nekohooch

[nekohooch]

so if you've been wondering why @jumpingjacktrash never posts anymore... hey you remember back in november when i posted that PSA about stroke symptoms? yeah.

things looked bad for a while, and then good for a while, and then bad for a while, and sometime last night jesse wildly misunderstood the term "death of the author".

if you're thinking about sending gifts or something, i'm all set, but hey, trevor project and the like are always looking for support.

[nekohooch]

April Fools day here is always funny because my dash is full of “here’s a Rick roll but it’s actually a different song” “here’s ‘do you love the color of the sky’ just kidding! It’s not the full long post!” “Here’s a drawing I made of a kitty! Just kidding! It’s two kitties and they’re best friends” and we do this unironically and completely ignoring the blood lust we all experience every year just two weeks prior

[nekohooch]

Quick what are you doing RIGHT now (besides scrolling Tumblr)

[nekohooch]

RIP Joann, now what?

I wanted to make a post I could copy and paste and or link when I see folks asking where to buy fabrics when Joann is gone. I sew a lot, generally between 100-200 items a year and I don't do it on a big budget. Stores are not in a particular order.

Notions:

Wawak.com - start here, mostly stay here. Wawak is a supplier for professional sewing businesses and have the prices that show it. I will not pay for gutermann Mara 100 anywhere else. I buy buttons, tools, thread, and most elastic here.

Stitch Love Studio - this is where I buy lingerie supplies https://www.etsy.com/shop/StitchLoveStudio?ref=yr_purchases

Fabric:

Fabric Mart - this is one where you want to sign up for emails and never buy unless its on sale. They run different sales every day and they rotate. Mostly deadstock fabrics but I buy more from here than anywhere else. Fantastic customer service and if you watch you can get things like $6 wool suiting or $4 cotton jersey. https://fabricmartfabrics.com/

Fabrics-Store - again, buy the sales not the full price. Sign up for the emails but redirect them to a folder because it is TOO MANY. They stock linen or good but not amazing quality. https://www.fabrics-store.com/

Purple Seamstress - This is where I buy my solid cotton lycra jersey. They have other things, but the jersey is what I'm here for. Inexpensive and very good quality. If you ask she will mail you a swatch card for the solids. https://purpleseamstressfabric.com/

LA Finch - deadstock fabrics with a fantastic remnant selection https://lafinchfabrics.myshopify.com/

Califabrics - mix of deadstock and big brands, easy to navigate and always seem to have good denim in stock. https://califabrics.com/

Boho Fabrics - good variety, nice bundles. I have also gotten some really great trims from here. https://www.bohofabrics.com/

Firecracker Fabrics - garment and quilting fabrics, really nice selection and great sale section. I've bought $5 yard quilting cottons here several times. https://www.firecrackerfabrics.com/

Hancock's of Paducah - Quilting fabric and some limited garment fabric. AMAZING sale section. Do not sleep on the sale section. This is my first stop when buying quilting fabrics. Usually the last stop too. Not particularly speedy shipping. https://www.hancocks-paducah.com/

Itokri - This is something a little different. Itokri is an Indian business with incredible traditional fabrics. Shipping to the US is expensive, but the fabric is so inexpensive it evens out. I generally end up paying like $30 for shipping. Beautiful ikat and block prints. https://itokri.com/

Miss Matatabi - this is a little treat. This isn't where you go to save money, but there are so many beautiful things in this shop. Ships from Japan incredibly quickly. https://shop.missmatatabi.com/

Lucky Deluxe - Craft thrift store, always has an incredible selection and fantastic customer service. I need to close the tab fast because I never go to this website without finding something I need. https://www.luckydeluxefabrics.com/

Swanson's - the OG of online craft thrift stores, but I find their website harder to navigate. https://www.swansonsfabrics.com

Honorary Mentions: I haven't shopped at these places yet but I have had them recommended and likely will at some point.

A Thrifty Notion - https://athriftynotion.com/

Creative Closeouts - https://creativecloseoutsfabric.com/ being rebranded to sewsnip.com on March 1 - quilting deadstock

Hawthorne Supply Co. - I just got this rec and I think I need to not look too closely or I'm going to slip with my debit card. https://www.hawthornesupplyco.com/

This is not an exhaustive list of everywhere you can buy fabric, or even a full list of where I shop. There are SO many options out there in the world. You also need to think outside the fabric store box. I thrift men's shirt fabrics for quilts and sheets for backing fabric. I don't do a ton of in person thrifting and my local stores don't get a lot of craft materials but every thrift store is its own universe and reflects the community it is in. Go out and find something cool.

