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@mayakern / mayakern.tumblr.com

irl fat queer magical girl
if you have a question please read my FAQ first at mayakern.com/faq
also check the store blog and the skirt tracker for size charts and apparel updates. more links here.
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Reblogged

with just 4 days left in the month, we’re about 80% of the way to the sales amount we need to hit for july!

we recently launched new 100% cotton skirts, silk scrunchies + our fan favorite faux wrap tops, sizes S-6X, all made ethically.

if you could share this i’d really appreciate it 🙏

and for lower price items, we have the aforementioned scrunchies, socks, art prints, stickers and coloring sheets!

thank you!

fjdjshshd this made me realize i forgot to talk about the huge pockets so thank you for the reminder 😭

its a little funny but for me our pockets have become such a normal part of my life that i expect all clothes to have them and whenever i wear clothes from other brands im always surprised and dismayed at how small the pockets are.

a phone is simply not enough. i need my pockets to fit an entire 32oz water bottle*

*on garments with silhouettes and structures that can support that kind of bulk/stress (which unforch the maxi dresses cannot)

thank you so much for your help getting us to what we need to make for this month! it really means a lot 😭

we have two days left and are 93% of the way there!!

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Reblogged

as an artist, person, and owner of a small clothing brand i will always be fiercely pro-human.

that means our clothes will always be designed by and for people, from our initial concepts, to our patterning and grading, to the art made by me and our collab artists that gets printed on the fabric.

that means that our clothes are made to be comfortable and practical for every day use. that means having real, functional pockets, good quality fabric and construction, and sewing that doesn’t cut corners to save money. that means making clothing that won’t fall apart after a couple washes.

that means grading our sizes, both straight size and plus size, on real bodies and using data from over 2000 of our actual customers to make sure that our garments fit, to make sure we take into account how clothing looks and feels on normal human bodies, not just laid flat on a table, or on clothes hangers or on professional models. that means making clothing that can stretch to fit throughout daily weight fluctuations, it means including features like expandable hip gussets on “masculine” style shirts because style is not prescriptive of gender, sex, or body type. it means remembering that people have bellies and thighs and hips and arm fat.

it means choosing fabrics that are well made and feel good, even when they cost more, because people have textural sensitivities. it means testing how our garments look and feel not just while standing or walking, but while sitting, because the body sits differently than it stands and something that is comfortable while standing may not be while sitting, and many people spend most of their lives sitting. it means remembering that bodies are are diverse and beautiful.

and it means that the people who make our clothes work in safe, clean environments and are fairly compensated. it means that the materials those workers handle are safe for human exposure. it means we do our due diligence to work with factories that are certified for their ethical labor and safe working environments and materials.

being pro-human means caring at every step of creation: for the designers and artists who come up with the ideas, for the weavers and sewists who make those ideas into real clothing, and for the customers who wear those clothes.

I don't usually reblog with my own commentary, but Maya's skirts and other clothes are always impressively thought out, with gorgeous designs and the functionality is real. I've got a handful of skirts from the last manufacturer, both printed and the solid viscose, as well as some crop tops, a dress, and a petticoat of superb quality that has absolutely replaced the black one I used to wear. I haven't been able to buy their recent box pleated skirts, or new releases, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what the upcoming printed cotton skirts are like. If you like fun or femme fashion, I can't recommend them enough. All six of you who will see this post, please tell people about this brand! Buy some for yourself, your wife, your friends! 😂 @mayakern, if you see this, thanks for fighting the good fight, for putting so much care into your products at every step of it's creation and delivery, and for keeping your chin up during the harder times. You make such a tangible difference in the lives of so many, especially those who feel like their only options are crappy fast fashion or things that don't fit. And I hope you keep making beautiful, comfortable things that I can wear with flounce and my ridiculous collection of petticoats. 💙

thank you so much for the kind words, i really appreciate it 😭🧡🧡 and i’m so happy to hear that you like the clothes so much!

