Reduce, Reuse, Rock the fuck out

I grew up with a beautiful Hippy Earth-Mother type Mom who also had fierce political opinions and a huge ecological conscience. My Mommy has always been my role model, and these values have been drilled into me since birth. Despite being a designer, I hate how wastefull the fashion industry is. Bearing in mind the fact that I can't give up my neon spandex material, I've been trying to incorpoate as many recycled materials and accessories as I can into the clothing I make. Sometimes it's not possible, sometimes it takes a lot of extra work, but it's always worth it.

And here is why I'm awesome: I've invented Upcycled Dino-Hoodies!

What I do is buy hoodies from thrift stores and cut a section off the back to make into a tail, then I make neon spikes that I stuff with cotton taken from an old cushion of mine that I no longer want. I sew the spikes and the tail to the hoodies and voila: bad-ass Dino Hoodie made out of mostly recycled material!
This is what they look like:

I await your praise.

Rave Review

So all my sewing and slaving and nearly killing myself in preparation for Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey (last weekends rave, which I will now review... get it?) has at least partially paid off. Although the timing was really terrible due to my horrible back pain, my weekend in Toronto was a ton of fun. I have the unfortunate situation of living in a different city than all of my best friends. They live in Toronto (ew) and I live in Montreal. So this weekend gave me a chance to visit all of them, even though it became pretty rushed in order to accomadate everyone. Every time I go to Toronto it's like speed-dating, but with people I already know and slightly less desperate. But only slightly. So the big event was on Saturday night, my friend nad long time rave-mate George (aka: Flyboy) and his fiancee/partner in crime Lolita head up the company Daydream Productions, who were throwing Saturday's rave. It was time-machine themed, and also apparently some sort of Doctor Who allusion, which went completely over my head. For my own outfit, I decided to go for a cyber-goth inspired space-raver outfit. They sell these stupidly soft "car wash mitts" (that I've re-named "ecstacy gloves") at the dollar store and I bought 4 lime green ones hoping to incorporate them into an outfit. This is definitely the most creative I've gotten with non-material supplies and I wound up using the ecstacy gloves, cat collars, reflective tape, a dog leash, plastic tubes, and a glow in the dark rope. I'm pretty damn impressed by my resourcefulness, and also my awesomeness. Below is the final creation:

The night of the rave I was pretty back-sore, but I went with an mazing crew of friends, managed to sell more of my stuff than I did at Dino Circus (rave I vended at in September) and had an awesome time. I even got to dance to my most favouritest Happy Hardcore song "Children of the Night". By all accounts a win.

Now this week I'm trying to take a real break from destroying my back and recover a little bit. Also, how much does that oufit make me look like a clean-cut Tank Girl? BAM!

Back-log

Okay here's why I'm hilarious: I have a back-log of things to write about because I've been so horrendously neglectful with my blog writing. But also I'm going to log an account of what's been happening with my back! Get it? Seriously people, this is comedic gold.

Anyhoo, other than this past week where I've been curled up in bed waiting to die due to severe, mind-numbing back pain, the Kendall Made business has been taking some awesome steps. I have been adding more and more items to my Etsy, to the point where it's actually starting to look like a respectable shop... the kind that has stuff in it, and not just an awesome logo.

Speaking of awesome logo, I updated my logo on this page to the wicked one that Sean (my gay boyfriend) designed for my business cards. I think it is a wicked improvement and completely perfect for Kendall Made.

I've also done a few photoshoots with my awesome raver friends, who are not only hot, but also embody all that Kendall Made represents. I would some day like to get professional models and professional photographers so I can have a few really glossy images to send out as a press release. But for the time being, these shoots are wicked fun (and silly and ridiculous) and teh pictures are definitely good enough for Etsy. I have a lot of friends and followers in other cities, so it's really nice to have put pictures of everything I'm making online for them to see.

Now back to my back. I've always had a shitty, evil, horrible back and shoulder combination, and sewing definitely aggrivates it. But these last 8 months have been much more intensely painful on my back than any time prior. And this past month has been the most gruelling yet. After a few days of not getting out of bed and crying into my pillow, Matt finally convinced me that this isn't the type of thing I should be living with and that I need to see a doctor. I went to my not so great local clinic looking for better pain medication (I've been eating naproxen like it's candy with little affect) and a referral. I got a referral (woo) and a prescription for stronger naproxen, which is proving to be as inaffective as the bucket of condoms my highschool left in the hallway every week. That joke is only funny if you're aware of how high the teen pregnancy rate is in Gravenhurst. Anyway, I go to an Osteopath tomorrow, I'm trying to get an appointment with a physiotherapist, and I'm seeing an acupuncturist on Tuesday. Did I mention that my day job has a health care plan? Hopefully one or all of these things will help improve the situation, because as things stand right now I have to take a hiatus from sewing, and I have about 4 shelves full of fabric that strongly diasagree with that decision.

Wish me luck!

I'm a bad blogger

Dear Internet,

It's been too long, I know. Life got busier and my letters became scarecer, and pretty soon I stopped writing all together. Maybe ti's because I was so busy making clothes, maybe I was busy with all the changes in my personal life, maybe I was busy fighting ninjas. Whatever the reason, I'm sorry for my neglect.

Perhaps I can begin to make ammends with a few pictures of all the kick-ass stuff I've been making.

Enjoy!

Hand and Leg Fluffies by Kendall Made
Phat Pants by Kendall Made

Reversible Tie-Skirt by Kendall Made
Reversible rainbow/white Bear Hood/Scarf with pocket mittens and gloves by Kendall Made

"Spot" Superhero Costume by Kendall Made
Stuffed Unicorn Head by Kendall Made

I'll write again soon, I promise.

It's my bag, baby!

I'm one of those lucky people who was raised by a very eco-conscious Mommy before Eco became cool. Now that "green is the new black" everyone and their brother is into carrying around tote bags instead of getting plastic ones at the shops. This is great news for people like me who found it hard to find lots of canvas bags in the past, plus it means that new styles and colours of tote bags are available. My favourite kind of tote bags are the ones that fold up into a little pouch. They just make so much sense! I always keep at least one in my purse in case I stop into the fruiterie or something whilst I'm milling about town. However, I've found that these super convenient little bags are either really expensive or ugly as sin. I'd rather own something that's both pretty and affordable. And like most things that I make for myself or others, once I realized how easy and fun it was to make these bags, I made a crapload of them to sell. I've got bags for sale at Arterie and Psychonaut in Montreal, and in my Etsy shop. There are only 2 styles right now, but I'll probably make more next time I go fabric shopping.

Kendall Made's Fold-in-a-pouch Tote Bags now available on Etsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/KendallMade

Kendall Made will spring into stores

It's Spring! Time for rebirth, time for regrowth, time for freak snow storms at the end of April. Wait, what? Montreal, that lovely lady full of surprises, has gone from T-Shirt weather to snowstorm and back again all in the last week. Despite the bi-polar weather, I have plunged myself whole-heartily into the production of a new line of baby onesies. My gay boyfriend Sean has a themed birthday party every April, and this year the theme was onesies. I found thrilling comic-book style Lichenstein-esque prints and used one of them to make my onesie.
After using about one meter for my outfit, I was left sitting on a huge amount of fabric that I didn't know what to do with. I thought it would be adorable (and not at all lame or creepy) to make a onesie for my niece, Olivia, in the same fabric as my onesie. After using the fabric to make a baby onesie for the first time I realised that a)it's not too hard to make baby onesies, and b)baby onesies in comic prints are freaking amazing! I cranked out a few more onesies in the following weeks and brought them and some recycled comic wallets that I'd made to 2 local stores. Luckily for me, both the stores liked my work and agreed to stock the wallets and onesies on consignment. Yay!
Now my wallets and onesies are available at Psychonaut and Arterie in Montreal, and once I make a few more I'll add my onesies and some new wallets to my etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/KendallMade
Aside from my exciting clothing news, I'm still feeling incredible frustration on the job front and am once again unemployed and looking for work. Why won't you hire me Montreal? WHY?
On the acting front too, things have been hard. I've been to exactly 2 auditions since I was in Mental Floss, and so far nothing has come to fruition. Sigh.
On the other arts end I've had a very strange source of inspiration and have been penning picture after picture of different animal heads with squid bodies. After a few of these I started drawing celebrity heads with squid bodies. I have no idea where these came from in my subconscious, but damn are they ever hilarious!Sorry the picture is terrible quality, but I took it with my phone. Still need that camera. Anyway, that's about it for my artistic updates.

Oh my god PICTURES!!!

Some day, some day, some day I'll buy a camera. I mean, Ihave an Etsy shop, I have a creations blog, I really should have a camera. Unfortunately, I have no money. Fail.
In the meantime I will have to continue to beg random friends to take photos for me. For example, when my sister Carlye came to visit she brought her spectacular camera with her, so I got her to take photos of the stuff that I've been writing about in previous posts.

these are the sexy corset throw-pillows that I was so tempted to keep






















This is the skirt that I made out of the amazing playboy material

That's it for now, really, I just wanted to add these photos.