know Modcloth have a plus size range but it is frankly pathetic and doesn’t have a very expansive (lol) size range anyway. So, whatever Modcloth, I’m going to be over here plotting the deathfattening of your garments.
A number of these I could theoretically make from existing patterns I have on hand, with a little altering. I’m thinking that the pale pink and yellow polka dot blouses could be made by bringing the Sorbetto neckline up (after I grade it up four sizes!) and popping on a collar and sleeves. The orange fish print top would be a snap to make, just double a square of fabric over, cut a neck hole and sew up the sides then bind all raw edges. The navy and dark red dresses I could possibly make from my altered McCall’s M6085, and what a handy pattern that has been!
I would love to get my hands on a decent shirt pattern that I don’t have to grade up, because I really want to make some cute sheer shirts. (I’m open to recs!) I’ve had my eye on this Butterick Connie Crawford pattern but I’m not fond of the shoulder darts.
This has been another sewing post!
A photo of me from the waist up in a sleeveless floral dress standing next to my pink camellia tree.
Yes! Another dress based on McCall’s M6085, using this amazing floral chiffon my Mum bought for me last year. I’d been holding on to it, too worried that I’d make something and completely mess it up, ruining the gorgeous fabric.
An outfit photo of me, fat and white skinned with short lilac hair, wearing my self made sleeveless floral dress. It has a sheer yoke but has a fully lined bodice and skirt. I’m pulling the skirt out to try and demonstrate the sheer, light fabric!
It’s such a light weight fabric, and terribly transparent, that I had to line it and fortunately I had some green fabric with a crushed effect perfect for lining from years and years ago and it matched the dress perfectly! Like I said the other day, it’s nice to line garments with secretly nice fabrics. I was torn on whether or not to dip the skirt lining down like the outer skirt but my decision was made for me when I discovered I didn’t have enough fabric!
All the skirt seams are finished with French seams because I didn’t want to take a chance on the fabric fraying, it was turning out to be one of the most beautiful dresses I’ve ever made!
Another outfit photo, less ballerina-like this time, with hands beside my hips.
The back of the dress features h-bar straps and the back skirt is dipped lower than the front and swishes around.
A photo of the front of the dress pulled out to each side.
The other variations of McCall’s M6085:
Gingham and mesh dress
Blue t-bar dress
My self made black and white gingham dress with a black mesh yoke.
I tend to go through intense sewing phases and then don’t touch my machine for months, and obviously this is one of those phases. I’ve been so desperate to give my altered McCall’s M6085 dress another go, I combed through my rather limited fabric stash and squeezed this dress out of what I had in this black and white gingham remnant I picked up years ago.
The inside of the dress, showing the reused black floral bodice lining.
I used fabric from a maxi dress I buggered up a few years ago; it was really upsetting at the time because it has this beautiful floral border print. Now I can keep bits of that print on the inside of my dress! Lining garments with secretly fun fabrics is quite a lovely thing.
Nick took this with most of my body out of frame but it shows the mesh yoke pretty well!
An outfit photo of me, fat and white skinned with short lilac hair, wearing a black and white gingham dress with a black cardigan, black tights and black and white creepers. I pose with hands on hips, looking downwards in front of my inherited pink camellia tree.
Me with some kind of scrunched up, childish brat face.
The back view of my dress sans cardigan, showing the H-bar straps.
Posing without the cardigan. I’m still not satisfied with the slightly puckering top of the bodice.
A collage of the black and white gingham and mesh with a sheer floral and green lining, with two drawings. The first dress is the one I just completed, the second is similar but with an asymmetrical hem.
And now to wear my new dress out to congratulate my sister on her recent engagement!
A selection of my art available as prints! Print-preorder and 10% off ends at midnight tonight, June 22. Use OUCH10 at checkout.
Just a reminder that your opportunity to get 10% off one of my prints (and other Fancy Lady Industries paraphernalia!) ends tonight at midnight (Australian time). There’s a super limited selection of original art pieces still left too.
Check out Fancy Lady Industries (or definatalie.bigcartel.com if the domain doesn’t work, which is an ongoing and infuriating issue!)
A product photo of a turquoise dress with a t-bar collar neckline.
I saw this dress on tumblr the other week and fell in love. I do this often, not just with dresses either. Shoes (I need some blue velvet sneakers ok), jewellery, rainbow coloured smoke… it’s just a daily source of unfulfilled desire basically. I figured I might be able to make this dress because when it’s broken down we’ve got a bodice, a gathered skirt with some straps and a t-bar collar. I’m pretty fortunate to like sewing, own a sewing machine, and to have some pretty basic pattern making/ alteration skills so I decided to give it a go.
A mosaic of eight images: the original dress with the basic pattern I used; a paper fitting of my altered pattern; the first t-bar neckline I drafted; hand stitching; me wearing the first fitting of my dress; me showing the back of the first version; drafting the back straps of the second version; the finished revised version.
When I want to do something I fully commit to it. I spent the weekend altering McCall’s pattern M6085 and sewing up a muslin out of some blue poly/ cotton. Upon my first fitting I was very happy to see that the dress would work out to be pretty close to the original, but I wanted to re-draft the bodice and straps. Upon surveying my fabric stash I realised I didn’t have any other fabric suitable for this dress (lots of patterns but this dress calls for a solid colour, in my mind) so I eked the re-drafted pieces out of the blue fabric, including recycling some fabric from the first bodice, and completed the dress by hand stitching the lining yesterday morning!
An outfit photo of me, fat and white skinned with short lilac hair and a pink flower crown, wearing the blue t-bar dress I made. I'm standing in our new yard!
The back of my dress, sort of, revealing a sort of H-style system of straps.
Sneaking up on a hanging pot of Nodding Violets in a very self-consciously theatrical way.
I couldn’t tell you how many hours I spent on this dress, perhaps approaching 20! The fabric cost around $12 but when I think of all the hours that went into the dress, it doesn’t seem so cheap after all. Infuriatingly, so many people tell me to just “sew it myself” when I get upset about the lack of plus size fashion options but even for me, someone with a sewing machine and the skills to do it, it’s hard and it takes a long time. If you don’t have the skills or the tools or the time, that leaves you with no other option but to buy what you can; and when you buy what you can, you end up with clothes that you might not even like, clothes that might not even fit you. So, sewing it yourself? Not a good enough answer.
I could nitpick about bits and pieces of this dress, the bodice pulls around my waist (yes, it’s that high) and the bust seams are still doing a weird shark fin, but you know what? I’m pretty proud of myself for taking inspiration from a dress that is most definitely not available for fat people and making it for myself. I would dearly love to be able to make cute dresses for other people too, but before then I need to work on my pattern drafting skills (I am firmly in the “wing it” school of drafting rather than the favoured “this shit is complex and mathematical” school).
Some of you might think it strange of me to leave this post on such a bummer note, but I’m just saying what needs to be said. Yes, I’m proud of being able to sew a dress myself, but I will not be that jerk who tells fat people this is the only solution!
Fashion
Art
Life
