I made one last week and it was surprisingly easy after I found all the materials but beware, unless you have foam on [...]]]> I’ve been collecting a few rad tutorials and how-tos lately and I thought I’d post about them because you might want to do them too!

A photo of a black and white patterned padded headboard against a dark grey wall behind a bed with white bed linen.

Make a padded headboard.

I made one last week and it was surprisingly easy after I found all the materials but beware, unless you have foam on hand it can be expensive and I couldn’t find flush mounts anywhere! The bedhead pictured is by aimlesslyhome.

Two photos of someone wearing a white singlet dress with white lace trim down the front and sherbert orange yarn fringe.

Make a Leyendecker-inspired dress.

I don’t like the sherbert orange fringe (even though it’s a cool colour!) but I love the ideas in this. You could revamp t-shirts in lots of different ways with these ideas.

A photo of a hand with rainbow stripes and stars on each nail and a unicorn painted on the thumb.

Paint a unicorn on your thumb.

I don’t know if my nails are long enough for this but maybe I could paint a tiny unicorn? Watch the video to see what kinds of tools are used (a skewer!) for your future nail art experiments.

A photo of a small black and silver dog wearing a blue patterned harness.

Make a small dog harness.

We bought Miffy a harness but it keeps coming loose and it isn’t very awesome looking. I’m going to make her all kinds of cute harnesses now!

A photo of a necklace made of box braided tan leather with washers braided into half of it.

Braid a necklace.

This is a nice project for gifts or for doing on a lovely crafternoon with your friends. Honestly WTF also has tutorials for a wrap bracelet and braided hex nut bracelet. Make a bunch and mix them together on your wrist, it looks great.

Image - a pale green frame with a tiny vertical garden of succulents planted inside it.

Make a framed garden.

I’ve loved vertical gardens for so long, and this project is an awesome small scale idea that you can hang on a wall. I want to scour op shops for frames of all sizes so I can make lots of framed gardens to hang on the fence in the backyard.

I bought some black mesh on ebay a few months ago with the intention of making it into all kinds of lovely sheer things. On the weekend I finally got around to making up a long skirt! I’d aimed for [...]]]>

A photo of my legs and feet shod in my new red suede shoes. I’m wearing a black mesh maxi skirt, it veils my legs and part of the shoes.

* Not that you have to circumvent that ridiculous “rule” if you don’t care to!

I bought some black mesh on ebay a few months ago with the intention of making it into all kinds of lovely sheer things. On the weekend I finally got around to making up a long skirt! I’d aimed for a maxi, ended up with an ultra maxi and then proceeded to chop off a little too much… so I’ve now got a longer-than-midi, shorter-than-maxi sheer skirt with tonnes of frou frou.

I’m wearing the skirt above with some new red suede shoes. I love them but they were probably a poor buy driven by my lust for red suede wedges, even if they were on sale. The brand is Boston Babes, and they’re very narrow. I’ve tried stretching the width with ziploc bags of water in the freezer, but it led to heartache because one bag leaked and filled the toe box up with ice! I stuffed it with paper and left it to dry and you can hardly see the water stain now. Alas though, the shoes are still painfully narrow. I’ll try stuffing them with damp paper next but until they are more comfortable they’re a decorative accessory only! Evans, New Look et al. can you make some suede wedges available to those with wider feet? Please and thank you!

An outfit photo of Natalie, fat and pale skinned, standing on a footpath of a city street. I'm wearing a black corduroy blazer over an animal print dip hem dress, over my sheer black skirt, which is over a pair of black mesh cut out leggings.

A photo of the lower half of my outfit, showing the animal print dip hem dress cascading over the sheer skirt. The mesh cut out leggings permit a salacious peek at my thighs.

A photo of me, off centre, in front of a big tree on the side of a street. I'm looking down and smiling a bit.

A full length photo of me standing in a carpark next to a piller with an emphatic "no parking" sign.

I was actually in the city to see my new psychiatrist, and had to broach the topic of what I “do”. It’s strange telling people you draw and blog, it’s not really considered a proper job by many. I hope maybe Dr Psychiatrist can help me with not feeling so awkward and shameful about that, because I really like drawing and blogging.

Jacket: Target
Dress: Yours Clothing
Skirt: Made by me
Leggings: Asos Curve
Shoes: Evans

I love paper and I’m always trying to find new ways to use offcuts and [...]]]>

A photo of Mia Amber Davis wearing seven Monif C dresses in various colours and posed in different, amazing ways.