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Reblogged

2026 is the roughest year my small clothing store has had… maybe ever.

i don’t want to go into the nitty gritty of it all or try to dissect all the many things that have gone wrong because i’ve already done that and no amount of missteps that i’ve personally made rival the Big Reason We All Know: i’m an indie artist and designer that is dedicated to creating size inclusive, ethically made clothing in a world that seems determined to make that impossible for someone who is not already independently wealthy.

i haven’t talked about this publicly until now, but this year devin and i had to take substantial pay cuts just to keep the business running. we even skipped a few paychecks and seriously cut into our savings to make sure the business survived, and it’s still a struggle.

money is tight for everyone (me included) and the online attention economy is the worst it’s ever been—and for a small business that relies almost entirely on internet word-of-mouth to makes sales and pay the bills, that is a disastrous combination.

i’ve honestly reached a point where i feel bad even trying to post about my store because of how bad things are. it feels wrong to try to sell non-essential items in a world that is so hard. even if i love and believe in them. even if i know they are a net positive in the world.

everyone deserves clothing that makes them look and feel good, and that was made to last by people who were properly compensated to make it, regardless of their size. that is my core ethos running this store, and that’s what keeps me going. because i love and believe in what i do, even when it’s a struggle.

it feels silly, sometimes, to have so many big feelings about clothing—but i guess it’s normal to care about something that has made up the majority of your life for an entire decade.

i don’t really know where i’m going with this. a more astute sales person would probably include some photos of their wares at the end with a call to action and a link to their store, but right now even thinking about doing that here makes me feel gross.

i guess during a time when i feel so pressured to Get Over My Feelings and be a salesperson i want at least one moment that is just for my feelings.

I love your clothing. I love your art. I appreciate all the care and work you've put into this. Thank you for everything you've done to keep things going. This is probably going to sound odd from essentially a total stranger, but I'm proud of all the hard decisions you've made and how you've kept pushing through it all. I'm proud of you for still being creative through it all. I recommend you all the time and I hope things get easier for you soon.

thank you, this is so incredibly sweet 😭

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Reblogged

as an artist, person, and owner of a small clothing brand i will always be fiercely pro-human.

that means our clothes will always be designed by and for people, from our initial concepts, to our patterning and grading, to the art made by me and our collab artists that gets printed on the fabric.

that means that our clothes are made to be comfortable and practical for every day use. that means having real, functional pockets, good quality fabric and construction, and sewing that doesn’t cut corners to save money. that means making clothing that won’t fall apart after a couple washes.

that means grading our sizes, both straight size and plus size, on real bodies and using data from over 2000 of our actual customers to make sure that our garments fit, to make sure we take into account how clothing looks and feels on normal human bodies, not just laid flat on a table, or on clothes hangers or on professional models. that means making clothing that can stretch to fit throughout daily weight fluctuations, it means including features like expandable hip gussets on “masculine” style shirts because style is not prescriptive of gender, sex, or body type. it means remembering that people have bellies and thighs and hips and arm fat.

it means choosing fabrics that are well made and feel good, even when they cost more, because people have textural sensitivities. it means testing how our garments look and feel not just while standing or walking, but while sitting, because the body sits differently than it stands and something that is comfortable while standing may not be while sitting, and many people spend most of their lives sitting. it means remembering that bodies are are diverse and beautiful.

and it means that the people who make our clothes work in safe, clean environments and are fairly compensated. it means that the materials those workers handle are safe for human exposure. it means we do our due diligence to work with factories that are certified for their ethical labor and safe working environments and materials.

being pro-human means caring at every step of creation: for the designers and artists who come up with the ideas, for the weavers and sewists who make those ideas into real clothing, and for the customers who wear those clothes.

I don't usually reblog with my own commentary, but Maya's skirts and other clothes are always impressively thought out, with gorgeous designs and the functionality is real. I've got a handful of skirts from the last manufacturer, both printed and the solid viscose, as well as some crop tops, a dress, and a petticoat of superb quality that has absolutely replaced the black one I used to wear. I haven't been able to buy their recent box pleated skirts, or new releases, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what the upcoming printed cotton skirts are like. If you like fun or femme fashion, I can't recommend them enough. All six of you who will see this post, please tell people about this brand! Buy some for yourself, your wife, your friends! 😂 @mayakern, if you see this, thanks for fighting the good fight, for putting so much care into your products at every step of it's creation and delivery, and for keeping your chin up during the harder times. You make such a tangible difference in the lives of so many, especially those who feel like their only options are crappy fast fashion or things that don't fit. And I hope you keep making beautiful, comfortable things that I can wear with flounce and my ridiculous collection of petticoats. 💙

thank you so much for the kind words, i really appreciate it 😭🧡🧡 and i’m so happy to hear that you like the clothes so much!

as an artist, person, and owner of a small clothing brand i will always be fiercely pro-human.

