The Process.

Mandala Design is a one-woman show! Designer, Mandy Armstrong designs, drafts, cuts, sews, presses, and finishes all garments (with reluctant, occasional help from family and unsuspecting friends visiting for the weekend) herself in Ontario Canada.

The design process usually starts with a spark ignited by a fantastic print or fabric. Mandy visits a myriad of Canadian fabric suppliers, representing mills from around the world during the design phase, and sometimes finds amazing deadstock vintage textiles to incorporate into a design. Once the style has been dreamed up, Mandy drafts the pattern by hand, sews (sometimes too many!) samples, and fits the pattern until it's perfect. She then uses a vintage Sunny Young Accurate Speed Grader to manually grade the pattern from size XS to XXL. Layers upon layers of material are laid out on her 12’ cutting table and sizes are cut in bulk (to save time and sanity) with various fabric-cutting saws. Mandy then sews together each and every piece on an array of sewing machines (her fave is a vintage Singer from 1947!) to ensure the quality and fit is the best it can be!