The Crafter of the Month on the last day of September!
I’ve mentioned the amazing Karyn Valino before. Karyn is the owner of The Workroom, one of my favourite creative places here in Toronto. I caught up with Karyn last week to ask a few questions about her crafty past and present.
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1. How did The Workroom come to be? Was this something you always wanted to do?
The idea for the workroom hatched out of my desire to make a change in my work life and my frustration with the lack of availability of cool fabrics and craft supplies in Toronto. Having my own business is definitely something I’ve always wanted for myself. The problem was figuring out just what that business would be. A couple years ago, I was working in an office. I had taught sewing classes on the side when I lived in New York City and I realized that I missed it. I quickly realized that there was also no place to take sewing classes downtown and it was almost impossible to buy printed fabrics, quilting supplies, sewing patterns and other crafty supplies in Toronto. It seemed to make perfect sense to create a space that would offer classes, events, supplies and an open studio in Parkdale. I can’t imagine doing anything else now.
2. What are your favourite crafts personally?
I’m currently very obsessed with sewing clothing from Japanese Pattern books. It’s a bit of a challenge not being able to read all the instructions, but the diagrams are detailed and I’m learning a bit of Japanese along the way. Quilting is also a new hobby for me and it’s very addictive. I currently have four quilts in various states of progress right now – a huge Queen-sized quilt for my bed, a Double Wedding Ring quilt, a Sampler Quilt , and a Log Cabin Quilt . If you love colour, print and fabric, this is the perfect outlet. It’s very magical to see all your bits of fabric come together to create a larger masterpiece. The last thing that I’ve just learned is Natural Dyeing. To me learning to dye my own fabric just ties all these crafts together. I made a dress from a Japanese Pattern book that I dyed with indigo using Shibori that I’m so proud of.
3. Where did you learn to sew? Is it just something you’ve always done?
I grew up in a house with a sewing machine. My mom and grandmother did a lot of sewing when I was younger. I always felt very comfortable on a sewing machine, but never had any formal lessons until I took a job in New York after University. I started taking classes at a local place and fell in love with making my own clothes and accessories. I have always been very creative and crafty. I absolutely love taking classes and have done everything from bookbinding, gocco printing, stained class, neon sign making, wood working, bead making and paper collage. Sewing was something I could do creatively that was so practical because I could actually wear the things I made.
4. Do you sell your own crafts outside of The Workroom? If yes, where? Do you have any favourite one-of-a-kind stores in Toronto?
Most of the crafts I make, I make for myself or my family and friends for gifts. Although, I do make laser cut cross stitch pendants that we sell at the workroom and perhaps one day when I have more time I’d love to develop some other crafts to sell. Right now, I’m very focused on developing new classes to teach people to make things for themselves. We have so many incredible classes on our roster now, everything from Baby Ring Sling, DIY Maternity Wear, Pattern Drafting, Animal Softies, Natural Dyeing, Pickling, Quilting, and Leather Clutches from recycled leather.
To support local crafters, we hold Trunk Shows at the workroom on a regular basis that bring together groups of talented local craft artists for a one day show.
This is where I do most of my crafty one of a kind shopping. My other local favourites would be my next door neighbour, Shop Girls who feature Canadian designers and Kid Icarus in Kensington. Also, City of Craft is a big indie craft show that is happening in December for two days where I plan to do most of my holiday shopping.
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CALLING ALL COAST-TO-COAST CRAFTERS! If you or someone you know is a crafty gal, I want to hear about it. Email me at katie.dupuis@chatelaine.rogers.com – you could be October’s Crafter of the Month!
Sep
30
Come back later today for the September Crafter of the Month..she’s a good one!
I haven’t tried this, so I can’t guarantee it works. But if it does, oh man, what a money-saving tip!
Every time I buy a pack of razor blades, I am appalled at how much they cost. This person claims that he’s been using the same disposable blade for six months — by sharpening it with a pair of jeans.
He runs the razor up and down the length of the jeans 10 to 20 times in one direction, then again in the opposite direction. Apparently, “the threads of the jeans run in a diagonal so switching directions allows for a balanced approach to fine-tuning the blade’s edge.”
Try it, and let me know if it works! And I’d love to hear: What tricks do you use to save money?
(And did you miss out on these other Sweet Deals: a website full of money-saving tips and a free 411 number?)
Sep
30
I’m knocked out with a nasty cold right now, courtesy of my daughter and husband (jerks.) And my medical oncologist still hasn’t called me back yet (jerk) about whether or not I can take vitamin C and echinacea with these new drugs. And my laptop keeps freezing (total jerk) and overall I’m just in a foul mood. In the comic strip of my life there’s a little black cloud of crankiness speckled with cold-germs surrounding me as I shuffle around with my teacup and bad hair. I am really unpleasant right now. Like, ready to kill someone because I don’t have slippers – as if that could possibly be someone else’s fault. How is it that I can handle cancer (biggest jerk of them all) with a sense of humour, but a cold makes me demonic? I think my best option is to get back in bed and scowl at the world from under my duvet until I feel well enough to be nice again. Or at least well enough to stop with the name-calling.
Sep
30
I’ve found my new fall obsession – the hunt for a leather jacket. The problem is I want them all. I want a plain-front biker jacket, a zipper-laden one with big metallic studs on the collar, a fitted everyday blazer, and all in a variety of colours. I even want leather pants! (Yes, I’m aware that these are potentially scary.)
It’s all due to fall’s heavy rock ‘n’ roll look that has taken over the runways.
At the fall previews I found one jacket that I just knew I had to have and it’s finally landed in Danier stores.
There’s a glamour shot above and a full body shot of the coat below. Isn’t it fabulous? It has carefully sewn pleats at the back, comes in grey and black and has a soft suede-like feel to the collar. It drapes just like the trendy new take on the blazer – it’s half jacket, half sweater. This one has knit and leather sleeves so it will stretch to fit a variety of body types and is great for layering sweaters underneath because the leather is quite thin. It also doesn’t button up so if you’re one of those busty people who can never find jackets that fit at the chest, this one is perfect. Granted this may be a problem as it gets colder but sometimes you have to go for fashion over function ladies.
While I was in Danier trying it on for the third time (no impulse buying on this one) I noted some of their many new fashion forward jackets for all different tastes from biker to businesswoman.
Regularly $500, this soft Italian lamb skin jacket is already on sale so I advise heading down to Danier to check it out. It screams high fashion, like it came off the runways of Gareth Pugh or Rick Owens. But be warned, there may be an awkward run-in on the street cause I’ll definitely be wearing the same one.
–Kate Daley