that means our clothes will always be designed by and for people, from our initial concepts, to our patterning and grading, to the art made by me and our collab artists that gets printed on the fabric.

that means that our clothes are made to be comfortable and practical for every day use. that means having real, functional pockets, good quality fabric and construction, and sewing that doesn’t cut corners to save money. that means making clothing that won’t fall apart after a couple washes.

that means grading our sizes, both straight size and plus size, on real bodies and using data from over 2000 of our actual customers to make sure that our garments fit, to make sure we take into account how clothing looks and feels on normal human bodies, not just laid flat on a table, or on clothes hangers or on professional models. that means making clothing that can stretch to fit throughout daily weight fluctuations, it means including features like expandable hip gussets on “masculine” style shirts because style is not prescriptive of gender, sex, or body type. it means remembering that people have bellies and thighs and hips and arm fat.

it means choosing fabrics that are well made and feel good, even when they cost more, because people have textural sensitivities. it means testing how our garments look and feel not just while standing or walking, but while sitting, because the body sits differently than it stands and something that is comfortable while standing may not be while sitting, and many people spend most of their lives sitting. it means remembering that bodies are are diverse and beautiful.

and it means that the people who make our clothes work in safe, clean environments and are fairly compensated. it means that the materials those workers handle are safe for human exposure. it means we do our due diligence to work with factories that are certified for their ethical labor and safe working environments and materials.

being pro-human means caring at every step of creation: for the designers and artists who come up with the ideas, for the weavers and sewists who make those ideas into real clothing, and for the customers who wear those clothes.

Avatar
Reblogged

2026 is the roughest year my small clothing store has had… maybe ever.

i don’t want to go into the nitty gritty of it all or try to dissect all the many things that have gone wrong because i’ve already done that and no amount of missteps that i’ve personally made rival the Big Reason We All Know: i’m an indie artist and designer that is dedicated to creating size inclusive, ethically made clothing in a world that seems determined to make that impossible for someone who is not already independently wealthy.

i haven’t talked about this publicly until now, but this year devin and i had to take substantial pay cuts just to keep the business running. we even skipped a few paychecks and seriously cut into our savings to make sure the business survived, and it’s still a struggle.

money is tight for everyone (me included) and the online attention economy is the worst it’s ever been—and for a small business that relies almost entirely on internet word-of-mouth to makes sales and pay the bills, that is a disastrous combination.

i’ve honestly reached a point where i feel bad even trying to post about my store because of how bad things are. it feels wrong to try to sell non-essential items in a world that is so hard. even if i love and believe in them. even if i know they are a net positive in the world.

everyone deserves clothing that makes them look and feel good, and that was made to last by people who were properly compensated to make it, regardless of their size. that is my core ethos running this store, and that’s what keeps me going. because i love and believe in what i do, even when it’s a struggle.

it feels silly, sometimes, to have so many big feelings about clothing—but i guess it’s normal to care about something that has made up the majority of your life for an entire decade.

i don’t really know where i’m going with this. a more astute sales person would probably include some photos of their wares at the end with a call to action and a link to their store, but right now even thinking about doing that here makes me feel gross.

i guess during a time when i feel so pressured to Get Over My Feelings and be a salesperson i want at least one moment that is just for my feelings.

it’s 11pm on a friday night and i don’t have the words or the spoons to express eloquently how meaningful all of your kind and thoughtful words have been

so for now i will just say: thank you 🧡

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Reblogged

DID YOU READ MY MIND?

I was -just- contemplating writing you to ask about solid colors and talked myself out of it and then I got the email today and it's the four colors I wear most.

Now I'm trying to rationalize getting four of your skirts in one fell swoop but I love the new waist and nobody sells pants that fit me anymore so I've decided to heck with it I'll just wear skirts and so this feels like either intense serendipity OR the little man in my phone has started tipping you off to how to get my money.

I tried to type this as I said it, with no punctuation because I'm HYPED

Anyways.

I love your stuff and I -am- buying skirts Thursday. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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ssfsgsg yeah i read your mind specifically and picked the first four colors that came up

no but fr that's awesome im so glad you're excited for them! :')

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I wore BEES today and gave your shop info to a stranger on the street in Vermont.

Thanks for reading my mind, I splurged and got one of each. <3

ahhh thank you so much!! it really means the world having you spread the word for us. we don’t have an advertising budget so we really only get new customers from word of mouth or if a random social media post blows up

and thank you for getting the skirts i hope you love them!

