Hello strangers! Sorry I've been out of touch for so long. It's been part lack of internet (still waiting to be connected!) and part business. I moved to London about a month and a half ago now, and I've started my postgrad course which is BUSY (but fun luckily, though I am mourning not having a student lifestyle!), so between that and illness and the passing away of one pet rat, I've not been about as much.

ANYWAY, I made this dress recently (with good old vintage vogue V8615, which apparently I love way too much given the amount of times I've made it!). It was a practical make, in a nice thick black ponte knit, which is a bastard to sew with but thankfully worth the trouble.

Teamed with a brooch my lovely boyfriend got me for my birthday from etsy:

It can be bought here (along with other seriously beautiful wooden delights!).

Outfit details:

Dress, handmade with vogue V8615

Shirt, actually another dress, Primark, passed on by a friend

Brooch, £7, etsy

Shoes, George, £4

Tights, M&S

Other stuff that's happened since I last posted: I had my tattoo finished! Hurray! Here it is in it's final glory. I love it!

I'm off to Leeds this weekend to sell some zines at Leeds Zine Fair, which is happening at Wharf Chambers on Sunday 4th November. It's going to be exciting, and I'm looking forward to seeing Yorkshire friends again. If you want to come, check out the facebook event here. I'm debuting a new zine which will appear online sometime next week! It's all about hard femme politics and embodiment.

xx

Weekly Favourites

(Very late, sorry!)

Cupcakes Clothes

Festival street style (photographed by Calivintage)

Style style via Glamcanyon

Fat Shopaholic

Spooky Puke

Rosariummmm

Bourbon and Bras

And some powerfully awesome links:

Of Another Fashion is a tumblr archive featuring fashion histories of people of colour. As a trainee archivist (I start my course in about six weeks!), I'm really passionate about making alternative histories available and accessible. There is nothing more powerful than finding connections in your history, particularly if you're of an identity group that is often written out of mainstream commentary. I actually had a little cry at how amazing this collection is, and it made me remember that I wanted to do something similar about fat histories. 

Two zines from the Queer Zine Archive Project, which is amazing in itself (be aware though, you'll lose hours on the site!):

On Being a Hard Femme

Hard Femme Bike Tour

Seriously, I'm always in completely awe at the impact that the internet has had on access to archival objects, and on exposing alternative histories and rewriting what we understand as mainstream histories. People conceive of archiving as just looking after dusty objects, but there's so much power and politics invested in what is seen and what isn't even accessioned. I'm always really excited to find new projects and new people/collectives working towards such amazing projects. 

Phew! After a month or two of hard work, I'm very excited to be able to show you all the next issue of Make It Work. This is available to purchase now from etsy here. There are also copies of Make It Work #1 still available (though in limited amounts now!) and a cute mini zine on the politics of self love and care that I made earlier this year. 


Here's the blurb for Make It Work #2:


"This is a copy of my second issue of "Make It Work". Make It Work is a radical fat positive zine centred around DIY fatshion and craft projects. It contains a mixture of personal pieces, tutorials for a feather fascinator and a gathered skirt. This issue there is also talk about depression, self care, make up, health, taste, gender play and a bonus fat pin up centrefold! As always, there's also some bad art and general garishness. Contributors include Cynthia (Life of Cyn), Lauren (Pocket Rocket Fashion), Claire (Monkey Fatshionista) and Rebecca (Fat Girl Living), as well as others! 

Half size (A5) with 40 pages total. The zine is colour and has a medium coloured card black and white cover. Sewn binding with wool."

Find it on etsy here!

On a side note, I'm just taking a bit of me time after clothes/zine making manically for the last month, so for now, my custom skirts aren't up on etsy. I'll be back soon, with a massive update of clothes which didn't sell at the Fattylympics. xxx

Finding your own voice

OH NO A TEXT ONLY POST. (sorry)

Being creative is really important to me. I find being in spaces where creativity isn’t valued to be really tough going because it’s such a paramount part of the way that I engage with an environment – it’s in my choice of clothes, my approach to work and my hobbies, even the dynamics in my relationships. However, being a creative person is also pretty tough on me – most things I do feel like an extension of me, so therefore I take criticism badly and can often shut off when I fear I might face it, which in turn can have a negative effect on me.

