Goodbye, my friend...

Sorry I've been such a bad blogger lately. I've been crazy busy building up stock three holiday sales- Smart Design Mart, Souk @ SAT, and City of Craft. I'm doing exclusively baby clothes for these sales, which is kind of exciting. I love making women's clothing but I think that baby clothes are much more giftable. It's official....I'm a sellout! Sigh...

Oh...I have some sad news (you probably heard if you follow me on facebook). We had to put our cat Otto was put to sleep a few weeks ago. The poor guy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He was getting very weak and uncomfortable so we decided not to let it go on for too long. We loved him and we didn't want him to suffer. We don't know how old he was, but we are guessing around 14? He truly was the best cat in the world.

I miss him terribly but I know it was the right thing to do. I decided to have the vet come to our house to perform the euthanasia...and I have to tell you that it was well worth the extra cost. I didn't want his last moments to be panicked in a cab on the way to the vet. He died peacefully in his home, in our arms. I think Freddy and I cried for like a week straight...it was really sad to say goodbye to our little friend.

If you have internet in kitty heaven....I love you Otto!

More pictures in my facebook album.

Featured boutique- Madame Fancy Pants!

One of the best things about working with small, independent shops is that you really get to know the owner/s. Actually, come to think of it, some of my closest friends are people I've met because they started carrying my line in their store. For example, my now studio-mate Angie, Katie and Regine from Victoire, and my sweet friend Erin from Sodafine. I guess it's a great way to meet like-minded entrepreneurial spirits.

I was super excited when Claire contacted me about selling Supayana in her cute New Zealand shop. She is so sweet and always a pleasure to work with. We soon became facebook "friends" and she is super rad! She plays music, makes jewelry, and looks like a lot of fun.

Here's a picture of the shop. If you look closely you can see some Supayana dresses hanging on the rack...

Here's an excerpt from their website:

"Madame Fancy Pants is a brick and mortar store based in lovely lil Wellington, New Zealand and is also the name of the (made) in store jewelry label by owner and designer Claire Terry.

Madame Fancy Pants opened its Cuba Street doors in April 2007 and has been providing its lovely visitors with gorgeous, trinkety, limited edition, loveliness ever since!"

The store has an online shop which carries lots of cool artists and designers from New Zealand and beyond.

Supayana at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris!

A few months ago I entered Lenzing's design competition. The object was to create a garment using the same white fabric that they supplied to all of the contestants. Five people were chosen (out of 60) to win a free booth at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris. I was one of the lucky winners! Woo hoo! The show is happening from September 1-4. Unfortunately, I can't be there in person, but Janie and Andre are holding down the fort for me!

I'll start with a pic of the finished dress (taken from Lenzing's blog).

I'll take you through the process of creating the dress. The fabric was bright white....a real blank canvas! I stared at it for days...a blank canvas can be so intimidating!

I wanted to change the color but I wanted to do it with as little environmental impact as possible, especially since the contest was to win a booth at the Ethical Fashion Show. So I dyed the fabric with tea, making it a creamy yellow color.

Here's the hot tea bath! I swirled the fabric around in the water for about 20 minutes.

Here's the white fabric side-by-side with the tea dyed fabric.

Then, I took the fabric over to my studio and took out all of my vintage trims that I've been hoarding for years.

I picked out some black pom pom trim and some super soft black vintage lace.

Since I was creating a one-of-a-kind piece, I didn't need to make a pattern for it. (I HATE making patterns, by the way) So I kind of free-hand sculpted it on the dressform...I made darts as I went. I guess that's not the "real" way to do it but it's so much more fun.

Here the dress is almost finished. Needs something. Hmmm how about some pom-poms and lace sleeves?

Here's the finished dress!

Fall is 'round the corner!

Just spent the day listing my new fall items in my etsy shop.

Photography by Caroline Lafond (http://carolinelafondphoto.com​/)

Makeup by Natacha C.

Modeling by Kenza Ze (Dulcedo models)

Montreal Fashion & Design Festival

If any of you are in Montreal this weekend....we've got the Montreal Fashion & Design festival happening right now! They've got lots of really great events and shows happening for free. It started yesterday and will be going on until Sunday.

Check out their website for more information.

http://www.festivalmodedesign.com/

I biked to work today so I snapped some quick pics.

I'm selling some dresses in "La Boutique"- a big tent dedicated to showcasing Montreal's designers.

Oh and this is not related to the festival....but how beautiful is this? I passed it on my way up to Mile End and couldn't help taking a picture. I love the combination of overgrown plants and old buildings....sigh!

Some new things in my shop...

Cat print shirt. I designed the this cat repeat pattern and got it printed using Spoonflower!

Tie back dress made from vintage rayon.

Deer print dress in a new colorway.

Owl dress in a new colorway.

Doe-re-mi blouse

Silk thistle blouse

Maze dress

Thanks to the lovely Vanessa Pilon for modeling.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Back at home

I just got back a few days ago from my friend's wedding in Long Island! In the end, it was a fantastic trip, but it started off as, well...a disaster. After getting stuck in line at the U.S. border for almost three hours, Freddy realized he had left his wedding clothes in a garment bag at home! Ah! There was no way we could turn around and go back, especially after waiting so long.

Anyway, we ended up spending the night in Brooklyn, and woke up crazy early to find him new clothes, as the wedding was that afternoon. In the end it worked out for the best, as he ended up finding sooo much great clothing. I guess NY is the place to be if you forget your clothes. Now, I joke that he "forgot" his clothes at home so he could go on a shopping spree at Uniqlo...hehe.

