Holiday Shipping Deadlines, Black Friday Sale, Other Updates

New handmade order deadline: Dec. 14th (for delivery by Christmas)

Non-handmade items can be ordered until Dec. 20th for Christmas delivery

Holiday Shipping Deadlines: December 14^th and 20^th

If you plan to order any handmade items for Christmas gifts this year, I would recommend ordering them as soon as possible. I can barely keep up with my order volume right now and I’m afraid that it will only get crazier after Thanksgiving.

Tentative holiday ordering deadlines for USA orders:

Handmade items: order by Monday December 17^th (for example hoodies and leggings)

Everything else: order by Thursday December 20^th (every item that has a different brand name)

I may have to bump up the handmade order deadline depending on how busy I am in December. For international orders I recommend ordering now, or purchasing priority mail shipping. International priority mail takes 6-10 business days for delivery and may be held up in customs for longer.

Black Friday Sale: November 23^rd-26^th

I will add sales prices to a lot of items on Friday November 23^rd until Monday November 26^th. . Most of the items that are made by other brands (non-handmade) will be on sale. I will add some really low prices ($10 to $20) to items that have been in stock for a while.

Other Updates

Some people may have noticed that I raised prices on my hoodies again. I want my handmade clothes to be affordable but I am currently getting more orders that I can handle. I have time to sew everything but I rarely have any time to work on new designs. I now have to charge more for my handmade items so I can raise enough money to move my business out of my house. Once I get a new place to work I will have more space for faster equipment and I will be able to hire an employee to help me out. If I can manage to move my business without fucking anything up, I will have time to come out with new designs at a much faster pace. This means I can sell a larger variety of handmade items, including items under $50.

So I guess what I’m saying is: please don’t give up on my website if the prices are starting to look too high. There isn’t much variety on my website right now but I have a lot planned for the future!

Photoshoot with Esca, Misfityash Photography

I lent some new and not-so-new clothing to model Esca and Misfityash Photography a couple weeks ago.

The pictures turned out great!

First up is the stripes and stretch-lace dress:

That's a sample size small but I plan to add sizes XS to XL to my website in the future.
Stripes and Lace Mini Dress $60

Next are a top and a skirt that I made ages ago that didn't end up on my website:

Gingham Tank Top, Small, $26

Gingham Layered Skirt, Small, $30

And lastly, a zipper strap dress, which isn't for sale because Esca bought it. But I have a lot of those giant zippers still in stock so maybe I'll make something similar in the future. Thanks Esca and Misfityash! The rest of the photos can be found in my Flickr Photostream.

Summer Update

I feel like I've spent this entire summer making patterns for new clothes. You would think that making a pattern for one style wouldn't take so long, but I have to make it in all different sizes. Then I realize that if I just make one small change, I can have a whole new variation of a style- but then I have to change all the patterns in all the other sizes!

So here's a list of the new items I've added to my website this summer. It's been slow, but each time I complete a new pattern in all different sizes I can use it for new styles in the future. The more patterns I have on hand the faster I can come out with new designs.

It would take ages to put up pictures of all the new items, so I'll just put up a picture of one item from each category. You can follow the links to the new items.

Women's Oversized Hoodies: (available in XS-3XL)
Zebra Print
Leopard Print
Red Leopard Print
Pink Leopard Print
Purple Leopard Print
Cheetah Print

Women's Corset Hoodies (available in XS-3XL)

Men's Hoodies: (available in XS-3XL, regular length and long length, read the item description for more info)
Zebra Print
Leopard Print
Red Leopard Print
Cheetah Print
Purple leopard and pink leopard men's hoodies are also available on request.

New leggings, available in many different color combos:

Lace-Waist Leggings (available in regular waist and high-waist, sizes XS-XL)
Stretch Lace Shorts (available in regular waist and high-waist, sizes XS-XL)

Split Leg Leggings (available in regular waist and high-waist, sizes XS-XL)

Lace and Metal Leggings (available in regular waist and high-waist, sizes XS-XL)

Leopard and Metal Leggings (available in regular waist and high-waist, sizes XS-XL)

Now that I have a lot of hoodie and leggings patterns finished, I'm going to move on to some dresses and tops. As soon as I get all the basics patterned I can start coming up with more complicated designs. So if you are getting bored of my hoodies and leggings, don't worry, I'll have some new types of clothing up for sale soon!

If you do the math, all those new items account for 28 different hoodie patterns and 50 leggings patterns. I told you I've been busy!

I've also added a lot of clothes from other brands to my website this summer. I started selling the brand Living Dead Souls, which makes some great styles at pretty affordable prices. 