Adding to this because I don't always get comments, but when I wore the red mushroom skirt in Oregon I got into no less than 3 conversations about it, including at a diner and the ladies who stopped me to chat saw me on my way out and said, 'Still the best skirt!' and it made my day. And I'm 'the pocket' girl at work now, and always rep your site.

wtf that’s so cute, thank you for telling me 🥺

I also exclusively wear your skirts to work, and I hand out your site info almost as often as my own business cards!

ok so i see yall are determined to make me cry this morning. thank you so much, that is incredibly sweet 😭

also i can’t believe you left this in the tags!!

this is so cute wtf 😭😭😭

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Reblogged

After drawing Hemlock’s undergarments a while back, I had to do the same for Roxanna and Vanetta! So here are all three of my current dnd characters in their underclothes.

here’s progress shots for painting roxanna’s hair and chemise

May I ask, whats your process for drawing the curls to begin with, and deciding which areas are shadowed/less detailed? Im struggling to find a balance between drawing a bouncy cloud and defining every single lock of hair.

it depends on the hair texture and how i think that specific character would treat their hair. for roxanna, even tho it’s a pain in the ass, i basically draw every lock of hair because she is a high maintenance girlie with very curly hair and a thorough curl regimen.

i literally picked out the majority of her cantrips to support her hair care routine: shape water to get it wet, prestidigitation to apply product (using the “dirty” or “clean” a surface function), shape water + mage hand to finger curl each strand, then prestidigitation again to dry it. that’s how she gets her hair into these perfectly defined, bouncy, ringlets that still have individuality and character and don’t look like uniform heated rod creations.

when it comes to shading and deciding detail, it’s all about figuring out where the light hits. depending on your lighting, most of your detail is either going to be where the light illuminates the hair the most or (if the light is so bright it blows out those areas and causes loss of detail) in the mids. typically where things are turning away from the light you want less detail. but it really depends on the situation.

all hair is basically made of many tiny ribbons that you can clump together in larger forms to simplify the shapes/drawing process, but the curlier or more coily the hair is, the less clumping you can get away with. very very curly/coily hair that is more textured typically looks better painted rather than drawn, imo, because painting is much better at capturing the depth of the hair and the way it catches and bounces light. not to say it can’t be done, but in my own work i think i am more successful at painting it than drawing it, as you can see in the two pieces below where one is more “drawn” and one is more “painted”

what’s important to realize about the “bouncy clouds” in hair is that these are actually a representation of many, many many teeny tiny coils of hair so densely packed together that trying to individually draw every individual coil will never properly capture the way uniquely beautiful way very textured hair reflects light. because at the end of the day, hair is all about texture and light.

and ngl im not sure im the best person to come to for advice on simplifying how to draw curls because i am a freak that draws and paints basically every clump of hair. maybe because i primarily draw wavy and curly hair, maybe because i’m a freak idk, maybe because i still have learning and growing to do as an artist.

i also wouldn’t consider myself an expert on textured hair (i still have a lot to learn), but these are my observations as someone who has drawn and painted a lot of hair over the years.

Sorry for the delay in responding, thank you so much! The idea of choosing cantrips purely for hair care is so cool, that would never have occured to me. Now I have to think about how my curly haired characters actually treat their hair. It might be fun to give them vaguely wavy frizz cause they couldnt be bothered 😂 (if you dont mind;) Re drawing every strand of hair, do you have a process or a guide for like. Where and how to draw each strand? I tend to draw a couple strands framing the face, and then I dont really know where to go. I kind of end up with a curly blob with no interior detail, like six giant curl strands, or a bunch of squiggles that look terrible. Ive tried some tutorials and thats given me a flat front layer of curl and a flat back layer. How do you place your lines/light/shadow to suggest mass and depth and movement and layering? This might be a kind of thing you just have to get a sense for, idk. I think I understand what youre saying about light Im just not sure how to replicate it. I especially like your piece with the hair all piling up on the pillow - your art is gorgeous btw. And the second last image, even in the darkest part of the hair there are lighter strands, darker patches. The red haired magic girl, all those curls flow so beautifully into each other, I always end up with spots that are jarring to the flow, are you using shadow to de-emphasize where the curls run into each other like that? I have also seen artists do linework where every single line is flowing the same way, and I havent worked out how to imitate that. Thank you again, and no pressure to respond, much appreciation if you do :)

i have some tutorials and process videos on my tiktok, including a tutorial playlist, and some stuff tagged on tumblr but i don't really have like a definitive guide. curls are VERY diverse and every head of curls contains multiple curl types. understanding them isn't just about learning to draw them, you have to learn about hair and how it behaves and for my part of that comes from having naturally wavy hair that sometimes ringlets (even if i don't wear my natural texture anymore) and watching a lot of videos about curly hair and gathering a lot of references.