A photo of a paper strip light fitting in front of a blackboard with chalk writing all over it.

The poster for Finders Keepers Brisbane Winter/ Autumn 2011, illustrated by Mel Stringer. It has a girl and a deer on a yellow background with leaves bordering the poster.

A full length photo of a brown skinned fat woman standing on rocks at the beach wearing a black top with one long sleeve under a sheer fuchsia sack dress with black boots.

A gold and black lace looking stainless steel collar on black ribbon.

For a long [...]]]> Black rules my wardrobe. I’ve ended up wearing it for the last decade because that’s what plus size clothes are available in over here in Australia. The other week I walked through Target and there were four double racks of black pants in the plus size section. That is frankly ridiculous.

For a long time black didn’t bother me much, in fact I rather liked dressing in black because it was dramatic, easy and hid my unladylike perspiration (passed down via genetic blessing from my grandmother.) My mother, I remember, was always suggesting I wear a bit of colour. There simply wasn’t much colour out there, but I bought bright pink shoes and made my uniform hot pink and black for a little while!

A photo of my new green and orange skirt with mango fruit and tree panels.

In the last few years I’ve seen some fantastical colour-clashing eye-busting super fancy outfits on bloggers and envied their ability to wear colour. Shopping online, I have access to a fair bit of colour but I still stick to black. So on my recent sewing jaunt I stopped when I came to a bit of fabric Mum bought while living in Nigeria. I’ve always liked it but never known what to make with it. The print features huge repeated frames with mango fruit and trees in a green and orange colourway. I never wear green or orange but the other day I wanted to start thinking about it… by finally making this vintage fabric into a skirt.

A photo of my feet and calves on grass, wearing tan sandles with an espadrille wedge. My toenails are pink and I've lifted my left (on your right) foot so it's a bit blurry.

An outfit photo of me standing in the garden wearing a white t-shirt with my green and orange mango skirt and tan sandals. My hands are on my hips and I'm wearing black 50s style cat eye spectacles.

A photo in the garden of me with my hands out, maybe dancing?

A photo of blurry fingers pinching around my head, I'm actually standing a few metres away laughing.

A photo of my head and shoulders region. I'm smiling and wearing awesome black fake 50s style cat eye glasses.

T-shirt: Yours Clothing
Skirt: Made by me
Shoes: New Look
Glasses: Giant Vintage

I am a lady who loves tights. Several of my recent (and most popular) posts are about tights. Or leggings. By now you might have noticed that I use those words interchangeably but yep, I mean the stretchy tubes you put on the lower half of your body. I’m sorry if that [...]]]>

I am a lady who loves tights. Several of my recent (and most popular) posts are about tights. Or leggings. By now you might have noticed that I use those words interchangeably but yep, I mean the stretchy tubes you put on the lower half of your body. I’m sorry if that annoys you but that’s just what I do, I can’t explain it!

Anyway, the important matter at hand is not my distracting and improper use of nouns, it’s tights. And how I can’t find any cute ones. Am I taking crazy pills? The only tights I can find for plus sizes are in bright colours, and while I’m partial to a lurid garment every now and then, I have filled that wardrobe requirement and I want to have the options in legwear that straight sizes do!

My specific desires in super stretchy leg gear include (but are not limited to): florals, geometrical, mesh inserts, foil, lace, ribbed and fishnet. The tights I’ve used in the above graphic all come from ModCloth and I’d save up money to purchase them all except they don’t come in my size. I’m looking for ankle length if they’re footless, and properly sized if they’re stockings. Queen size does not fit me, and it annoys me that these are sold as a “one size fits all” solution for every person above x number of kilograms.

Another issue when it comes to tights is my lack of access to them. Brick and mortar stores sell opaque black in my size if I’m lucky, and in order to have any kind of chance I must look online. Many online stores that sell tights in my size don’t ship to Australia, and because I’m Australian I need to be very careful about selecting the right size. So it’s a pretty tortuous process to get through just to keep my legs warm and even then the end product isn’t exactly what I’d wanted in the first place.

