A HandBuilt Life

This week we're joined by Elizabeth Suzann (Liz to her friends), the designer behind the slow fashion brand that shares her name. Liz started the brand on Etsy at 22, taught herself pattern drafting and sewing, and grew it into a beloved label with a Nashville studio and, at its height, a team of 40+ people making everything in-house to order. Since COVID she's had to pivot several times: scaling...

This week Heather and Amy are wrapping up October with some reflections. Heather is back from touring on the road with her man. Amy is getting vulnerable about her worst nightmare coming true and they are sharing some of the Fall traditions that are getting them into cozy season. Grab a warm cup of something and join us. A HandBuilt Life is brought to you by Closet Core Studio. 🌐 Website: https:/...

You can watch this epsiode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3bwPpBALIQc Beatrice Deer is an award-winning Inuk and Mohawk singer-songwriter, designer, and seamstress who grew up in the tiny village of Quaqtaq, Nunavik, and moved to Montreal in her twenties. She calls her sound "Inuindie," a mix of indie rock, folk, and throat singing, sung mostly in Inuktitut with flashes of English and French. She's...

Ben Viapiana is a one-man denim brand, a fount of knowledge about all things jeans, one of our favourite makers to follow on IG, and a fellow Canadian. Ben started making his own jeans at sixteen after asking his dad, an Italian-trained tailor, to teach him; "It's too late," his dad said, but he spent the next few years teaching himself as much as he could through trial and error and dogged determ...

Heather and Amy are reflecting on the end of summer and the joys and pains of summer vacationing with their respective families. Other items on the docket: moving to get the thoughts out, moodboarding fall style and building stairs! Heather also shared her deep dive into Eve Babitz's fascinating life and essays, and Amy is now hunting down a copy of To Live and Die in L.A. Find us at: www.closetco...

Heather is sitting down with author and humourist Eve O. Schaub to talk about her latest project: growing a dress. Her previous works, which include Year of No Suga r (2014), Year of No Clutter (2017), and Year of No Garbage (2023), have all been experiments she's engaged in with her family, and this latest project is no different. From growing the flax and weaving it into cloth to making the dye...

This week, Heather and Amy are sharing what has been filling their heads, hands and hearts this July. From Amy's staycation to Heather's journey into the classics, we are proving that not only are we huge nerds, but we also have nerdy hobbies. Bird watching, anyone? Find us at www.closetcorepatterns.com

Heather was delighted to speak with Dr. Claire Ashley on the pod this month. They have a long chat about detecting and healing from burnout (check out her book, The">https://amzn.to/4aB36Vl">The Burnout Doctor), her sewing practice, and ADHD and how it relates to sewing. Claire is a licensed GP and has a neuroscience degree, and the confluence of that background and her interest in making le...

Join Heather and Amy as they get into what has been filling their heads and hearts and keeping their hands busy this June. Coming to you from Amy's basement, sorry the production values aren't perfect on this one! Sign up for our newsletter to get all the details on each episode: www.closetcorepatterns.com

Our guest is business advisor, strategic consultant, and style icon Gretchen Jones. Heather and Gretchen go deep on values-driven entrepreneurship, what it means to be truly creative in today's culturally flat landscape, how to break out of the stagnation of late-stage capitalism, and why we should all be embracing "sloppy boobs”. Real wisdom and genuinely thought-provoking ideas from one of the m...

Heather and Amy are debriefing after H&H, a giant studio move and Amy's revelation that she's an entirely different season than she thought! Tune in to hear more about what is filling our hearts and heads this month. Find us at: www.closetcorepatterns.com

Our guest is chef, recipe developer, bestselling cookbook author and maker Christine Flynn. Hailing from the East Coast of Canada, Christine and Heather had a rollicking conversation that covers big life and career pivots, what it actually takes to write a cookbook (spoiler: it's more expensive than you can imagine), and how to look at a fridge full of sad ingredients and figure out dinner anyway....

Heather and Amy are back to discuss the hobbies and obsessions keeping their heads and hands busy this Spring. From Amy crying with astronauts to Heather's feminist literature class, we are busy in April, shaking off a loooooong winter and getting our wardrobes and makeup drawers ready for what's looking like a very grown-up handbag summer. Tune in to find out what the heck this all means... Find...

Heather sits down with the original multi-hyphenate and muse to our most challenging sewing pattern to date (the Jasika Blazer) Jasika Nicole! They talk hobbies (how many are too many??) creativity juice and perimenopause in this intimate chat. Where to find us: www.closetcorepatterns.com

Heather and Amy are back with the subjects that are filling their heads, the hobbies that are keeping their hands busy and the little things that are filling their hearts this month. From Amy's sourdough journey to Heather's favourite new series, we are coming to you from the Closet to share our passions. Like and subscribe so you never miss an episode! Find us here: www.closetcorepatterns.com

This week, Heather sits down with sewing superstar Cornelius Quiring! We had the pleasure of hosting Cornelius in Montreal while working on The Cornelius Shirt collab, and honestly? It was a blast. Photoshoots, silly videos, and endless laughs... You can feel that joy coming through in this conversation. Grab a snack, settle in, and enjoy the chat! Find us at www.closetcorepatterns.com

In the inaugural episode of A Handbuilt Life, Heather and Amy are coming to you from the Closet Core Closet (literally) to introduce themselves and their plans for the show! Times are tough, and now more than ever, we need to look for ways to fill our cups with positivity and creativity. If you are looking for a place to talk about your many hobbies and the growing pains of getting older, baby, ge...