Featured Indie Designer – joodito

Meet the talented Judy Lee, designer behind the ultra-unique line: Joodito.

Your Name: Judy Lee
Age: 27
Hometown: City of Boston, born and raised.
Current Location: still here…

How did your interest in fashion begin? I’ve always been fascinated with fashion, for as long as I remember. I shop, but seldom find exactly what I desire. Naturally, I began making my own clothes.
What motivated you to start selling your designs and what were your expectations when you started? I worked for a young e-commerce company, fresh out of college. This is where I learned about Photoshop, studio photography, auction design, etc. One day this company went bankrupt… so I started selling clothes from my closet. I didn’t have expectations, I needed rent money. I guess everything just fell into place.
Do you have any formal training in fashion, art or design? I studied nursing and psychology in college. Post graduation, on a whim… I applied to Parsons of New York and got accepted! Read more

New WhatTheCraft.com Tutorials – Raglan/baseball sleeve top & Easy Sleeves!

Check out the newest tutorials at WhatTheCraft.com!

Raglan aka Baseball Style sleeve top

Step one: pick a shirt. You can do this with the shirt you want to reconstruct, but if you’re new to making patterns, I’d recommend getting an old junk shirt and cutting it apart to make the pattern

Cut the collar off. This is more necessary if you’re going to actually be using this shirt as your reconstruction. If you’re only cutting apart the shirt to use as a pattern, you can leave the collar on, if you want.

Tutorial (with step-by-step photos and instructions) continues here: http://www.whatthecraft.com/tuts/raglan.html

 

Easy Sleeves – attaching set-in sleeves (the easy, cheater way) Read more

Featured Indie Designer – Platipuses

Meet Christi of Platipuses, dedicated to creating cute DiY clothing for the curvier girls!

Your Name: Christi, or Plats
Age: 21
Hometown: Poulsbo, WA
Current Location: Poulsbo, WA

How did your interest in fashion begin? When I was 5ish my mom would pay me .25 cents to sew buttons onto shirts and I always really liked to do that, as simple as it was. Then I got older and I started making goth dolls. I would paint them, dye their hair and make their clothes. After that I started making myself leg warmers and then after high school I started making real clothes, and the rest, they say, is history! ;D
What motivated you to start selling your designs and what were your expectations when you started? I had seen some of the ‘elite’ girls on ebay doing their stuff and they were making over $700 a week and I thought, “I should try this!” I am pretty much unable to get a job out of the house so sewing was the answer for me. Read more

Featured Indie Designer – Twinkie Chan

Ladies and gents, prepare to be assaulted by cuteness… Our newest Featured Indie Designer comes from a land of junk food and yarn. I present to you: TwinkieChan!

Name: Twinkie Chan
Age: 31
Hometown: Bay Area, California
Current Location: San Francisco

How did your interest in DiY fashion and design begin? My mom and my best friend’s mom always told us to “Go home and make it,” so I think that philosophy has stuck with us as we’ve grown up (my bff sews). I also went to a very creative grade school where we weren’t even allowed to wear store-bought Halloween costumes, so you can imagine my mom helping me make a paper mache grape costume or a foam rubber lock-and-key costume! As for DiY fashion, I think we are always looking for those rare or one of a kind items, and I wanted a type of scarf that I’d never seen before, so, I went home and made it!
What motivated you to start selling your designs and what were your expectations when you started? I really didn’t set out to sell anything. I just wanted to make cute things for myself. Then I realized I had nearly a dozen different scarves that I was never wearing, so I decided to try to sell them and see if anybody wanted any. Read more

Featured Indie Designer – ratherxpeculiar

Canadian DiY designer Sarah brings us a little goth, a little punk, and rather peculiar clothing:

Your Name: Sarah!
Age: Twenty.
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario – Canada *swoons*
Current Location: Toronto, Ontario – Canada.

How did your interest in fashion begin? I was always ridiculously picky about what I wore, not necessarily JUST for fashionable reasons, but the way I felt in the clothes. I’d always try to alter them the best I could so that whatever it was was enjoyable to wear. And the band shirts… oh the band shirts, I absolutely despise those damn baby doll tees, I constantly found all the good shirts were guys shirts and ended up snipping the shoulders off and making it hip length – I did this long enough before I took fashion/sewing course in my second last year of high school, and immediately purchased what I needed and started teaching myself !
What motivated you to start selling your designs and what were your expectations when you started? I would have people ask where I got something, and once I told them I made it / altered it / reconstructed it, they would ask if I ever thought of selling to the public, and eventually I did ! Read more

The newest edition to my sewing family: Miss Patti, aka the Singer 301

Garage sale-ing is one of my favorite summer activities, and it also happens to be one of the best ways to score an old sewing machine. Look around at any messageboard post or article where someone has asked about the best qualities of a sewing machine, and I guarantee you’ll find several people that swear by old all-metal machines. I learned to sew on a 1960′s Kenmore that was my mother’s. I still have it, and it still runs (though the tension’s a little off, 100% the fault of one of my cats).
So during a garage sale cruise this past summer, my boyfriend and I stopped at a house not far from our own, and I spied a mysterious suitcase….

A garage sale-ing rule of mine is to always, always, ALWAYS open mysterious cases and boxes. You never know what kind of kickass treasure will be within!

Inside the mysterious case was pretty much what I had expected…. an old, heavy-as-an-anvil sewing machine. So, even though the people running this particular garage sale were kind of creepy and more than a little rude, sucks to their aunties, because I picked up this gem for $35! Read more

New WhatTheCraft.com Tutorial – keyhole tops!

Check out the newest WhatTheCraft tutorial, which shows how to add a keyhole opening to a top!

Read more