I wanted to talk about creativity because it’s really central to my own fat activism – I’m passionate about making things, playing with my identity and producing content (both blogging, zines, and academic writing) that creatively counters what institutions have put in place about being fat. Mental health stuff means that being able to do this is very hard on me sometimes, which explains why I am sometimes less present or vocal on here and other places – sometimes what I deal with is just too tough and I need substantial periods by myself to recoup and move on. I’ve not really spoken about mental health and depression on here before, because it’s something I’ve only just acknowledged myself.

Often I’ve felt as if the best way to counter these negative patches is to make my creative output as good as it can possibly be – however, as I’m also a perfectionist, I never seem to reach the lofty heights of my ambition, so what I actually let out into the public realm is very limited. To illustrate this, I thought about starting this blog for about three years before I actually did – I’d been a part of fatshion communities both as a participant and through selling vintage clothing on eBay (which I did alongside my postgrad degree), and always really admired fatshion bloggers, but I wasn’t confident in my own ability so I put it off. Eventually I was unemployed for a bit and I started this space as a bit of a diversion – within a couple of weeks and after a miniscule amount of self-promotion, my first readers (most of whom are still here I think!) passed on my links and images, and I had an audience which began to grow and hasn’t stopped since. This blog has become much more than I ever anticipated it could be, and the support and kindness I’ve received has always massively outweighed the critiques and fat hatred that I also sometimes receive. I’m still very much not a “proper” blogger – most of my pictures are unedited, badly exposed and generally full of questionable facial expressions – but it doesn’t matter (maybe it would if I was trying to make money out of this, I don’t know).

I love the blogging world because it’s accessible to a much wider variety of people than traditional fashion platforms – I’m not saying that anyone can blog, because I also know that it takes a certain amount of resources to be able to do so (computer, internet access, camera, money for clothes), but rather that some of the hierarchies that have controlled the production of fashion culture have been removed. It’s a more democratic space, even if there are still prevalent norms and levels of privilege that often go unmentioned. I think the fashion industry looks down on blogs now, because they’re two a penny and everyone and their dog has one. However, I think this is what I love most about it. To me, I see a connection between this method of communication and zines and other DIY methods of counter culture – I created this space because I wanted there to be a fat fashion space that was also politically engaged and budget/DIY focused, and because I didn’t know many other similar voices out there. I used to have to imbibe substantial amounts of fat hatred to get my fashion fix, but now there’s no need for that, and that in itself is awesome.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – bloggers are awesome, but we could be better. If you feel that your voice is missing from the fatshion world and you feel that you have the time and resources to change that, then do it! I’ll support you, and I know many others who will too. You don’t have to be a fashionista to write a blog, you don’t even have to be a particularly capable writer or photographer, and you certainly don’t need to look a certain way, contrary to what you might think. One of the most powerful aspects of blogging to me is the way that it has highlighted difference and variety in body shape, personal style, gender, sexuality, ability and colour – I love seeing how different people make a similar item of clothing work, because it’s such a contrast to the way I see clothes presented in shops and online (on a uniform, non-relatable body).  

I guess that what I’m saying is to myself as much to anyone else who’s gotten this far (congratulations!) – you don’t have to be perfect to have a creative output (whether that’s blogging, art, academic work, craft, music, whatever). I’ve always railed against the idea of perfection in aesthetics (being in possession of what society would determine a flawed body), and I guess it’s taken a while to apply this logic to my own creative projects too. Process is a really important part of our creative growth, and focusing on only the end point makes taking any steps towards it a very daunting prospect. If you feel you have something that needs saying, then find a basic forum to start working on it (whether this is yours or someone else’s blog, tumblr, a zine, a painting or art piece, anything) and just take it one step at a time. 

Make It Work!

How's that for a goofy grin?! So today I went to the printers and picked up my zine, Make It Work, at last! I've been working on this for a while now and it's really exciting to see it in paper form at last. Here are some details for you:

Make It Work is a radical fat positive zine centred around DIY fatshion and craft projects. It contains a mixture of personal pieces, tutorials, craft tips, guides to pattern upsizing, event organising and some fairly bad art. Contributors are awesome people from the fat-o-sphere including me (duh), Charlotte Cooper, Claire, Mel, Bronny, Brenda Jean and Kelsey and more.