High-Waisted Leopard Jeans (S-XL)

Green Leopard Cardigan (S-XL)

Red Striped Studded Cardigan (S-XL)

White Striped Studded Cardigan (S-XL)

And I restocked some best-sellers from the past:

Black and Pink Lace-Up Tank Top (M-XL)
Red and Black Striped Sweater (S-L)
Red and Black Striped Sweater Dress (S-L)

And a couple new tank tops:
Social Distortion Corset Top (Handmade OOAK, size Large)
Fishnet Spaghetti Strap Top (one size)
Black Corset Cami (three lacing color options, S-L)

I've run out of men's cotton biker jackets and men's black stretch jeans, but similar styles of those will be available soon. 

That's all for now... new dress styles will be up for sale next! 

My Sewing Room

Now that I've finally decided that I need to move out of this house and find a new place to work, here's a tour of my sewing room! I hope that in another year's time I will have a new, roomier space that's not part of my house.

I've lived and worked here for over 4 years now. Since moving in I have accumulated four industrial sewing machines, lots of new sewing tools, and a thrift store worth of used furniture.


Here I am pretending to sew. Thanks to Whitney from Bows and Arrows/Maker's Mart for taking some of these pictures!


This is my cutting table, plus a better view of my straight-stitch industrial machine. More info on that machine can be found here.

I have two walls full of windows in a room on the second story of a 100+ year old Victorian house. The house was built at the top of a hill and the ground is eroding on one side, so the entire back of the house (including my sewing room) is sloping downwards and slowly sinking down the hill. I love the view I have (mostly just trees in the summertime) and I love how I feel on top of the world in this room, but it would be nice to work out of a more stable place. All my furniture and machines have to be propped up on one end so that they are level.


Here is the opposite corner of the room. My computer desk, another industrial sewing machine, and lots of storage is in this corner. This room used to be a kitchen so I have built in cabinets and a little mirror. I also have a linoleum floor, which is awesome because it's difficult to clean thread scraps and faux fur fabric dust off of carpet. The wall behind my desk looks like shit because there used to be a big metal sink there. I had to tear it out of the wall when I moved in, and now I can't push my desk all the way back because there are pipes sticking out of the wall.


This is the third corner of my sewing room with my third industrial machine. (My fourth machine is over at my parents house because I don't really need it at this time.) I still have more small shelves to put on the wall above the machine. I'm pretty good at using every amount of space available in my room. When you have limited space, you can either stack shelves up to the ceiling or hang tons of things from the walls.


Fourth wall: my shipping supplies are stored above and below my air conditioner. My air conditioner can only keep the room to about 10 degrees cooler than outside, so on 105 degree summer days this place turns into a literal sweatshop. This room was added on after the house was originally built (you can see the original outside wall in this picture) and the bastards who built it didn't think insulation was necessary!


I use my bedroom to store clothing samples, fabric, and other stuff that doesn't fit in my sewing room. This clothing rod holds samples and patterns, and I have three rows of shelves above it that hold even more stuff.


I keep fabric rolls and faux fur fabric in a big metal shelf. The box on the bottom holds my roll of thick manila pattern paper.


You didn't think you'd get through this post without a cat picture, did you? This is Paco. She sleeps all day while I work. It's cute and annoying, because she makes that bed look so damn comfortable.

That's all for now! Here are more pictures from the Maker's Mart interview:






And what the hell, might as well post a picture of my house:

Sacramento Stuff #4

It's been over a month since my last blog post, oops! I'll try to do a bunch of posts this month to make up for it. I've been working myself too hard, as usual. I've been taking a Quickbooks class and finishing up the new men's hoodie pattern. After that and then sewing and shipping orders every day I haven't had time for much else.

This Sunday I will be selling handmade clothing at Maker's Mart at Bows and Arrows. It's at 19th and S Street, which happens to be only four blocks from my house. I could totally roll my clothing rack all the way there, hahaha.

I'll be selling stuff along with lots of other artists and designers. Bows and Arrows has been interviewing us and photographing our workshops for the Maker's Mart blog. You can see the Deranged Designs interview here. They also recently interviewed Amanda Caroll, an old classmate of mine from a tailoring class. It looks like there will be a good variety of handmade products for sale and I hope to see a lot of other familiar faces this Sunday!

I might be a little tired for Maker's Mart because Saturday night will be this summer's first Trash Film Orgy movie at the Crest Theatre. A lot of my friends have worked for TFO and their movies are a shitload of fun. There will be a zombie walk around downtown Sacramento and then the Army of Darkness showing will start at midnight. Fuck yeah!

  

One more thing worth mentioning this week: my friend Nick Avey recently got a new camera and updated his photography website Takeover Tokyo. I'm going to hire him for some photo shoots this fall and I can't wait to see what he can do with some Deranged Designs outfits. I'm still trying to find a picture of me in my costume at the annual Mad Max/Apocalypse party photo gallery, but since was gone for half the party I might not be in there. So much fun...

No wonder I haven't posted in over a month, this summer is going by so fast!

Sacramento Stuff #3

Sacramento Stuff is a series of posts where I talk about how awesome my friends are and post flyers for upcoming shows. Here we go!

