Thursday, July 29, 2010

Gingerbread Land Photoshoot!

I just finished adding 3 new items up for sale on my website. Much more are coming next week.

Last Friday, I went to Oakland to do a photoshoot at a location that Laura had found: Gingerbread Land! Its in some random industrial area of Oakland, used to be a super cute restaurant. Now its out of business and has a bit of a graffiti problem. And a crusty problem. More on that later. (Can't do a shoot in Oakland without involving crusties somehow, huh? Next shoot idea: freight train!)

Except for the two band shirt deconstruction items, everything pictured will be available soon in sizes XSmall to XLarge. I'm just waiting on a fabric order. Actually, waiting till I remember to order more fabric. Which should be tomorrow. The lining fabric that I used for the sample skirts ended up being less than wonderful, so I'm getting better quality stuff. In a 60 yard roll, so I can get a good price. Fabric ordering? I don't fuck around!

New stuff added to website right now:
-Grouvie Ghoulies skirt, small, $28
-Cheap Sex corset top, medium, $28
-Red leggings, XSmall/small, $4 (I have a leggings problem, help me get rid of them)

New stuff coming soon to website:
-Pink leopard top, XS to XL, $30 ish
-Reversible striped/black skirt, XS to XL, $20/$25 ish
-Striped tube top (will probably add straps), XS to XL, $20 ish
-Striped zipper skirt (red OR black zippers available!) XS to XL, $28 ish

Website link:
http://store.derangeddesigns.com/

Picture time! While Laura was changing between outfits, I had some time to fuck around and take pictures of random stuff, so I apologize in advance for my dumb stories.



Cheap Sex top and zipper skirt. I think my friend Alicia gave me the Cheap Sex top. Though I also think she hates Cheap Sex. Either that makes perfect sense or no sense.


Red zipper skirt will be available soon!




No trespassing in Gingerbread Land.




Guess what! That's the same outfit twice in a row! I made a reversible skirt, I'm so proud! Will be up for sale soon, same with the top. Another secret: the sample of the pink leopard top will not be for sale, because I wore it to a 4th of July part and somehow got into a sharpie war, so there are small blue sharpie spots on it. Yay, free clothes for me. Not sure if you can see the stains in the picture. I'm so classy ain't I? I still have fabric to make more of the shirts, so they will be available in several sizes.




Laura was actually really pissed off and bored in these last few pics, because she just realized that she locked her keys in her car. Lesson learned: don't let your model drive!






This place was so elaborate and ridiculous and cute. Even the ceilings on the inside were painted with rainbows and unicorns.




Laura's boyfriend Alex discovering that the door was unlocked. Inside, he also discovered random tied up shit-smelling plastic bags. We didn't go in any farther. What a disappointment, find an awesome building and finding the easiest way in has become a makeshift outhouse.


I haven't modeled any of my stuff in a while, so here's a picture of me looking exactly the same as I always do, just on the other side of the camera. Once I finish my basement photo studio, I'll start modeling again. This was the reflection of one of the windows in Gingerbread Land.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

More Sewing Supplies for Sale!

I've been meaning to update the DIY/Sewing section for ages, finally got around to it.

These are the same trims that I use in my own sewing projects. Its hard to find this stuff for cheap unless you buy in bulk (100-144 yds at a time). I remember how frustrating it was for me to get decent trims when I first started sewing. So hopefully this can help sewers save some money, and help me get rid of extra stock.

Price List:

Grommet tape- $1.25 a yard
Hook and eye tape- $6.75 a yard
Ruffled lace- 75 cents a yard
2 types of elastic, 40 and 50 cents a yard
Corset lacing- 75 cents a yard (lacing tips also available)
Gingham bows- red and black, 4 for $1
Heart buttons- red, black, and pink, 6 for $1
Anchor buttons- 6 for $1
Random box of trims- $5 (good for doll clothes! Going to my grandmother if nobody wants it!)
Black Metal jacket zippers- $2.50 each, in lengths of 16" to 30"
Blue metal jacket zippers- 90 cents

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE DIY/SEWING SECTION

I also have punk rock patches and studs for sale. At least half the patches are out of stock, sorry. I will restock them once I can fit the order into my budget. Summer sales are always super slow (ahhhhhhhhh these alliterations are killing me) so (!) it will be a while till I get them all back in stock.