So, my solution is to whinge about it because I know a few plus size fashion labels keep tabs on the fatshion blogging world. Hear my pleas for more fashion forward options and I will give you money in exchange for tights that will make me look fabulous and recommend you a million times over. I know a couple of indie designers, naKIMuli and Decadent Industries, who are making amazing patterned tights in straight and plus sizes. Nikki of Decadent has recently had to put orders on hold for a while because she has been so overwhelmed with demand. My other solution is to try and DIY myself some leggings; I’ve found this pattern, which I will have to grade up to my size (like usual). But this option is only available to people who have the time to make a pattern and sew it, who have sewing skills and access to a machine.

There is a market. We have cold, unadorned legs and we will buy tights!

So while you wait for the plus size market to catch up, here’s a list of DIY resources if you’re inclined:
Shelby Kaava #302 Vuokatti Tights
rokkmeamadeus’ DIY leggings tutorial
Cocorosa’s embellished tights tutorial
Cocorosa’s miu miu tights tutorial
The Coveted’s gradient tights tutorial
Shini’s cloudy pearl tights tutorial
ljenmf’s cutout/ bow tights tutorial
Threadbanger spiked leggings tutorial

This photo is from decor8, and it’s supposed to be about the [...]]]>
Rachel O’Neill‘s velcro pieces are so playful and give me lots of ideas for DIY projects! She creates beautiful pieces on commission for events, but I’d want a large light fitting like this for keeps.

This photo is from decor8, and it’s supposed to be about the wallpaper by Turner Pocock BUT it’s really all about THAT CHAIR. Want. I have a thing for distressed velvet chairs.

My dream car is a Volkswagon Karmann Ghia… look at that gorgeous badge!! This photo was taken by artistic pursuits.

Hello Matt Preston, I love you even more for speaking out against homophobia. This is Oz is a site that promotes diversity and acceptance of GLBT people in Australia. It’s very moving, and I love that football players have stood themselves up and been counted against hateful attitudes!

Dutch photographer (yes, not a painter!) Desiree Dolron’s work is flawlessly stunning. Her portraits are beautiful but you should go to her site and see some of her other work… I’m amazed.

See [...]]]> Heyyy, wanna make a fun fringy skirt that flicks when you move your hips? I have been a bit sad recently because I don’t have money for things like new clothes, even if they are awesome clothes like City Chic‘s fringed skirt (which has now sold out on the website!)

See how rad this skirt is? When I saw it on Hayley I knew I HAD to have it or something like it in my wardrobe. Unfortunately I couldn’t buy the City Chic skirt, but fortunately I did have some scrap fabric and a t-shirt sitting around going to waste. I figured I’d quit whinging and DIY myself a fringe skirt! If you want to make one too I’ve written out instructions under the cut.

Required:
Sharp scissors
Jersey fabric (I used five scraps of jersey from Reverse Garbage that were around 50x50cm each)
T-shirt that fits comfortably over your hips and thighs
Elastic – enough to fit around your waist/hips comfortably (I used some about 2cm wide)
Safety pin
Pins
Sewing machine
Jersey needle
Basic sewing skills

Cut your fabric into strips that are 10cm wide or thereabouts. If you want longer fringe, cut your strips wider! Mark your fabric with chalk or a water soluble pen to make sure all your fringing is relatively even.

Don’t worry if you are using scraps of fabric that aren’t long enough to wrap around your thighs. You can sew each bit of fringe together.

Cut slits into your fabric to create a fringe. Don’t worry too much about cutting straight, you won’t notice it from far away. My scissors need oiling and my hand is pretty weak, so my cuts look quite jagged but it all works out int the end!

You can see I’ve alternated skinny and wide chunks, and there’s a reason for that!

I chopped out all the skinny chunks!

Leaving me with a gappy fringe. I also chopped the corner off each bit.

Pretty soon you end up with a pile of fringey bits! You can start to see how they look all layered on top of each other.

This is a shirt I have previously ruined by cutting the neck out of. It gets to live on as a skirt! It fits snugly around my hips and thighs, and hits mid thigh. If you want your skirt to be longer, you need to find a bigger shirt!

Chop off the arms and the shoulders. You should be left with a tube of fabric – INSTASKIRT. Because I wanted to get a little more length out of this shirt I chopped over the sleeves, and ran a seam up the side to close it up. It doesn’t matter if you can see the former armhole seam, it’s going to be covered by fringing.

If you are using a bigger shirt and it’s too loose on your hips, run it in up the side seams. Put it on inside out and do the old “pinch measurement” test. It’s totally unscientific. You can use a tape measure if you feel more comfortable :P

We need to sew a casing along that cut edge in order to put elastic in it when we’re finished. I folded the top edge along and sewed a seam with a knit (or zig zag stitch) leaving just enough space for my elastic to sit inside snugly.

