{"id":1337,"date":"2022-03-11T15:31:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T15:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/03\/11\/the-patchwork-groups-sharing-gender-affirming-underwear-patterns\/"},"modified":"2022-03-11T15:31:02","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T15:31:02","slug":"the-patchwork-groups-sharing-gender-affirming-underwear-patterns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/03\/11\/the-patchwork-groups-sharing-gender-affirming-underwear-patterns\/","title":{"rendered":"The patchwork groups sharing gender-affirming underwear patterns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/22962037\/gender-affirming-underwear-diy-pattern-groups<\/a>
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Mel Martinez\u2019s dad had an unusual (and very much unofficial) title in the Air Force: stitch bitch. Decades later, that title \u2014 given to the many men whose duties included sewing \u2014 has now become something of a rallying cry for queer sewists like Martinez, who put gender affirmation at the center of their creations. Martinez and many others are updating their craft to subvert status quo designs that don\u2019t quite fit, building, instead, a world of underwear, lingerie, and intimates in which everybody (and body) is welcome. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have always been really particular about the way clothes fit; I have very sensitive skin and some skin allergies and some sensory stuff,\u201d says Martinez, who uses both they and she pronouns. In the realm of underwear, this means that it often takes her months to find the perfect<\/em> pair. So, knowing how to use a sewing machine, they eventually just decided to make their own.<\/p>\n

When it comes to getting dressed, gender affirmation can mean a myriad of things: a celebration of oneself and one\u2019s body, functional \u2014 and perhaps unconventional \u2014 tailoring, and, of course, comfort. But there\u2019s not a lot of accessible information on the topic out there, Martinez says. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re right: communities like Sew Queer<\/a> and The Sewcialists<\/a> (which shut down in 2021) have served as digital gathering spaces for queer people who want to make their own intimates. But it\u2019s a pieced-together effort of sharing information and pattern hacks \u2014 worlds away from the mainstream sewing companies who have been mass-producing patterns for generations of (mostly) women. Queers are searching for something often overlooked: binders, gaffs, lingerie for trans women, boxer briefs for nonbinary folks; designs that have simply never existed in the universe of McCall\u2019s or Simplicity patterns.<\/p>\n

While conventional, gendered bra patterns are a dime a dozen, Emilia Bergoglio, a queer sewist in Tokyo, Japan, saw that there were \u201cbasically zero resources\u201d when it came to sewing binders. It led them to write a blog post<\/a> titled \u201cThe Great Binder Story\u201d for The Sewcialists<\/a> as part of a larger series called All Chests Welcome<\/a>, which cobbled together knowledge and how-to\u2019s from a diverse array of hobbyists. <\/p>\n

\u201cBinders are essential for many trans folks, and they are not cheap,\u201d they say. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s impossible to find something that fully represents who you are in the market, so sewing helps you with that. You can create it yourself. The fit, the fabric, the silhouette \u2014 it\u2019s very empowering.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Sew Queer blog has a similar page of resources<\/a> more specifically aimed at queer sewing, full of links to tutorials, Facebook community groups, patterns, and suggested materials \u2014 which range from posts like the Floozy Doozy DIY Underwear Strap On Hack<\/a>, which comes with a complete pattern available for purchase, to a Facebook group hosted by Rad Patterns<\/a>, where folks can share pattern hacks, adjustments, and alterations to better fit their needs. It\u2019s a small but growing Rolodex of vital information. <\/p>\n

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