As always, locals can come to my "studio" and buy shit to avoid shipping costs and sales tax. Shipping for trims starts at $2.



Sunday, July 18, 2010

Let's Make-over a Punk House!

BIG POST ABOUT TRYING TO FIX UP MY GROSS HOUSE. Summary: I'm trying to clean up a punk house and make it a nicer place to live and need help from anybody who likes to hang out here!

Working from home has its advantages and disadvantages. Not having to commute and being able to wear whatever you want is pretty cool. But you also have to deal with a bit of isolation from the rest of the human race. Being shut up in my sewing room all day isn't a horrible thing, but I get a little crazy if I don't leave the house two days in a row. I've got a decent room to work out of, with lots of windows and a big view of downtown Sacramento, but the house itself is not a place that most people would enjoy living in. Or working in, every fucking day!

Some context for anybody reading this who doesn't know about my living situation: (local friends can skip this, you've all seen the damn place!) I live in a punk house in midtown Sacramento with 5 other roommates. Its over 100 years old, on a busy street surrounded by dive bars and homeless people. Before the punks took over it was a frat house. The frat boys did not treat the place well. The punks weren't much nicer (though we do NOT urinate in a "pee-corner" in the living room!) The landlord mostly doesn't give a shit about the house, as long as we pay rent on time and don't leave trash on the front yard. If we need any repairs done, we have to call him week after week until he finally sends over the handyman that looks like Santa Claus on the end of a prolonged meth binge. The foundation of the house is cracked and the whole place sways whenever people run up the stairs. (Or do any other vigorous physical activity, hehe) The roof in the back of the house needs to be replaced, so it literally rains inside when it rains outside. Its a shit-hole.

I've lived in this place for about two and a half years, and in that time I've had at least 15 different roommates. When I first moved in, the place looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a decade. (No offense, past roommates) Most people live here for 6 months or less, so its hard to motivate anybody to clean a mess that isn't their own. Whenever somebody leaves, they tend to forget certain junk items that they don't want to keep anymore. So if we don't constantly maintain the place, its gets dirty as hell and full of random crap that everybody is afraid to throw away.

When I realized earlier this year that I'm gonna be living here for a lot longer (unless we all get evicted, I've never been on the lease so I really have no rights here) I also realized that I can't stand living in shit anymore. I no longer want to fight back the urge to puke whenever I walk into the bathroom or kitchen. I no longer want to fight back depression when I walk down into the living room and find a sea of empty beer cans and random knick-knacks. (And a certain long-time roommate passed out snoring on the couch smelling like weed) I CAN'T FUCKING TAKE IT ANYMORE!

Its worse when I come home drunk from a show or a bar. I end up pacing around the place, making mental lists of all the things that are wrong with it and all the things that need to be thrown away. I'm not the first to do this (but probably the most neurotic), drunkenly throwing trash off the porch late at night is a great tradition here! (Brings to mind Tim's "I PAY RENT HERE" story, hahaha. I miss that old desk) I've also witnessed Mickie Rat's hilarious way of getting rid of shit that won't fit in the dumpsters: throw it up in the air as high as you can, watch it smash down on the sidewalk, repeat until you can stuff it all in the trash. (Really fun with computers! Or small items like vintage Jolt soda cans)

So last spring, me and new roommates Kian and Eoin decided to start cleaning the place up. I was super busy with school and didn't have time to help, so they started without me.

Cleaning this place up can be very damaging to the soul. You have to be OK with taking two steps forward, one step backward. The dirt and crap is so embedded in every corner of the house that you have to clean the same room over and over again to make any progress. Then the next house show or party happens, or the next roommate moves out, and the place starts to look just like it did before.