Don’t put the elastic in yet! It’ll make everything more fiddly when you’re sewing on the fringe.

It’s time to sew the fringe on the skirt! First you’ve got to check you’ve got a width of fringing that will wrap around the skirt, front and back. Is yours not wide enough?

Then slap a couple of pieces end to end and sew them! This photo shows the pieces sewn together and then pinned to the skirt. I hope it makes sense ;)

Pin the fringe all around the skirt upside down with all the seams facing up. You can arrange it to drop below the hem, or flush with the hem, or above the hem… it’s up to you.

Using a knit (or zig zag) stitch sew the fringe around. When you get to the end and start to overlap the beginning of the fringe, cut the excess off and save it to connect to another bit of too-short fringing.

Rinse and repeat, taking care not to catch any of the lower layers of fringing as you add more layers of fringe! You don’t have to worry too much about spacing each layer evenly, it’s a pretty forgiving effect. If you prefer for all the angled ends to be facing in one direction, pay close attention when you sew each layer of fringing. I wasn’t paying attention so my fringe is all over the place. It’s ok! It still looks rad.

When you’ve finished attaching all your layers of fringe, go get a safety pin. Attach it to your elastic and thread it through the waist band casing. I’m sorry I didn’t photograph this but I hope it’s clear! Adjust the elastic so that the skirt sits comfortably, and then secure the elastic ends by sewing over them a few times. Close up the waist band casing.

PUT YOUR SKIRT ON!

MOVE YOUR HIPS!
(This gif is cracking me up at the moment because it looks like I’m dancing to Röyksopp!)

Thanks Kate for letting me use your sewing machine, and for taking silly photos of me.

I hope you make a flippy fringe skirt and show me photos! It’s such a fun skirt, and I’m really chuffed with how it turned out :D

“if all you needed to get fat was eat an order of pancakes we’d all be fucked” by Natalie Dee

Well, well, [...]]]>
Climb on your bathroom vanity and do your daily affirmations like this awesome young lady! I’m not a huge “affirmation” person but this is too cute.

“if all you needed to get fat was eat an order of pancakes we’d all be fucked” by Natalie Dee

Well, well, well…isn’t this interesting…
Bri from Fat Lot of Good links to a letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association written by Professor Paul O’Brien, gastric banding advocate, in which he admits his failure to report financial disclosure in his study of gastric banding in adolescents. Professor O’Brien receives significant financial compensation from Allergan, the manufacturer of the gastric band. NOW TELL ME THAT THIS DUDE IS IN IT FOR PEOPLE’S HEALTH! What kind of doctor tells people that teenagers should undergo a hugely invasive procedure that will have negative impact on their lifelong health and lies about receiving funding from the manufacturer of the product he installs in people? A doctor who has questionable ethics, and a doctor who will never be charged with the care of my health.

The Secret Life of Burnout
I seem to burn myself out frequently, so I really REALLY appreciate this post on The Fluent Self. It’s funny how working so hard that you end up burning out is seen as this noble thing, and it’s NOT healthy at all. We should be recognising our limits, not shoe-horning things into our schedules until we reach breaking point. As a self-employed creative I feel like I have something to prove so I often take on more than I can handle… and it’s got to stop. I’ve got to start managing my workload in a way that doesn’t lead to feeling like I’m going to crumble under the weight of it all. If you’re a boss of people, I hope you read this and shift your expectations of your staff.

Hilarious! By CodeAires on tumblr.

The politics of the pocket
When I talk to women who don’t believe feminism is necessary I am fairly aghast because symptoms of oppression and the gender binary are as apparent as the clothes we are wearing.

Bras: Expensive, hard to find, hard to fit.
AND ANOTHER THING! Bras. The bane of my existence. Bras make me cry: shopping for them, paying for them, wearing them. Being fat and having a large cup size means that I pay at least 5 times as much for a bra than a straight sized person, because I can’t just go and get my size from Target and pay $15 for it. Oh no. World, are you hearing me? You force me to wear one of these painful contraptions and I have to pay a bollocks load for the displeasure. >:(

Slam poet Katie Makkai and her powerful piece “Pretty”.

DIY Clothes Tutorial: Making an Elastic Harness
I kind of love the idea of making one of these elastic harnesses especially since I’ve NEVER seen a fat person in one of these trend pieces.