hi!! i’ll be participating in @art-for-eastern-washington-2026 donation campaign, i’ll be offering 3 painted busts like the examples above

sign ups start on august 15th

you can find donation links, info, artists and submission page here:

Cutting - in my opinion, the most labor intensive part of the process. The amount of time/effort needed varies depending on the pattern and if seam allowance is included or marked separately, but no matter what this process can not be done by machine. Each and every panel and piece of fabric that goes into a garment must be cut by hand by a person.

Pinning/clipping - pinning (or clipping) is the stage at which you align the pieces you are going to be stitching together and hold them together with — you guessed it! — either pins or clips. This can not be done by machine.

Stitching - the actual sewing. This can be done by a sewing machine, but that machine still needs to be operated by a human being.

Ironing/pressing - two words that mean the same thing. The iron itself is a machine, but once again, it needs to be operated by a human being.

Finishing - depending on the technique you use, there are certain finishing techniques that can only be done by hand. But, let’s assume we’re talking about fast fashion, which is usually just finished with a simple overlock/serger. Once again: these machines need to be operated by people.

These are just the basic steps to making a garment, and don’t include textile arts that I am not as knowledgeable about, such as weaving, knitting, and crochet. Also, it is important to note that there are a lot of things that can only be done by hand, such as certain stitches and decorative techniques.

Also, the machinery being operated in textile factories is not equivalent to a domestic sewing machine. We’re talking about one of these guys:

See that gray cylinder under the table, behind the knee pedal? That’s the motor. These machines can sew through your fingers bones and all and not even stop. The people in these factories and sweatshops are operating heavy machinery, and are subject to all the risk that comes with that in addition to all of the work I mentioned above.

" I'm taking a sewing class and I asked my teacher about how much machines can actually do. She said that while a lot of actual fabric we use in our projects is machine-woven, and sometimes there are machines for particular knitting patterns or for the same small thing over and over and over (i.e. socks), the overwhelming majority of pieces of clothing are in fact just sewn together by humans. Usually women. Underpaid and overlooked. Thousands and thousands of them, working 12 hours a day or more in huge warehouse-factories. You're probably wearing something one of those women created right now.

Most of the students (including me) were horrified. We had *no* idea. We figured that, given that we have supercomputers and massive industrial systems for almost every type of product you can buy, surely we would have figured out a better way? Surely there are machines that can put a t-shirt together by now?

She said, no, that's why fast fashion is really so bad. It's not simply about the quality of the product, it's about the human cost.

When you buy a cheap tee that says "Made in Bangladesh", this is where your clothing came from (and these are from one of the nicer factories):

(By Fahad Faisal. CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89582692)

Test subject

Eastern Washington State is experiencing a devastating wildfire season and communities have been heavily impacted. @art-for-eastern-washington-2026 is doing a commission fundraiser to help with relief efforts and I'm participating!

I am donating 3 painted portrait commissions (greyscale or color, examples below). They will be available for anyone who donates $15 or more to one of the supported relief funds. You can rank me as one of your artist choices in the request form <3

Go check out @art-for-eastern-washington-2026 and take a look at the other artists too!

You can find donation links, the submission page, and artist signup pages at the linktree below! Commission submissions will open August 15! Artist sign-ups are open until the 12th if anyone else would like to donate their skills

go to discord support ( https://support.discord.com )

sign in or sign up (you do not, and imo should not, use the name and email you use for discord proper. this is a different account; if you've got Firefox, you can use an email relay mask very easily, and the email will end up in your inbox but the site won't know your email from it)

"Submit a request" (at the top)

fill all the dropdowns (I did "Help & Support" -> "Technical Support" -> "Account Settings" -> "[OS type"). it won't let you proceed until you do

Subject line: something about age verification

description box: keep it civil, but be clear. you don't like this, you're not participating, and you're not giving them your money anymore (whether you had nitro or not is irrelevant, remember that you didn't use your actual discord login to get here and they have no way to verify).

some reasons possibly worth mentioning: the insecurity of databases (Discord's had multiple leaks; databases being hacked isn't possible to prevent afaik, it's a matter of mitigation), the dangers of putting one's govt id on such a database, the technical problems people are already experiencing where it's already been established, how it will disrupt communities

be very clear that this is going to cost them money. "I won't use your service anymore" is a common threat ("I'm never shopping here again!") - you need to make them feel that they are losing money just by considering it, and it will get much worse if it's implemented.