I took some "before" pictures back in April, and even though we've done a lot of cleaning and organizing, its still pointless to take any "after" pictures. Progress is very incremental. Its never gonna be a nice place, and it will keep slowly falling apart, but I think it has the potential to be a comfortable, sanitary, AND bad-ass place to live. Clean off all the dirt, paint the walls, throw away all the trash, and we've got ourselves a mostly non-depressing house!

If only it could be as easy as it sounds. After describing everything, I feel like a nutcase for trying to change this place. But I live here, I work here, and I don't want/can't afford to move out. I'm not happy with the status quo.

I hope to eventually be able to post awesome pictures of a house that I am proud to live in. Until then, I'll post a little about the cleaning process, just because I find it to be pretty funny. Humor is the best therapy for a frightening endeavor like this. We are doing this all with basically no budget, so hopefully the end result will prove that poor fuckers like us can live well!

Before I forget: WE NEED HELP! Friends, Sacramento, anybody who's been to a basement show/partied on the porch, who wants to help finish the job?


Here's what we've done so far. Starting out with an old picture.


This is Kian during our first ever cleaning party, last November. I had several friends over and we cleaned the place up after the Citizen Fish show in the basement. Three bands stayed over that night, it was dirty as hell! Its amazing how much work I've realized that we've done, with almost nothing to show for it. Except for people randomly mentioning "yeah, this place is a lot cleaner than before" its still gross and full of crap!


Kian and Eoin worked their asses off several months ago shampooing the carpet with a machine that Kian borrowed from her parents. When the brush went over all the fake blood stains in the carpet (from the Trash Film Orgy zombie movie filming a couple years ago) all the water turned red!


Getting ready to clean that scary part under the coffee table.


Giant sticky stain, before and after. The angles are a little off, but it shows how effective that carpet shampoo was!





Some "before" pics of the living room and stairs. Or actually "during" pics because we had already got a bunch of cleaning done when I took these. Believe it or not.

I also have some before pics of the kitchen and bathrooms, but those are too gross to put up until I have a decent after picture.

Pictures of Kian and Eoin cleaning out the bookshelf that was on the stairwell.



They just dumped all the books and boardgames on the stairs so they could move the shelf. Its pretty funny to look at all the random shit that was in there.




Andre walks in and wonders what the fuck is going on...


Eoin nearly escapes death by book avalanche.

Now on to my current project: cleaning out the basement! There's a small room on one side, full of junk, that would make a great photography studio for my clothing line. If I can get Reggie to let go of all that stuff first.


Let's go scuba diving, in trash! Some amazing things I found while organizing this stuff: a 1987 Newsweek, 1937 LAHS yearbook (no idea who it belongs to) and some really vintage looking empty beer cases. Along with matching empty beers.




I was wondering where my Anne of Windy Poplars book had got too. And my broken tricycle. Where does this shit come from, and why do people find a reason to keep it?


Rest of basement, complete with bike graveyard and 100 boxes of Avi's unsold Silver Sprocket records, hidden behind Mickie's old bed. Mickie has said that all the plywood on the floor is covering up a pit pit full of trash. Wonderful.

The other half of the basement is actually looking pretty good. Its a practice spot for three different bands. A while ago the Storytellers installed new carpet and put red sheets all over the graffiti-ed walls. Its actually kind of a cool place to hang out in. I'd like the other half the basement to look that way too, but its a pretty big dream.

That's all for now! Its been hot as hell lately, and we have no AC in the house, so cleaning has become an even more tortuous job. When it finally cools off this fall, I'll be in school and won't have all this free time to get stuff done. Fuck my life!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

A few changes...

I've been organizing my blog layout so that I can add more content. I added links to old photoshoot posts and links to all the DIY Ideas on my website.

