Blog, Indie Designer Spotlight

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!

TwinkieChanName: 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!Read more…

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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….
Singer

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…

Blog, Indie Designer Spotlight

Featured Indie Designer – ViviFromage

Not going anywhere cool this holiday season? Fear not, my marooned friends. This week our Indie Designer Feature takes us to France with an interview with ViviFromage!

vivifromageYour Name: Virginie Janin
Age: 22
Hometown: Bonneville, FRANCE
Current Location: Annecy, FRANCE

How did your interest in fashion begin? I’ve always been interested in fashion (even when I was a kid, meaning my Barbie doll was of course a total fashionista! hehe) but I was pretty frustrated until I discovered DIY designers, about 3 or 4 years ago. I mean, unless you’re rich enough to buy haute couture clothes, you have to buy your clothes at the mall ; these clothes can be cute but they can’t be regarded as unique clothes. The first DIY item I saw was an incredibly awesome Tsunami Bomb corset, made by Suzie aka Dropdeaddiy. I immediately thought : “Wow, this is really interesting, I wish I was able to make this kind of stuff!”Read more…

Indie Designer Spotlight

Featured Indie Designer – The Vintage Doctor

Nintendo, Star Wars, Alice in Wonderland… TheVintageDoctor brings you such d.i.y. delights and just so happens to be our newest Featured Indie Designer!

The Vintage DoctorYour Name: Sarah Pirog
Age: 26
Hometown: Alden, NY (a little farm-country town outside of Buffalo)
Current Location: Worcester, MA

How did your interest in fashion begin? Necessity is the mother of invention! I am a filmmaker by trade, and mostly create fantasy and period-based shorts & music videos. All my of my films require custom-fitted pieces for the actors, so it was convenient for me to simply make my own costumes from scratch.
What motivated you to start selling your designs and what were your expectations when you started? It was kind of a fluke, actually. After my films were completed, I had all the costumes left over just laying around. Since I figured that somebody else could get more use out of them than my closet, they were sold on Ebay. Read more…