also, when i say i draw every piece of hair--i do not mean individual hairs, but rather clumps. curls form clumps and the size of those clumps is a big factor in the over all determination of hair texture. straight, wavy, curly, and coily hair actually have different follicle shapes and these determine the category of hair texture, but a lot of the tightness and definition in a curl is determined by clump size. the smaller the clumps, the tighter the curls are/look. i have a looot of hair references saved that i use constantly but i don't just look at them--i think about how that texture and definition is achieved. when i can, i make an active effort to find the hair care routine of the person i'm referencing so i can see their hair in various states, including styled, brushed out, wet, and with different (and preferably also with no) products.

so when i think about defining hair visually, those are the main things i think about: texture, care, and clump size. and light. you can broadly think about different types of wavy, curly, and coily hair as either cylinders, cones, or ribbons (and ribbons can also be used for straight hair).

for most textures, the more defined hair is, the shinier/more reflective it will be, and the more light it will catch. in general when shading a full head of hair it just comes down to practice, observation, and trial and error. the hair that is in shadow will catch Less light but very infrequently will it catch No light.

i think the problem you are running into is that curls have a lot of dimension and shape so when you separate it only into Front Pieces and Back As A Single Mass, you are basically flattening it into a couple cardboard pieces instead of seeing it as a complicated mass of smaller shapes that all interact with each other, similar to a mop head

i recommend taking some time to study some references, including drawing from them and trying to break down the hair into larger shapes. try this several times with different categories of shapes--whether the shape is defined by mass. when you do this you'll notice that even the clumps of hair that catch the least light still usually catch some light.

it's also important to note that most light is caught on the parts of the curls that face outward (or towards a very directional light source) and that the parts where curls face each other is usually in shadow. it's part of why curls are so hard to simplify.

i don't really have time to go more in depth than this so i hope this helps!

and i guess maybe the biggest takeaway here is that if you post your curl routine online with good lighting there's a decent chance you'll end up in my reference folder lol

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Reblogged

After drawing Hemlock’s undergarments a while back, I had to do the same for Roxanna and Vanetta! So here are all three of my current dnd characters in their underclothes.

here’s progress shots for painting roxanna’s hair and chemise

May I ask, whats your process for drawing the curls to begin with, and deciding which areas are shadowed/less detailed? Im struggling to find a balance between drawing a bouncy cloud and defining every single lock of hair.

it depends on the hair texture and how i think that specific character would treat their hair. for roxanna, even tho it’s a pain in the ass, i basically draw every lock of hair because she is a high maintenance girlie with very curly hair and a thorough curl regimen.

i literally picked out the majority of her cantrips to support her hair care routine: shape water to get it wet, prestidigitation to apply product (using the “dirty” or “clean” a surface function), shape water + mage hand to finger curl each strand, then prestidigitation again to dry it. that’s how she gets her hair into these perfectly defined, bouncy, ringlets that still have individuality and character and don’t look like uniform heated rod creations.

when it comes to shading and deciding detail, it’s all about figuring out where the light hits. depending on your lighting, most of your detail is either going to be where the light illuminates the hair the most or (if the light is so bright it blows out those areas and causes loss of detail) in the mids. typically where things are turning away from the light you want less detail. but it really depends on the situation.

all hair is basically made of many tiny ribbons that you can clump together in larger forms to simplify the shapes/drawing process, but the curlier or more coily the hair is, the less clumping you can get away with. very very curly/coily hair that is more textured typically looks better painted rather than drawn, imo, because painting is much better at capturing the depth of the hair and the way it catches and bounces light. not to say it can’t be done, but in my own work i think i am more successful at painting it than drawing it, as you can see in the two pieces below where one is more “drawn” and one is more “painted”

what’s important to realize about the “bouncy clouds” in hair is that these are actually a representation of many, many many teeny tiny coils of hair so densely packed together that trying to individually draw every individual coil will never properly capture the way uniquely beautiful way very textured hair reflects light. because at the end of the day, hair is all about texture and light.

and ngl im not sure im the best person to come to for advice on simplifying how to draw curls because i am a freak that draws and paints basically every clump of hair. maybe because i primarily draw wavy and curly hair, maybe because i’m a freak idk, maybe because i still have learning and growing to do as an artist.

i also wouldn’t consider myself an expert on textured hair (i still have a lot to learn), but these are my observations as someone who has drawn and painted a lot of hair over the years.