Starting soon I will add new posts to the DIY Ideas section at least once a month. There's already a lot of sewing/DIY guides on the web, so I will try to write about new topics. I don't want to attempt to teach anybody how to sew, I just want to offer another perspective on sewing/selling DIY clothing.

If anybody has any suggestions on what they want me to write about, send me an email (annie@derangeddesigns.com) or just add a comment to this blog post.

Monday, July 12, 2010

New custom hoodie print! I have great timing...

I really can't ignore the irony of adding a new hoodie to my website when I've had 2 fans and one air conditioner blowing in my direction all day.

Whatever. New faux fur hoodie print: giraffe! Might sound random but I think its pretty fuckin cool-looking. Once its not 90 degrees (in November maybe?) I'll add brown tiger print and brown zebra print to my custom hoodie collection. Last year I bought 4 new fabric prints to expand the hoodie line, made one sample, sent it out for photos in December, and now I'm finally adding the FIRST new print to my website. I'm not sure if the 4th new print will ever be made, because in a fit of fabric-buying insanity I actually bought cow print fabric. Fucking cow print. Who the hell wants to look like a cow? Maybe I'll get a CAT-scan before I go fabric shopping again...

Faux fur hoodies are available in sizes XSmall to 3XLarge, $45. Custom lengths and sizes are also available, email me. I make a bazillion of these a year, most people love the fit and some people buy one in every color. (Seriously. I am a hoodie-making machine!)

I guess my cow-print fabric decision could have been worse, the faux fur fabric store also has purple camouflage and neon blue flame fur. Should I stretch the limits of tacky farther than you've ever seen, and buy their entire fabric library for my hoodies? I guess if this clothing line fails, I might as well go down in flames! Ahahahaha I'm shutting up now.

Photo credits:
Model credit: TwiGGy BladeZ http://www.modelmayhem.com/456103

Photographer: David Eckert http://www.modelmayhem.com/davideckert

Makeup: Trinity http://www.modelmayhem.com/1189017

Original photos have been cropped for my website. Originals can be seen on my flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/derangeddesigns/sets/72157623055173780/


I also got new pictures of two hoodies that are already up on my website, the red leopard and the black and white leopard.


Not my usual sweaty dirty TRU PUNX photo shoot style, but we all like variety, right? If anybody wants to model my stuff, add me on Model Mayhem:
http://www.modelmayhem.com/derangeddesigns


Website store link: http://store.derangeddesigns.com/







Thursday, July 8, 2010

eBay Clearance Sale! Samples and Fabric

Yes, I'm STILL trying to get rid of old inventory! My yard sale/Craigslist ad put a nice dent in the huge fabric stash that I don't need but there's still a lot more that needs to go.

Right now I've got 2 lots of fabric up on eBay, a faux fur lot and a vinyl/pvc lot. I originally planned to put a lot more into 99 cent auctions but I realized that the fabric pieces are too small for me to take the time to measure and take pictures of and write descriptions about and all that shit. But obviously they are not too small for me to find some reason to keep them. ARRRGH! Hey Sacramento-ans, if you like to sew, I'm still trying to give shit away!

Funny story: I was throwing out some old thrift store clothes today and my fellow pack-rat roommate Reggie told me to stop so he could go through it all. He is now the proud owner of a bright green plaid women's vest. With a nice silver zipper, black velvet collar and a flounce ruffle in back. Its hilarious. No picture, but if you know him, just imagine him doing an Irish jig at the top of the porch stairs while wearing something ridiculous. (If you've ever hung out with him, that image should come to you with no effort) I think he's gonna wear it to band practice tonight, to try to get somebody to tell him that it looks good.

Part of my sample sale is also up on eBay auctions. $8 clothes! $9 clothes! $12 clothes! Bid on it, so eBay doesn't take away my top-rated-powerseller status when my sales go down because nobody buys animal print hoodies in July! (Someday I'll make something that sells year round. Someday.)

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY EBAY STUFF

Fabric: