The grey dress was a plain hooded dress, also with a bad hood. I cut the hem off at an angle, removed the hood, and cut a window out above the bust. I made use of some vintage lace on both the bolero and the dress, as well as a section of pleats from a pin stripe mini skirt which you can see on the bottom of the dress. It’s a fun little detail to dance with as it fans out while you boogie!

Coda 002

I’ve had a pile of old clothes sitting in a bag for a long time, with the intention of reworking it. My basic sewing experience doesn’t get me far in new designs at this point, but it makes it possible for me to work with pre-made items. A couple of weekends ago I finally started playing around with a few things, and was pleasantly surprised at the end of the day! I wanted to share a couple of the items on here.

The first is a hooded tank which consists of part of a black hooded tank, and part of a tank top that has funky artwork on it. I didn’t like the front of that one, so I just made use of the top shoulder area on the front and kept the back. I also redesigned the hood to incorporate a portion of the discarded front of the coloured tank, and lined the hood with some remnant corduroy fabric.

The second piece is made from the remnant corduroy and some left over pleather. I wanted a roughly made fabric arm cuff that fastened easily with velcro.

This series of upcycled clothing and accessories will be named and numbered using the musical term “Coda”. (eg: Coda 001) Some definitions in case you’re not sure what I’m taking about:

• Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece (or one movement thereof) to a conclusion.
• Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.

This is a beginning of a new tangent for Side B Design, so keep your eyes peeled for new work! I’ll be starting a pattern drafting course next week which will no doubt expand my skills and variety of work.

I haven’t created anything new yet this year so I thought I’d put in one of my favourite photos from last year.This was a happy accident with my Holga camera in Havana last March. My film got stuck and I had to open the camera and re-roll inside Scott’s sweatshirt, but some light definitely got in. The result is a strangely beautiful, eerie and old looking image.

I went out a few weeks ago and decided to take blurry pictures. This was inspired by my realization of how beautiful blurry vision can actually be, when I took off my glasses one night while camping and observed the star-full sky. Some of the photos turned out to be kind of pretty, and I’ll probably use them for digital art at some point.

The numbers are hand painted and stamped with an original lino-cut print on the backs. Snack bags are hand printed. Photos of work have been treated with ‘vintage’ digital processing.