I am in the trenches of cleaning out my basement and studio right now. I have reconciled to parting ways with a lot of my old projects, and the weirdness that I used to make and wear when I was a student designer. As a way of preservation and letting go, I will be blogging about them before sending them to their appropriate graves.
Above is a photo of a coffee filter dress that I made for a recycled materials fashion show in 2001, the summer after my first year of fashion school. I worked as a barista at the time, and me and all the other baristas at Le Cafe in London, ON saved the used coffee filters. She is a bride, the necklace was supposed to represent coffee beans. The dress had a collapsed square coffee filter silhouette.
The photo was taken by me on a vintage SLR with black and white film. It looks much older than it is.
I will be here Friday and Saturday, selling most of what I have in stock. So if you are in Toronto, do come and check it out.
Open to the public. No admission!
Friday, December 2, 2011
12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Saturday, December 3, 2011
10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Cash, Visa, Mastercard & Interac accepted. Participating designers include FGI members:
Women’s wear: Aime M. Project, Marika Brose, Adrienne Butikofer, David Dixon, Florsfashion, Carrie Hayes, Thien Le, LOVAS, Andrew Majtenyi
Luxury outerwear: Sentaler Studio
Jewellery: Jewellery by Karen, Kristen Laborde, Pangea Collection, Peru Productions
Bags, fur & accessories: Rue Pigalle, My Wild
Menswear: Killigrew, Off the Cuff Resale Designer Menswear
Confections: Saxon Chocolates, FGI Bake Sale
Skincare: Soya Boutique.com
No matter how much I practise or how hard I try, I will never be able to sew as fast as this bottle of glue.
I give up.
In the spirit of black friday and cyber monday,
Everything on Butikofer Handmade Goods is on sale this weekend starting Thursday and ending at the last breath of Monday.
20% off with the coupon code
holiday20
PLUS
Free Shipping in Canada.
Everything you order will definitely arrive in time for Christmas giving delights.
Yippee!
Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.
This took my breath away. I often see spellbinding flocks of birds along highway 400 north of Toronto. Nothing like this, though.
I had another baby not too long ago, and by not too long I mean almost a year. Time has flown by since her birth and she is now over nine months old! Not nary a mention on this blog has she, not that she doesn’t deserve the fame and glory of blog-dom. I’m too busy motherin’ to be bloggin, is all.
So, may I introduce my beautiful daughter, Evan Estelle. She is a calm, cool, and collected baby with a cuh razy side. She’s really strong and tough. But also very cuddly. She looooves her sister. But hates it when you wipe her face, that’s about the only thing that makes her mad. She’s a real character. We are just starting to overhear a giggle fest between her and her sister in the back seat on occasion. I really love having two daughters!
evan
I was into making my own maternity clothes this past pregnancy, was into the whole concept of maternity clothes, and wanted to start designing them full time. I still would- say if some accessible Canadian company wanted to hire me to help design a maternity collection for their brand. I’d be all over it. Said Canadian company really should be doing maternity, as most Moms I know love a little retail therapy while they are doing their grocery shopping, and they may also be pregnant with their 8th child and be needing a little new somethin somethin to get them through the term. Just sayin. psst. Hey JOE FRESH!
Anyway, I reworked a few thrifted finds into some fun and functional clothing for my pregnancy. If you’re pregnant, and you’re a sewer- you should give some of these ideas a try.
Please pay no mind to the hilariously terrible photos! The many, many hilariously terrible photos which will be available after the fold. Click to read more…
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My favourite Caninja for 2012. The back is lovely.
Caninjas are back- a brand new group of 85 for Fall 2011. 50 of them are now up for grabs at Butikofer Handmade Goods.
I am happy to be making them again, but man, I forgot how labour intensive they are after not making any for five years. It’s the same design as always- but I found a great new sewing contractor that did an impeccable job, and am using new snaps that are more sparse and buried on the inside so there is no cold metal against the temples. I really love the way they turned out- love them so much I named them as if they were babies or cats. Check the names! There are a few knee slappers in there, err, at least in my mind.
Free Shipping in Canada on everything on Butikofer Handmade Goods until 2012!
And I have a Caninja store on Etsy, if that’s the way you roll.
If you want to see Caninjas in person- go to Distill Gallery in the Distillery District of Toronto or the Clothing Brand Experiment Pop Up Shop in Toronto until January 1st.
All Caninjas priced at $65 online and in store.
HIYAHH!!
From now until the end of November- for every 50 people that like Butikofer Handmade Goods on Facebook, I will be giving away a pair of Skinny Sweats- determined through random.org from the list of likers, shipped for free anywhere in the world.
For you, or as a Christmas gift- you can’t go wrong!
I upstarted a new label for spring 2012 called Skinny Sweats, which is dedicated exclusively to the laziest, sexiest pants around. I hawked them for the spring but a couple retailers wanted them now! And so they are now! available at:
October Boutique in Winnipeg, Manitoba
and The F.A.R.M. in North Bay, Ontario
Go, see, try, shop!
And always, available online.
If you clean your house while you have baby barf on your shirt and pants within smelling distance of your nose you will clean harder and faster because you think your house smells like barf, when in fact it’s just you.
Try it!
