Twin Cities Pride

For the past month I have been working for Christopher Straub as his assistant. Christopher is a fashion designer who was a contestant on Project Runway Season 6, and he finished in the top five. He is a fantastic designer, and I have had a blast working with him so far.

Last weekend, June 26^th & 27^th, was the Twin Cities Pride Festival. This year Christopher was part of the festivities for Twin Cities Pride, and he had a booth in Loring Park for the weekend. We both manned the booth Saturday and Sunday, along with other helpers. It was a fun time!

This was the first Twin Cities Pride Festival I have attended, and I had a great time. The mood of the place was alive and full of good spirits. I will definitely be a returning attendee for many years to come!

Independence Day Frock

Happy Independence Day!!! (almost)

I made this dress about a year ago intending to wear it for the 4^th of July, but I never finished it before then. This year I completed it, and I don’t know if I love it or hate it. Either way, it’s now a finished project.

I found some stars-and-stripes suspenders and decided to cut them up and use them as the straps. I made my own bias tape for the upper edge of the dress and splattered red, blue, and silver fabric paint on it.

I did not use a pattern for this dress, and if I did it again I think I would add a waistband and a much fuller skirt. Much more charming. Either that or make it closer-fitting through the hips and thighs like a pencil skirt. Thoughts?

White belt by Christopher Straub.

P.S. please excuse my poor modeling skills!

Have a Happy Fourth of July and…

My Fused Plastic Bag Corset: A Save My Oceans Contest Top Five Pick!

A few weeks ago I made a corset for the Save My Oceans Upcycle Contest hosted by Craftzine.com. I wasn’t expecting to win, but I thought I’d give it a shot. Low and behold, my corset was announced as one of the top five entries. Unfortunately I didn’t win the grand prize, but I’m honored that my corset was chosen as a top five project. View the blog entry about it here.

My Entry for the contest:

Project Description

My project is an upcycled corset made from fused plastic bags. The boning in the corset is made out of plastic zip ties. These are used to give the corset shape. Each panel of the corset is made from approximately eight layers of fused plastic. Once fused together you have a durable, waterproof material to work with. I sewed each panel to one another using a 5/8” seam allowance, and added the metallic duct tape binding to keep the zip tie boning in place. The top curly details are made from rings I cut out of a plastic pop bottle. For the center panel I cut strips of fused plastic bags and wove them into each other, as you can see in the close-up picture in the gallery below.

Inspiration

In my house, plastic bags tend to accumulate in our closet. We have switched over to using mostly reusable bags, but sometimes we forget to bring then and then are left with these bags. Plastic bags can become an unnecessary hazard to the environment. Besides, they’re an eyesore too. I thought a creative way to help alleviate this problem was by making wearable art out of them. I had seen a YouTube tutorial from Etsy How-To’s on how to fuse plastic bags, and ever since then I’ve always wanted to try it. It’s fashionable and it’s environmentally friendly! These two things don’t always go hand in hand, but this project shows how easy it can be.

The starting materials

I ironed the layers of plastic together by sandwiching them between two pieces of parchment paper.

And remember…

The Beginning

Welcome to Mod Toggery!

Toggery is a 19^th century word for clothing. Mod is short for modern. Old + new.

I am a crafter, sewer, fashionista, and diy-er. I use fabric, leather, and anything that can be upcycled. I want my projects to inspire other people, and other people’s projects to inspire me. This is Mod Toggery.