Amy from Bang Your Head Clothing had a party at my house last Friday to celebrate her reaching 1000 fans on Etsy. Now she's up to over 1200...damn! She brought us a shitload of pizza, beer, cake, and liquor. It was pretty awesome. She's always adding her stuff to her Etsy shop and I would recommend checking it out.

My friend Qiana just opened up her own Etsy shop. You might remember her from some Deranged Designs photo shoots last year. She's a photographer and jewelry maker and her new shop is called Allegory.

Here's one of her new earring designs:



She has also taken the pictures for my Polka-dot Photo Shoot, Oakland Rooftop Photo Shoot, and Oakland Cemetery Photo Shoot.

Here are flyers for the next three shows coming up at Casa de Chaos:
(send an email to info@derangeddesigns.com if you want to see a show here and need the address)

Another crazy Paul Imagine flyer (hahaha) for June 2nd:

June 10th:

June 30th: (this flyer was done by Tom Working. That's exactly what our house looks like, minus our white picket fence, of course!)

Spring Update

I added a couple new items to my website last week:

One of a kind Godzilla Mesh Tunic, medium, $40




Faux Fur Shrug, S, M, L, $28


A couple new things were added to the DIY/Sewing section:

Satin D-Ring Tape, 1" wide, $2.25 per yard

1" Metal D-Rings, 10 for $1.50


Plus black and white lingerie elastic is back in stock:
Black lingerie elastic, 75 cents a yard
White lingerie elastic, 75 cents a yard



I'm also almost ready to add the new version of my animal print hoodies to my store. The new version has a better quality and fit. First I'll add the women's regular hoodies and corset hoodies to my store, then the new men's version will be up a week or two later.



My friends Laura and Maria modeled two of the new hoodie samples a couple weeks ago. The photo shoot location was in front of an abandoned factory in midtown Sacramento that seems to be a pretty popular photography spot. Two other groups of photographers and models showed up when we were there! I will take pictures of the rest of the hoodie samples soon.
A couple of my friends also passed by when we were taking pictures. Yes, I'm friends with oogles. Thanks to Garrick and Jim for looking fucking hilarious in this photo.



And lastly, I've added a bunch of new things to the sale section. All the long-sleeved items I added last fall are now at a discounted price. I'm also discounting the pink cheetah and black and white leopard print handmade hoodies. Those prints don't sell as well as the others so once I run out of those fabrics I will buy some new animal print colors.
25% off Sale Section
50% off Sale Section 
 
 

Santa Cruz Photo Shoot

I went to Santa Cruz last weekend to visit Laura and I brought a couple new one-of-a-kind items with me for a photo shoot.

We took the pictures in a cemetery- what a surprise! The first top is a size xsmall/small and is $40. I made it out of some awesome fabric that I bought at Mood in New York a while ago. I was on a tight budget for the trip and the fabric was $18 a yard but I just had to buy it! (If you are interested you can read about my trip here: NYC Fashion Industry Trip Part 1) The corset top is worn over a short-sleeved fishnet shirt, which is included in the price.

Click here to see item details for the corset top




I decided to make a matching dress with the rest of the fabric I had left over. This dress is a size medium and is $60. I'm really happy about how this dress turned out. I originally cut the black fabric part to be much longer, but then I realized that the dress would look super cute as a fitted pencil skirt dress. When I make one-of-a-kind items I rarely ever sketch or plan things out. I just cut out a few pieces of fabric as a base and then add on to it when inspiration hits. This type of sewing takes a while but it's a lot of fun.

Click here to see item details for the Red Plaid Ribbon Dress





I also took some random pictures of the rest of the trip. Me and my boyfriend David got into Santa Cruz on Saturday afternoon for Laura's backyard birthday party. The party included a keg AND a bounce house. Somehow that did not end in a disaster, even though there were definitely about 10 drunk people in there at one time.

We went out to some hipster bars later- holy shit those drinks were expensive.

And then Saturn Cafe- delicious vegetarian and vegan junk food!

And then the beach and the boardwalk on Sunday- we didn't really have time for any of the rides so we just walked around.

I want to go back already, dammit.



Cemetery where we took the photo shoot



Some kids were having an Easter egg hunt when we got there. I didn't notice there was an Easter egg on this tombstone until I looked through my camera lens.



David and I on the beach. That's totally not beer in my coffee mug, by the way.



Outside of the Boardwalk. I wanted to go on the wooden roller coaster on the left but the line would have taken too long. I'm pretty sure that it's the first roller coaster I ever went on when I was a kid.



Laura carefully walking across the train bridge that was in the Lost Boys movie.



Path to nowhere!



Another beach view.



Cute beach, but it was pretty cold by the time we got there. The sun deserted us.



Another view of the bridge. It had several no trespassing signs but nobody gave a fuck.

That's it for now! Laura is moving to San Jose in a few weeks so I might have to do a photo shoot there soon. Someday we will have taken pictures in every cemetery in Northern California!