Oh and final note: Don't shop at Hobby Lobby.

[nekohooch]

You can never experience watching your favourite show for the first time again, but you CAN convince someone else to watch your favourite show and vicariously enjoy all their raw reactions to seeing it for the first time, which is honestly nearly as good.

[nekohooch]

From the same brain hyperfixation as the Azem Summoning Circle Gown I bring you my latest nonsense!

I went to Chicago for the Distant Worlds Symphony concert and finally got pictures of my Halloween costume from last year!!

I’m Amaurot.

I spent an IMMENSE amount of time on this and it turned out gorgeously. I only had 1 ½ yards of the top fabric in my remnants and I had to do some serious finagling to get it to all fit in that width.

This was my final idea. For some reason it took forever for the dress to do what my brain wanted but I finally finagled it into shape. I didn’t bring the original crown to Chicago because it’s HUGE but it is wonderfully ornate and beautiful

The cityscape was honestly the easiest part (if not the most tedious). My scarf was my template and I traced over it onto a sheer fabric. Then I transferred that to some black Heat and Bond and I attached it to black chiffon and then cut out the city and finally ironed it onto the fashion fabric.

So. Many. Windows.

I then attached copious rhinestones and the beautiful squiggley trim that looks like the spires.

Honestly I would still bedazzle the fuck out of this but I’m gonna take a small break to work on my Titania cosplay.

So glad I got to bring another creation to life!!

[nekohooch]

From the same brain hyperfixation as the Azem Summoning Circle Gown I bring you my latest nonsense!

I went to Chicago for the Distant Worlds Symphony concert and finally got pictures of my Halloween costume from last year!!

I’m Amaurot.

I spent an IMMENSE amount of time on this and it turned out gorgeously. I only had 1 ½ yards of the top fabric in my remnants and I had to do some serious finagling to get it to all fit in that width.

This was my final idea. For some reason it took forever for the dress to do what my brain wanted but I finally finagled it into shape. I didn’t bring the original crown to Chicago because it’s HUGE but it is wonderfully ornate and beautiful

The cityscape was honestly the easiest part (if not the most tedious). My scarf was my template and I traced over it onto a sheer fabric. Then I transferred that to some black Heat and Bond and I attached it to black chiffon and then cut out the city and finally ironed it onto the fashion fabric.

So. Many. Windows.

I then attached copious rhinestones and the beautiful squiggley trim that looks like the spires.

Honestly I would still bedazzle the fuck out of this but I’m gonna take a small break to work on my Titania cosplay.

So glad I got to bring another creation to life!!

[nekohooch]

One thing they don’t tell you about sewing is that it is actually ironing

[nekohooch]

Things are bad right now.

As many of you know, way back in 2020 we weren’t sure if our business was gonna make it. Our factory was already on break for Lunar New Year–a month-long holiday for many businesses in the area–and with the announcement of COVID19, everything shut down indefinitely. We knew immediately we were in for a bad time. Despite our fears, our sales grew so far beyond anything we ever expected, to the point where we had to hire two employees just to keep up with demand! 

Unfortunately, even after our factory reopened, our problems were not over. Their quality drastically declined almost immediately, to the point that a significant amount of our  fabric would literally fall apart in transit between the factory and our office. Because of this, we discovered that our sales rep had no idea what she was doing and knew nothing about the factory she was representing, so when we told her the fabric was garbage her response was “👍 factory said it’s good!” At the beginning, only roughly 10% of our new product was defective and we were able to sell the affected items with a reasonable discount. By the end of our relationship with that factory, 40% of our midi skirts and 70% of our miniskirts were defective, some affected so severely that they practically fell apart when touched. And still, our rep said everything was fine and there were no problems and the fabric composition had not changed.

