Arkdefo

When I started making my own clothes, fabric became impossible to ignore.

Wool behaves differently.
Linen breathes differently.
Cotton ages differently.

And once you feel the difference, you can’t unfeel it.

This isn’t about fear.
It’s about awareness.

When you know more, you choose differently.

1 day ago | [YT] | 71

Arkdefo

Ready-to-wear didn’t fail me.
It was simply never designed for my body.

Once I understood that - really understood it - something shifted.

You cannot fit a pear into a square.

Fit is not about fixing yourself.
It’s about understanding proportions and working with them intelligently.

That’s when clothes stop being frustrating and start feeling like freedom.

4 days ago | [YT] | 19

Arkdefo

I didn’t stop buying clothes because I’m disciplined.
I stopped because I realised I didn’t need to.

There’s a big difference.

For years I thought shopping was normal and making was optional.
Now I see it the other way around.

When you understand fit, fabric, and your own style, consumption becomes intentional - not emotional.

It’s not about restriction.
It’s about clarity.

This video dives into this further.

6 days ago | [YT] | 28

Arkdefo

Skirts and tops are generally pretty forgiving.
They mostly hang.
Trousers don’t.

They have to work when you’re standing, sitting, walking, climbing stairs - and they have to do it on bodies with completely different proportions.

That’s why “one pattern, graded up and down” will always fall short.

Trousers need a different way of thinking.

If this garment has always felt harder than everything else you’ve made, that’s not an accident - and it’s not you.

I go deeper into this in the new video.

1 week ago | [YT] | 8

Arkdefo

A useful way to think about clothes is like architecture.

Every garment has a structure -bodice, sleeve, skirt, or trousers.
And then it has decoration -pleats, pockets, seams, details.

Decoration can change how something looks.
But structure determines whether it works at all.

With trousers especially, most frustration comes from trying to decorate a structure that was never right in the first place.

I explain this distinction in the latest video.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 6

Arkdefo

If trousers have always felt like a personal failure, I want to say this clearly:
It’s not your body.
And it’s not because you “haven’t learned enough yet”.

Trousers are trying to do a lot at once - waist, hips, bum, thighs, leg length, movement - and most systems are built as if bodies are just small variations of the same shape.

They’re not.

When the system doesn’t match the body, no amount of “fixing” helps.
This is exactly what I unpack in the new video.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 11

Arkdefo

Most women don’t struggle with the same trouser fit problem.
They struggle with opposite ones.

If trousers fit your hips, they gape at the waist.
If they fit your waist, you can’t sit down.
Some bodies need more rise. Others less.
Some need space in the thighs. Others drown in fabric.

These problems cancel each other out.

That’s why one trouser pattern can’t work for everyone and why this garment feels uniquely frustrating.

We talk about this in more detail in the latest video.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 18

Arkdefo

Some garments hide structural problems.
Trousers rarely do.

This is where fit issues become more visible and why understanding pattern structure matters more than sewing technique.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 9

Arkdefo

When garments don’t fit, bodies are often treated as the problem.

In reality, most issues come from starting with a generic base and hoping adjustments will compensate.

Design based on individual measurements reverses that logic and removes the need for constant compromise.

1 month ago | [YT] | 15

Arkdefo

The fit is not created at the sewing stage.

By the time sewing/stitching begins, the outcome is already largely determined by:

– the shape of the pattern pieces
– the assumptions made about the body
– the logic of the base block

Clean seams cannot correct a structure that was never designed for the wearer.

1 month ago | [YT] | 19