Tag: plus size

Plus size, please!

blast from the past - gothstuff Baby Mummy tshirt
blast from the past – gothstuff Baby Mummy tshirt

Why are plus size organic cotton t-shirts still not a thing? 

I’ve been doing t-shirt-printing-related things for around eighteen years now, on and off. (These photos are from 2004.)

To begin with it was impossible to get plus size t-shirts at all (note to manufacturers: size UK16 is not a plus size!), and now you can, from a few brands, but apparently not from any of the organic ones. And they’re still not easily available from print-on-demand companies, who tend to offer a smaller selection of brands and styles, now that we no longer own the heat press and vinyl cutter ourselves.

(Also, while I’m having a rant, making things in a “loose fit” doesn’t mean that you can offer fewer sizes just because the actual width of the garment is the same as a larger size in another style!) 

blast from the past - gothstuff light reflective bat tshirt
blast from the past – gothstuff light reflective bat tshirt

I really want to design some more t-shirts, but organic cotton is apparently only for people who have a narrower than 43″ chest. Oh, except for men. Who can have organic t-shirts up to a 62″ chest. Why can’t women have that?

blast from the past - gothstuff Baby Cthulhu tshirt
blast from the past – gothstuff Baby Cthulhu tshirt

Well, apparently they can, because most of those t-shirts are labelled “unisex”… but because the sizes get longer as they go up in width, well, heaven forbid that a shorter person might want a XXXL t-shirt that doesn’t come down to their knees. Or with flapping great sleeves down to their elbows.

I really want everything I design to be available to as many people as possible (which is why I made my dresses up to a size 30+), and it’s making me very cross that, eighteen years since I started printing t-shirts, this apparently still can’t happen.

New hat, new options for a mannequin

Hand blocked wool felt baby pink cloche hat featuring a floral design with hand embroidery, felt flowers and vintage buttons

Here is today’s felt hat offering – now in the Etsy shop. I’m really pleased with how the flowers came out, although I learnt an important lesson about doing all the work in the right order. (Note to self: Yes, putting the flowers on first allowed you to check their placement. But it made for incredibly fiddly stitching of the stems!)

I had been vaguely planning to work on felt hats during my full days off work, and then do other kinds of sewing during my half days. Given how sore my fingers are from doing all of this hand sewing through machine-made felt, I think I might revise that plan. Ouch.

Excitingly, my previous hat (the bright pink one with the black guipure lace) sold out almost immediately, and was swiftly followed by an order for another one the same! So I’ve ordered some new felt hoods from Parkin Fabrics, and I’ll make a start on some more hats once they arrive. Perhaps without embroidery this time though.

Interestingly, after my earlier post contemplating the purchase of a new mannequin, I received a very helpful email from Equipashop.com, directing my attention to the existence of the lovely lady above. She’s perfect!

Okay, so she’s still out of my budget right now, but she’s much more affordable than the one I was looking at before, and she’ll be able to display hats, cowls, gloves and jackets. Brilliant! I’m now following Equipashop.com on Facebook, I’ve signed up to their mailing list, and I’ll be making a purchase as soon as funds allow. (And she’s SPARKLY. I mean really, how can I resist?)

Looking around the rest of the site (which turns out to be FULL of bargains!) I was also pleased to see that they offer a plus size mannequin, although she’s not in stock right now. Granted, at roughly a UK size 14/16 she’s at the smaller end of plus size, but that’s still several sizes bigger than most garment display options. Conveniently her measurements are almost exactly the same as mine (though she’s quite a bit taller), so she’d actually be perfect as a dressmaker’s dummy for my own sewing.

Hmmm.

Maybe it’s time to get on with having that pattern de-stash sale that I keep thinking about, to raise money for the newly instated Mannequin Fund…