So in 2022 we changed factories. We hired Ash to handle this since I was way too busy managing fulfillment to do the amount of research and communication necessary to find us a factory that met our criteria. Finding clothing factories that can make clothing over a size 2-3X is significantly more difficult than one that can’t because it often requires larger and more expensive machinery. But Ash did it: she got us set up with a new factory that has excellent certifications for both their labor practices and their methods for textile production, that delivers consistent, high quality sewing on well made fabric that can be printed without suffering loss in detail–and she was armored with the knowledge for what makes a quality garment so she could check them if they tried to screw us on quality. Their minimum orders were way higher than our previous factory’s, so we decided to focus on ordering more units of fewer designs. We ordered way too much our first round–some of those designs were in stock until the 2024 blowout sale! But it worked out, and slowly we had a warehouse full of stuff to sell.

Fast forward to 2024, business is slowing down between the economy being bad and what seemed to be a general skirt fatigue amongst our customers. We tried expanding into shirts, which would’ve been successful if our minimums were lower. In the late spring we realized we were in trouble if we didn’t make drastic changes and we ultimately decided to end in-house fulfillment and transfer to a third party fulfillment center that would support domestic shipping in Canada and eventually the UK, EU, and Australia. In order to make that transition affordable we drastically discounted everything and that sale was super successful! We were able to begin shipping from the fulfillment center with an almost clean slate, even if it did mean having to close the store for almost two months and thereby missing out on two very important months of sales.

Unfortunately, we were stupid. We continued to order new designs on an every other month schedule instead of switching to an every month schedule, forgetting that having a backstock in a variety of designs is what previously helped us float between orders and now we quite literally didn’t have enough inventory to match the sales we made for last year’s holiday sale.

That brings us to now.

We’re a little stuck. We have a round of skirts in production (yay!) but they won’t get here until February (boo!). To get back on that monthly cycle we would need to order the next round of skirts right now, but we can’t pay for production until that next round of skirts gets here; if the current sale goes well, it’s paying payroll, not production. We are currently in the very difficult, horrible situation of not having enough money for next month’s payroll unless we are somehow able to make significant sales with our very sparse inventory.

We’re scrappy and we do our best to adapt to disasters and I’m sure we’ll find a way to adapt to this one as well, it’ll just take us some time to get there. Basically we’re going to be okay eventually–hopefully later this year–but in the meantime if we seem frantic, now you know why. 

If you’re been considering trying out our viscose shirts but haven’t been able to justify paying full price, they’re on clearance PLUS half off right now! That’s $9-$15 for the viscose tops, and other tops on clearance are $20-$45. Some of the shirts we’re having a LOT of trouble selling are now priced below cost to help us recoup some of the money we spent making them.

Any amount of support helps right now. Sharing posts, telling your friends, buying a $9 shirt–all of it helps. If our clothing isn’t your thing, we also have a Patreon you can support for as little as $1 a month. https://www.patreon.com/mayakern

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a great rest of your day and that 2025 is a brighter, kinder year for us all.

[nekohooch]

'tis the season

[nekohooch]

Everyone reblog with your most unemployable traits

[nekohooch]

My moms best friend nicknamed me “weebie” when I was bitsy because I reminded her of the toy “weebles wobble but they don’t fall down”

You ever think about how we call toddlers that because they can't walk right. They toddle about. Fuckin idiots. Fuckin idiot steppers can't walk properly. Call 'em wobblers. This is my son Jeffrey he's at the age where I mock him for walking like a fucking scrub. "Skill issue" ass name.

[nekohooch]

Thank you so much! I’m all about the themes!! and my outfits wouldn’t be half as wonderful without your fantastic skirts!

I’ve had many years of learning what my style is and embracing the colorful and I’m very happy that I discovered your shop for myself and can support a small business that is doing such an amazing job navigating capitalism, while still being good people. As a person who makes clothes and costumes and reuses as much as I can to stay in tiny community theatre budgets, y’all’s commitment to your values is half of the reason I keep coming back.

The other half is the art is stunning and I love being able to feel like I get to be a part of the art while wearing things that make me feel beautiful. You guys may feel like you’re floundering sometimes, but I’m super happy y’all exist to bring some colorful into the world. Sappy notes aside, thank you again!!

art vs. final product

[nekohooch]

AHAHA YOURE SO RIGHT I OWN SO MANY MAYA KERN SKIRTS ITS NOT FUNNY

This is just a portion of my collection XD my family know and I will hopefully have bubbles or freshly ripened sewing kit (that’s the butter cookies) as a present this December!

art vs. final product

[nekohooch]

reblog if you would give cheeses to these meeces