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Reblogged

Howdy! May i ask what skirts go well with the green and navy tops based on yall seeing them in person? My only guess so far has been that the green could go with the clover skirt but im not sure how that color match shakes up irl

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it'll really depend on your personal style, but here's some combos i think would look nice!

with oregano:

both thistle skirts (matches/goes with the greens), gallery (same color family as BG color), oranges, pumpkins (matches greens), mushrooms (same), clover, deadly florals, raspberries

with navy:

succulents (goes with the darkest colors), mouse moth (matches BG color), daisy (matches the leaves), gemstone (matches gems), astronauts, aurora, luna moths, raincats, whales, crystal swords, dungeon delver

i'm sure there are other skirts that would also go great with these shirts but this list is already very long so i'm gonna leave it here!

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Yes pretty much these skirts with those colors! I wear green and navy tees a lot (right now wearing a green tee with clovers) and regularly wear it with both thistles and the raspberries frequently.

I usually do purple or silver with my crystal swords, and I have this pink tee that is the EXACT same color as a detail line in astronauts so I pair it with that.

As far as color picking goes, as long as there is a closely matching color in the base color or the details, it will look deliberate.

Or you can wear white or black. Those go with everything.

ty for the confirmation + extra deets 🥰

Howdy! May i ask what skirts go well with the green and navy tops based on yall seeing them in person? My only guess so far has been that the green could go with the clover skirt but im not sure how that color match shakes up irl

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it'll really depend on your personal style, but here's some combos i think would look nice!

with oregano:

both thistle skirts (matches/goes with the greens), gallery (same color family as BG color), oranges, pumpkins (matches greens), mushrooms (same), clover, deadly florals, raspberries

with navy:

succulents (goes with the darkest colors), mouse moth (matches BG color), daisy (matches the leaves), gemstone (matches gems), astronauts, aurora, luna moths, raincats, whales, crystal swords, dungeon delver

i'm sure there are other skirts that would also go great with these shirts but this list is already very long so i'm gonna leave it here!

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Reblogged

A little something for you… and a little something extra 🎨 Circle skirts are 30% off starting today, and we’ve also released stickers and art prints. It felt like a good day for both.

for those of you who need it, here’s a direct link to my US store!

and my UK one!

like a lot of small businesses right now, we’re really feeling the strain of how unstable everything is right now, so if you are able please take a look at my store or share this!

it really helps ensure that we can keep offering our size inclusive, certified ethically made clothing!

btw we VERY rarely put our petticoats on sale because they are super expensive to make, but they are on sale right now!

i realized with my recent vanetta posting that i’ve left out a very important semi-recent development (her backstory for context)

most recently the party has time traveled to a vaguely medieval time period where a lich arch mage is terrorizing the land with an undead army.

this is also the time/place that the book series vanetta comes from is based on

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Reblogged

Hi! I'm really interested in that goldfish shirt (100% cotton yay!) but I can't find any info on your website about where and how your shirts are manufactured. Do you print and sew them yourself or are you working with a factory? If the latter, can you confidently vouch that the factory operates ethically and that the workers have adequate pay, hours, and equipment safety? (e.g. are you the equivalent of an International Accord signatory if you aren't the manufacturer?)

I love supporting indie designers but nobody ever has that info available 😅

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First of all, thank you for caring about how things are made.

I work with a factory that handles printing and sewing. The honest answer is that the vast majority of indie designers can't afford the costs that a factory has to charge to certify everything, especially not at a retail price that most consumers can afford. To be frank, I already charge less for my button ups than what they should cost. I recommend @mayakern as an indie designer that has gone through the lengths of certifying fabric sourcing and labor, and has also discussed the process at length. You'll see that her shirts are $100. This is the cost of certification.

However, I (and my partner manufacturer) are exceedingly small businesses. I don't say this to shirk the importance of caring about how things are made but to emphasize that there is real cost and real logistics behind certification. I trust my manufacturer based on our agreements for how much manufacturing costs and how long it should take (e.g. that it is not cheap and not rushed). But they are too small of a business to pay for certification. And I am too small of a business to pass that cost to consumers.