“Make It Work” has been a mantra within fatshion communities since I can remember, and I’m interested in exploring it as a radical premise of fat positive politics. Fat people have and have always had very limited options in ready-made clothing, and, whilst retailers are starting to produce more on trend pieces, the process is slow and in the meantime, we have to come up with our own radical alternatives – whether it’s making clothes, thrifting, altering clothes or making straight sizes work for us. This zine is about sharing the resources, skills and knowledge that we’ve gained, and for it to provide strategies for people to move forward with.

Half size (A5) with 48 pages total. The zine is hand typed and has a medium pink card cover. Staple binding.

You can buy the zine from etsy here, or, alternatively you can leave your paypal email address and location in the comments below (or let me know it via email at fattyunbound@gmail.com) and I will send you a paypal invoice directly.

MAKE IT WORK: A DIY fatshion craft zine

Hey everyone! I've come to post about a new project that I'd love for anyone to get involved with. Since I've been unemployed for a few weeks now, I've been crafting a lot in between job applications, and I've come across lots of useful plus size craft resources that I'd like to share. I was going to post a series here, but instead I thought I'd make it into a zine! I'm looking for contributions from others too. Here are the details:

Make It Work is a DIY fat radical craft zine, focusing on strategies for resistance, tutorials and craft projects for fellow awesome fats. “Make It Work” has been a mantra within fatshion communities since I can remember, and I’m interested in exploring it as a radical premise of fat positive politics. Fat people have and have always had very limited options in ready-made clothing, and, whilst retailers are starting to produce more on trend pieces, the process is slow and in the meantime, we have to come up with our own radical alternatives – whether it’s making clothes, thrifting, altering clothes or making straight sizes work for us. I want this zine to be about sharing the resources, skills and knowledge that we’ve gained, and for it to provide strategies for people to move forward with.

All contributions are welcome, and here are a few suggestions:

- DIY tutorials (resizing smaller items, designing patterns from scratch, adjusting clothes, costume making, accessories)

- Radical craft projects.

- Craft and fatshion related personal pieces.

- Organising fatshion events – clothes swap, DIY fashion shows, selling on etsy and so on.

- Sewing and crafting on a budget – how to do it, where to find cheap supplies, etc.

- Thrifting tips, shopping guides and etsy recommendations for fat positive sellers.

- Strategies for shopping – how do you find the pieces that you want if they aren’t immediately available? Shopping in straight size stores, vintage shopping, resource guides.

- Dressing queer as a fat person – how does being fat impact your choices? How do dominant aesthetics limit your choices, how do you resist them, and how does your sense of dress interact with these dominant aesthetics?

- Resources for trans and gender queer identified people.

- Letters to high street retailers, commentary on outsizing, plus size ranges and any other rants.

- Pieces on fatshion role models.

- Illustrations (that look good in black and white and are photocopiable!), comics, visual art of any kind.

- Critiques and criticisms of fatshion – how could we be more inclusive? Who do you want to see blogging?

Email any ideas, contributions and questions through to me at fattyunbound@gmail.com. I’m going to set a preliminary deadline of 30^th November for submitting, though that will probably slide and if anyone can’t make that, let me know and I’ll try and set some space aside for you.

I started thinking about doing something like this after some conversations with Lauren over the weekend, and after some debates that have recently been circulating around twitter and tumblr. I’ve been following fatshion blogs and communities since I discovered the Fatshionista livejournal community in 2007, and I’m really interested in how the community has evolved and shifted in those years. For me, Fatshionista was an amazing space, because it focused on fashion from a radically, politically engaged perspective and because it didn’t permit diet talk of any kind. I’m not saying that it was without problems, but at its peak it was a fantastic entrance point for anyone starting to re-think their body. Now that the community has dwindled, and most people blog instead, this sense of safe space doesn’t really exist anymore, because, whilst there is still a community of sorts, we each control our own spaces. Just because someone runs a plus size fashion blog doesn’t mean that they are fat positive, that the blog won’t involve diet talk or that they engage with politics in remotely the same way that I do. I’m used to fatshion being half about body politics, and half about clothes – however, as different people have entered the community from different backgrounds, the focus has shifted away from politics.

I recognise everyone’s right to bodily autonomy, and I’m not going to argue with anyone losing weight – that’s your choice, just as much as mine was to stop dieting. We all know what’s best for us individually. However, I can’t pretend that I’m not often nostalgic for when fatshion always came with a dose of radical fat acceptance politics. Instead of just ranting about my issues here, I thought I’d try and create something new that would bring some of these resources back into focus.