Blog TO - The Make Den is nominated for Best DIY Workspace in Toronto!

It's nice to get noticed!   Laura Adams from Blog TO wrote a great article about us recently and I'm happy to report that I don't sound like a complete tool in it.

Even more recently, Blog TO nominated us for "Best DIY workspace in Toronto", which we are SO honoured to even be mentioned on!!  You can vote here until Saturday.   Go vote because obviously we're buying everyone beer if we win!!

Some of the interview is below, along with a few photos.

The Make Den Sewing Studio recently relocated from within 69 Vintage Collective to a new location at 1244 Bloor Street West, providing a bright and crafty addition to Bloordale's streetscape. With its robin's egg blue walls and ruffled party dress in the window, I couldn't resist popping in one dark winter evening to learn more about what this sewing and design school has to offer.

Founded in 2010, The Make Den offers sewing and design classes, workshops, and camps for all levels: from absolute beginners (like yours truly), to intermediate students looking to sharpen their skills, to aspiring designers applying to competitive fashion programs at institutions like Ryerson University, Parsons in New York City, and Central Saint Martins in London.  The Make Den's owner, Irene Stickney, has a passion for teaching students of all levels that is infectious and heartfelt. For those pursuing sewing as a hobby--about 75% of her students--The Make Den provides an outlet to explore their creative side, which is often not fulfilled in their day jobs. Irene loves helping these students create new things, have fun, and acquire a life-long skill.

For the 25% of her students pursuing a career in fashion design, Irene aims to offer top-notch instruction on technical skills and a supportive community. "Toronto has amazing designers and they need more resources. I want to be able to support designers. I want to be able to say I've made a difference for designers." The Make Den provides these students with classes, camps, studio space, endless encouragement, and even photo shoots (by Irene) to build their portfolio. Talking about her advanced students and their creations, Irene beams with pride. "Don't forget me when you're famous!" she jokes with them...

Muttonhead Collective & Toronto Production

Rob Ford's appeal verdict will be released tomorrow at 10:30 am. Who else is nervous with anticipation? (If he gets kicked out, does anyone want to do a mashup Lance Armstrong/Rob Ford ride for kicks?) One thing our fearless leader never seemed to talk about was actual job creation or bringing back manufacturing to Toronto. Production and manufacturing jobs would be super useful to the city. Did you know Toronto was once the 3rd largest apparel manufacturing city in North America? In this city we can't all be marketing account executives, restaurant owners, bankers and real estate lawyers. This city needs a diverse job portfolio. There is also a global market shift that is making overseas production less and less affordable, along with quality control harder and more expensive to manage.

PHOTOS: STEPHEN CROSBY/THE GRID

When politicians fail to be visionary and lead, and they usually do, it's young entrepreneurs that lead the way.  Despite little to no support in regards to manufacturing from the city, Toronto is teaming with talented, productive hands. The Deadly Nightshade's past Style Spins were in celebration of local artisans and fashion and apparel producers. (Did you see us in the Toronto Star or the BBC?). The Deadly Nightshades are included in that category; Cat Essiambre has her own Seafoam Apparel Production Agency, Laura works with YNOT, Irene is the Queen of The Make Den, and Patricia is talented production gun for hire.



The ever talented local Toronto unisex brand Muttonhead Collective was featured in last week's Grid TO. The article is a great read about the surviving production industry around Sterling Road at Landsdown and Bloor. Fittingly, this area was the location for 2012 Toronto Alternative Fashion Week. Muttonhead celebrates modern Canadiana right, through aesthetics and production methods. They are bound for success.

Since she [Meg Sinclair] created Muttonhead as her design thesis collection when she graduated from Ryerson almost three years ago, local production has been her focus. “I’m finding that people care more where it’s made rather than [if] it’s made
from organic cotton,” she says.

Muttonhead Collective is having an amazing end of season sale. Check it out!

The Rules

Recently, we've been interviewed a fair bit, and everyone wants to know how the the Deadly Nightshades started. Well, after Venus's blood gave birth to us on Mt. Olympus, we largely bonded out of saying "F YOUR RULES". 'Cause know what? We can rock up to fashion week and glam parties on our bikes. We can create amazing fashion without hurting the environment or using semi-slave labour. We can have a design collective slash bike gang. Why not? Hello, it's the millennium!

So when my friend Brady (amazing founder of the Projecting Change Film Festival) sent me this link from Brain Pickings on a Lists of Don'ts for Women Cyclists circa 1895 that was published in the New York World, I laughed and laughed and laughed. Here are some examples of "The Rules":

• Don't faint on the road
  
• Don't boast of your long legs
• Don't cultivate a "Bicycle Face"
  
• Don't chew gum. Exercise your jaws in private.
  
• Don't scratch a match on the seat of your bloomers.
  

Oh, and it gets better. I suggest you young lady cyclists out there read up on it. I am so grateful to all the women cyclists before me who broke barriers and helped create a better world for women on the road. I pledge to help in every way I can to make sure bicycles are not just for boys.



On the other hand, DNS was also largely formed out of having rules- moral rules that is.

Amisha Ghadiali's and Joana Casaca Lemos collaborated on 12 Rules to Dress By, an amazing visual lists to inspire and help everyone have a more sustainable wardrobe. I support their goal that 2012 will Be The Year Of The Sustainable Wardrobe. When you go to their website, they have the checklist in French, Jurjati, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Turkish, and much more with more languages to come. Making this information accessible in more languages is a very challenging step to undertake, but it shows a forceful commitment to equality and global change.



Congratulations Amisha and Joana. Happy 2012 World! With so many amazing people in the world making changes, I am so excited for what humans are going to be writing about us in a century.

Lovelovelove,