earth pony
earth pony is a creative project by tiffany and sarah, both designed and handmade by us.
during the pandemic, we spent all of our time together. we were both single and learning to fall in love with each other. tiffany invested in a sewing machine and knew how to make clothes courtesy of home ec in high school. sarah wanted to learn. she also wanted to finally make something of the trips to dressew, a fabric shop in downtown vancouver that her mom would take her to. together, our desire to develop tangible skills and create joy-filled things led us to this project - earth pony.
truthfully, the name earth pony comes from a podcast about a my little pony fanfic. we both thought it was funny that the name implies the existence of ponies elsewhere in our galaxy, not just here on earth. sarah grew up riding horses, so the word pony has a meaningful significance to her. the combo also accurately captures the sense of wonder and exuberance that we wanted to evoke with what we make.
we started with small projects involving clothes we already owned, making alterations, fitting them to our bodies, transforming them into new things. the world of thrifting opened up even more with the ability to resize our finds. we turned the sleeves of an old sweater into a new turtleneck tank top. sheer curtains were reconstructed into a long sleeve wrap shirt. through this, we learned about fabrics, fit, comfort... and continued to make discoveries every day. we are learning the technical art of pattern making, so that eventually we can make garments that are perfectly fitted to people of all body types. tiffany may have even made a matching outfit for herself and her greyhound baby benji.
the process of learning to make our own clothes has led us on many fun adventures. we befriended the wonderful people who run fabric and notion shops in this city. we hit the jackpot when we traded a dog harness and some treats for bags of second hand fabrics. we even heeded the easily dismissed advice of cleaning out the sewing machine for the very first time.
we both also sheepishly asked our moms to mail us the fabrics we hoarded since we were teenagers, which became a surprising way that we got to learn something new about one another.
we feel lucky to be able to document our thoughts and experiences here. it is important for us to understand where things come from, so we want to share how we got to our final designs. we hope that our creations become pieces that people will cherish and form memories in.
so far, seeing our closest friends light up while wearing the things we’ve made has been the most incredible feeling. although it feels great to be supported, we have also seen just how much all of us enjoy supporting the people we care about. hopefully with this project, we can continue to do even more of that.
hoods & snoods
tiffany's grandma was marvellously talented in almost all areas of life. she joined the revolution and fought for the ccp when she was just 16 years old, hoping to create a better future for chinese people. she was also an incredible cook, often creating beautiful and delicious creations out of dough to the delight of her granddaughter. she was also a craftsman, knitting and crocheting a variety of sweaters and winter accessories. most notably, she knitted a red and yellow hood for tiffany, which her parents brought to canada with them when they moved. it featured a comfy top that wraps around the head and two straps to secure it on the chin. an abundance of happy memories were made wearing this little hood and it still features prominently in tiffany's closet as one of her most prized possessions.
the designs of the hoods and snoods were intentionally joyful in colour and shape. they were supposed to evoke laughter from your friends and memories of running down snow covered hills elbows linked together. to provide an additional layer of warmth, the snoods were designed to compliment the hoods by gently caressing our wind-chaffed cheeks. overall, the effect
in being alongside tiffany through the creation of hoods and snoods, sarah learned about what she had missed out on not knowing her grandma very well. it inspired her to help tiffany connect to her grandma in this special way. as close as we already feel to each other, it was also a road on which sarah got to learn more about what made tiffany who she is.
we live a city colonially known as montreal and originally known as tiohtià:ke. for a lot of the year, staying warm is a daily effort. but this city also lights up during the winter months due to artists transforming streets with visual, experiential, and musical installations. this makes the winters here both gray and colourful. cold and warm. like many artists here, we think this project desires to keep people warm in multiple senses of the word.
item features
- one size (but tested on a variety of our friend's head sizes)
- fleece (a mix of polar and regular)hoods tie in the front (in 2 different ways)
- snoods have an adjustable tie in the back (for those days when you want to keep out all wind
colourways
- creamy
- dreamy
- foamy
- stormy
fabric sourcing:
fabricville montreal. because the hoods & snoods are made using new fabric, we wanted to be especially conscious of the waste we produce from this project. we’ve kept all of the leftover scraps from every hood & snood we’ve made and used them to create enrichment toys for pets in our community. these feature a variety of compartments to hide treats in and also sometimes double as a blanket.
magic top
when all of your friends are hot, and it's not even a brag, you can't help but want to create with them in mind. having received a lot of special fabrics in the mail that we both hoarded since our teenage years, we were inspired to make something that put them in central focus. as we continue to develop our sewing skills, straps are still well within our comfort zone, requiring minimal technical sewing prowess but allowing for an endless combination of creative placements. all of these thoughts and conditions came together to birth the magic top. we maybe have gone a bit overboard with how many straps made it onto the final design, but we're happy that it offers many interpretations of how the magic top can be worn and styled.
after our brutal winters, most of us are happy with the torching summers that come after. the magic top was made for frolicking during this time, whether it is worn direct to skin, over your bikini, or layered on top of colourful t-shirts. running around in a meadow with your friends, feeling the wind lift the straps in beautiful configurations around you, laying down in the shade of an old tree, telling stories about the clouds that are drifting by.
you may have noticed that these tops haven't officially launched in our shop yet. this is because it is crucial for us to create pieces that are suitable for people of all body types. we are still working on our pattern drafting skills, and how clothing should be altered to be sized well to different body types. the end result should be a system where we can gather a few of your measurements during the ordering process, to sew a top that is custom made for you. not only should the magic top be comfortable, but it should also make the wearer feel happy. so far, we've tailored the top to a variety of our friends and continue to tweak the design in the process. if you are interested in the prototyping process, please reach out to us via email or dm.
item features
- made to order custom to your measurements
- reversible
- 10 straps
- endless tying options
colourways
- head in the clouds
- starry eyed
- pink pixel
- rainbow dream
fabric sourcing
we are happy to say that no new fabric was purchased for this design! we used three alternative methods; foraging at our local renaissance, trading secondhand fabrics, and using leftovers from our childhood sewing projects.