Issues with labor conditions and waste stem from a relentless, fast-paced cycle of brands constantly pushing, and consumers constantly buying, new (cheap and cheaply made) clothing. A middle ground of sustainability on the consumer side is to be thoughtful when purchasing clothing, take care of it, and keep it for a long time. And on the brand side, it's to be thoughtful when designing clothing to last and having a gracious relationship with a partner manufacturer (rather than pressuring them to lower their prices or rush the process, factors that could lead to worse working conditions but also a worse end product). That's what I'm trying to do regardless of certification.

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thank you for the tag crow!

and yeah, like crow said, working with a factory that is certified for its ethical labor and quality all the way up the supply chain is very expensive.

because they’re not just auditing the factory itself, they’re investigating the entire process, from the mining of the minerals to make the pigments and dyes, to the creation of the elastic and buttons and zippers and other fixings, etc. a lot of that stuff is really difficult to trace.

there are a lot of factories, especially smaller factories, that have good working conditions and are dedicated to cleanliness and safety in their workplace and to using quality, nontoxic materials, but that do not have the money to get third party certified. there is an amount of due diligence that designers can do to find reliable and ethical factories that aren’t certified, but it’s a lot of work and time to take that on.

the unfortunate truth is that while there are a lot of factories that would like to be able to get certified for the ethical standards they already meet, it is expensive to do that and they’d have to bake that cost into the cost of their goods, which then the retailers/designers would have to absorb, which then the customers would have to absorb. and our wages are so stagnant and we have been so deliberately separated from the means of production that to many people, paying $100 for a single article of clothing is unfathomable.

and tbh even at our higher price point, we are still cutting into our margins.

and in the current political and economic climate even that is not helping much. at this point me and my small team (which is just my wife and our COO ash) are just doing our best hoping to survive for the next few years. it’s pretty dire.

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had one of the top 5 most satisfying nat 20s of my life last night

OK context bc a couple of y’all asked—apologies in advance because a LOT of context is necessary.

our level 7 party was confronting a lich known as the Arch Mage to try to get him to stop using his undead army to kill masses of people, and it turns out 900 years ago the lich had been artificially turned into the god of death by a different guy, who used the lich’s dead/dying 10ish-year old daughters as his phylactories. his daughters are also stuck in time, living each day like it’s the first after their undeath, with no memory of the past 900 years.

as phylactories, the girls run on the power of souls/deaths, and the cost has grown exponentially with time. but, as their loving father, the lich can’t bear to kill them himself, to have someone else kill them, or let them run out of souls and die “naturally,” because what loving parent can watch their children starve? it doesn’t excuse the thousands of deaths caused, but it’s a heartbreaking situation.

while talking, it’s revealed that we have an item that the lich could use to track down the fates, aka the daughters of the guy who turned him into a god, and boy would he really like to kill them! which seems like a really bad idea. in desperation, my character vanetta suggests that before we mess any further with divinity, whether creating or destroying it, that because she is a book character that came to life, maybe the lich could create his own world/dimension like that and live there with his daughters.

the arch mage went cool idea, i’m gonna study you like a bug now.

he dragged vanetta into his temporal magic circle and teleported the rest of the party into another chamber full of vampires to keep them busy. while trapped in the circle, my girl rolled a 29 in arcana (she has 19 intelligence and expertise) to get a feeling for the magic circle she was trapped in, all while the lich is actively doing time experiments on her. this is not the nat 20.

she beseeches the lich—tells him that he doesn’t need to do this, that she would help him find a solution. as a fictional character, her existence in the real world is unstable, which has previously manifested in a few ways—primarily, she has an at will version of alter self that lets her become alternate versions of herself. usually this is used for her to dress appropriately to the time period and region our party has been time traveled to. in this case, it made her appearance glitch out so as she spoke, she temporarily took on her childhood visage, to be around the same age as the lich’s daughters.

and in that moment, the lich’s daughters, who had only ever seen his human-looking disguise, enter the room and see his full lich form. even knowing that they won’t remember this tomorrow, the pain of their fear and the exhaustion of 900 years of futility take their toll. he starts to break down.

vanetta, now back to her normal appearance, tries to interpose herself between the girls and their dad, to shield him from view. she says she knows it’s an impossible situation, the worst possible trap, that she knows intimately that there is no pain worse than losing a child. that she understands him. it’s not stated explicitly (and the party doesn’t know this), but part of vanetta’s backstory is that she suffered a miscarriage after being targeted for Political Reasons™ and lost a baby she desperately wanted.

the arch mage says “i can’t lose them.”

vanetta says “you already have”

nat fuckin 20 persuassion babeyyyyyyyy

sometimes the dice just know. anyway that’s where the session ended (with the implication that the conflict has ended and we’re about to work together) and wowie i cannot wait for the next one!