Here's a picture from our ferry ride from Greenpoint to Midtown. They just started this ferry service a few months ago! I forgot what it's called...but it's pretty awesome that you can go from Brooklyn to Manhattan so easily now. It only took us 10 minutes!

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of the wedding! (Too busy crying!) My friend Trish and her husband wrote the most touching vows, and oh, her sister's speech left almost the entire party bawling! Way to go guys! Maybe you should have had tissue boxes as wedding favors, sheesh!

Anyway, after NY we went to my parents house in Pennsylvania. They sold their house in Brooklyn a few years ago and now live in the woods. My dad loves it, but I think my mom really misses the city and people! I try to call her as often as I can cause I can tell she is kind of lonely :-(

Here's a picture of my dad and their cat Margosha. Yep, that's his furry little baby...hehe.

Since I've been back I've been doing some sewing and a little gardening. I ate my first kale from the garden last night! It was so delicious, and so rewarding to eat! I've always had a deep appreciation for the food I eat (maybe it's an immigrant thing...we never threw food away in my house) but I feel even closer to my food now that I've been growing some of my edibles. It really makes me appreciate all of the hard work that farmers do for us.

Anywhoooo...I photographed and listed a bunch of vintage skirts today. It's kind of fun to do one kind of garment all at once. Here they are!

Check 'em out in my shop.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday.

Crazy for apps...

Weeping willows are one of my favorite trees! Here's a picture I took along the St. Lawrence River yesterday. I took it on my phone using the Hipstamatic app. That app is pure magic....it makes everything look so magical and vintage.

I know I'm a little late on the iphone bandwagon. I resisted for so long! Well, I'm a convert now. It's KIND of amazing to be able to answer work emails anywhere. It was a huge help when I was in NY last week, too. Not to mention that there are sooo many awesome apps for like, everything you could think of.

Here are a few I downloaded:

-Period Tracker (Does exactly what you think it does. Really useful for scheduling trips!)

-iPlant (Describes properties of plants, has photos, tells you which ones are edible!)

-Photosynth (Makes 3D models of the space you're in, kind of like google street view.)

Then of course I downloaded some apps that make cat sounds to drive my cats crazy. Are there any apps that you guys could recommend me? I'm pretty open- they can be super useful or really silly.

A sneak peak into fall...

I know it's depressing to talk about Fall already....but according to the fashion world I'm super late! So hard to think about fall stuff when it's just beginning to be spring here.

I've finally finished sourcing my materials for the collection, which actually takes so much longer than designing/sewing my samples, especially since I try to use as much vintage/recycled fabric as possible. This fall I'm going to be using a lot of brown, burnt orange, red, and black...

Here's a sneak peak at something I'm really excited about for fall! I designed my own fabric to match this really crazy 70's fabric that I have. The finished product will be some variation of the scarf top.

So fun! If you wanna print your own fabric....check out Spoonflower. I've mentioned them before in a previous post. Seriously the most fun you can have without hard drugs. :-D

Supababy!

My friends Mike and Judy had a baby yesterday! Yay so excited for them!

The birth of their little daughter really kicked me in the butt to start a baby line. I had to make them a present...so....here it is!

It's pretty much a miniature version of the adult-sized "Milkshake dress" I've been making for my etsy shop.

It was a lot of fun to make and it really got my imagination going about other Supababy designs! Wouldn't it be so cute to have mini versions of my regular collection? Ok maybe less buttons and things that babies can choke on. :/ I probably need to do some research on that before I start selling. Anyone have any suggestions of things NOT to put on baby clothes?

Anyway, that's my exciting new project :-D

Happy Friday

Here's me and Otto.

He looks great with my outfit.

This is really random...but I've been really into breadmaking lately! Here's my latest:

Wishing for Spring!

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been sewing away for wholesale orders and craft sales.

Here I am at Puces Pop last weekend. I met a lot of nice people and hung out with friends. Work's not so bad sometimes ;-)

Here's my sweet kitty Otto munching on his cat grass.

Here's the view from my bedroom window. UGH! This winter has been sooo long. Spring only starts in mid-April here in Montreal so I still have to wait a few more weeks. Sigh. Hurry up already!!!

In a way, it's kind of a good thing that it's so crappy out. Otherwise my orders would never get finished...teehee.

Digital printing on textiles- a dream come true!

Wow, if a few years ago, someone had told me that I would be able to design my own textiles with no minimums...I would have thought they were crazy! Designing your own textiles used to be reserved for the fashion elite, but now anyone can elevate their brand by designing their own fabrics.

The service I used is called Spoonflower. They are my latest addiction, thanks to Angie, who used them for her F/W2011 collection. I was a bit nervous at first, because I wasn't so sure I could create a seamless repeat pattern....but they make it SO easy. You can also sell your fabric design, and get a 10% cut that you can use towards future spoonflower purchases. They have a great selection of fabrics...and they even have organic cotton.

Here's a dress I made using my very own bird print design!

While it's not really cost effective to use your Spoonflower fabric for an entire garment, it's great for components for clothing- pockets, collars, panels...etc. The possibilities are endless! I printed some "scarves" that Sara Guindon designed for this new Supayana dress and this new Supayana top.

Well, I hope this got your creative juices flowing. I know I have a lot of crafty people reading this blog! Have a good afternoon :-)

Supayana Spring/Summer 2011

Photos by Arden Wray

Modeling by Vanessa Pilon

Makeup by Natacha C.