Vanetta for reference ^

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hey y’all! i haven’t talked about it much publicly, but for all of january and a bit of december and february, i was knocked out with a truly gnarly sinus infection and the worst bout of burnout i’ve ever experienced.

between that and the store getting royally screwed over by multiple factors at the end of last year, things are pretty rough right now. i’ll go into this more some time later, but the TLDR is that the majority of the garments we were supposed to have in stock for the holiday season sales were so late they only got ready for sale in the past few weeks.

i know a lot of people are struggling right now everywhere and frankly with ICE still very active in my city it feels incredibly selfish to ask for help when i know others have it much worse, but i’m not really sure what else to do. we have a lot of bills due and thanks to receiving the bulk of our inventory four months late, we don’t have the money to pay them. but we have a lot of things in stock now and it would mean the absolute world if y’all would share this.

the clothing in my store is made with certified ethical labor and is designed by a queer, neurodivergent three person team. we carry sizes S-6X in some garments and XS-8X in others. we specialize in mid- and plus-size clothing and pride ourselves in doing extensive fit tests to make sure our clothes fit properly—that we consider and accomodate things many clothing retailers forget, like the curvature of a belly causing shirts and dresses to ride shorter, like sleeves and necklines needing to be widened, like thighs and fupas existing. and our clothes have real, usable pockets.

we ship domestically from the US and UK!

as a hail mary we’ll be running a sale next week, but some items are very low in stock and expected to sell out on the first day.

thank you in advance for your help!

we’ve added a lot of things to our clearance section and all my cotton garments are currently on sale! please check them out 🙏

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hey y’all! i haven’t talked about it much publicly, but for all of january and a bit of december and february, i was knocked out with a truly gnarly sinus infection and the worst bout of burnout i’ve ever experienced.

between that and the store getting royally screwed over by multiple factors at the end of last year, things are pretty rough right now. i’ll go into this more some time later, but the TLDR is that the majority of the garments we were supposed to have in stock for the holiday season sales were so late they only got ready for sale in the past few weeks.

i know a lot of people are struggling right now everywhere and frankly with ICE still very active in my city it feels incredibly selfish to ask for help when i know others have it much worse, but i’m not really sure what else to do. we have a lot of bills due and thanks to receiving the bulk of our inventory four months late, we don’t have the money to pay them. but we have a lot of things in stock now and it would mean the absolute world if y’all would share this.

the clothing in my store is made with certified ethical labor and is designed by a queer, neurodivergent three person team. we carry sizes S-6X in some garments and XS-8X in others. we specialize in mid- and plus-size clothing and pride ourselves in doing extensive fit tests to make sure our clothes fit properly—that we consider and accomodate things many clothing retailers forget, like the curvature of a belly causing shirts and dresses to ride shorter, like sleeves and necklines needing to be widened, like thighs and fupas existing. and our clothes have real, usable pockets.

we ship domestically from the US and UK!

as a hail mary we’ll be running a sale next week, but some items are very low in stock and expected to sell out on the first day.

thank you in advance for your help!

hey y’all, thank you so much for your responses to this post, it really means a lot!

for a little update, we’re still very much dealing with the repercussions of all our “holiday sale” items arriving four months late, which i’m sure we’ll continue to do for a while. we’re keeping a close eye on the (now deemed illegal) tariffs situation and when/if we’ll get that money back. our administration has made a lot of promises but given their track record… i’m not terribly optimistic.

if we ever do get that money back it will make things much easier for us, but until then things are still VERY rough right now.

but all of your help—your kind words, your sharing of our posts/the store in general, your testimonials/reviews as customers, and your support—is so heartening and i am so grateful to have so many people who care about me and my small business. so i really just want to say thank you again.

also, we had some new stuff hit the store recently, so if you are in need of a new skirt or pair of socks please take a look!