![\"A](\"https:\/\/spandexsimplified.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Marie-Old-News.jpg\")
Promotional and media photos of a much, MUCH younger me. I think I was about 20 here.<\/p><\/div>\n
Expanding Out From Skating Dresses<\/h2>\n
I don\u2019t remember how I got started into doing synchronized swim costumes - I actually made those before I made any regular swimwear! - but it seemed like the perfect compromise between what I loved about skating costumes (designing around music \/ programs), and the wrestler costumes (just going crazy with color and design).<\/p>\n
Oh, it was fun. In the few short years I did it - before once again having to move on to something new! - I made hundreds of different competition suits. I made them for recreational and competitive athletes locally... then nationally, then around the world. <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/spandexsimplified.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Worlds-Largest-Synchro-Swimsuit.jpg\")
May, 2004: My Guinness World Record attempt for \"Largest Swimsuit\". Failed it on a technicality - BOO!.<\/p><\/div>\n
I\u2019ve sewn for Olympic athletes, and the Canadian National team wore my outfits to the Pan Am Games one year. Very cool. <\/p>\n
Around that same time, I put out a line of recreational swimwear, and actually had a sales agent. <\/p>\n
![\"Marie](\"https:\/\/spandexsimplified.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Team-Canada-Synchro.jpg\")
That time I made the suits for Team Canada...<\/p><\/div>\n
I showed my line in the Toronto Fashion week market, hired models, and worked with big name photographers. <\/p>\n
Jeanne Beker showed up to a swimwear shoot I was having for my line... way out in the middle of nowhere.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/spandexsimplified.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/jeannegrouporig.jpg\")
That time Jeanne Beker showed up at a photoshoot for my swimwear line, wore one of my tops, and took a pic with the models. It was surreal and insane, but this *actually* happened!<\/p><\/div>\n
It was all very surreal for me, back then. Truth be told, it feels a little weird to look back at everything I did back then, now.<\/p>\n
Stepping Back<\/h2>\n
As has been my pattern since I was a kid, I soon succumbed to a combination of boredom and burnout. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ll basically take something up on a lark, be interested... play around with it a bit, get really good at it, and then... I guess it just all becomes routine. When it feels like I\u2019ve been doing the same thing for just a bit too long, I have to just dump it all and move on to something more entertaining. So, I did.<\/p>\n
I was 25. I was also so fried from all of the long hours trying to just keep up with orders, I wanted absolutely nothing to do with spandex ever again. <\/p>\n
I stopped taking orders, and I discontinued the sewing manuals that I\u2019d written along the way. I took up event floral design, and eventually cake design... and on to cookbooks.<\/p>\n
Back to Spandex...<\/h2>\n
A few years later, things went full circle. I felt like I had all of this knowledge sitting in the back of my head - and in forgotten folders on my computer - just gathering virtual dust and cobwebs. I decided that it was time to revisit them.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m so happy to be able to teach others how to make all kinds of garments from spandex. Spandex Simplified: Synchro Swimwear was my first re-released* sewing manual, but was chronologically the fourth that I wrote. Originally written in 2004, all of the information provided was still current and applicable.<\/p>\n
It was soon followed by \"Sewing for Skaters\", and then 4 other sewing manuals. Subjects covered included gymnasts, fitness competitors & Bodybuilders, cosplay and wrestlers, and recreational swimwear.<\/p>\n
A few years after releasing the books, I decided that I missed sewing. <\/p>\n
Also: I was getting to the end of my cookbook life span. The career changes get very \"Doctor Who\", you know... I can feel the change coming.<\/p>\n
I happily went back to costuming for my synchro swimmers, pro wrestlers, and figure skaters.<\/p>\n
*Well, this one was \"sort of\" a re-release. While the other \"re-release\" books were published and sold well, this one was finished and never published. It was time to change that!<\/I><\/p>\nStepping Back Again<\/h2>\n
A few years passed, things happened - including a pandemic, and having my tendons destroyed by an antibiotic - and it was once again time to move on - temporarily.<\/p>\n
Long hours of sewing became too much for the tendon situation I was left with, both in my feet and shoulders.<\/p>\n
So, I started the Spandex Simplified<\/a> blog. Eventually, it will host EVERYTHING that I've written about in the books - updated - along with new posts along the way.<\/p>\n I hope that you not only learn a lot from these posts, but also have a lot of fun with it. <\/p>\n Two years after being afflicted with fluoroquinolone toxicity - and after a LOT of therapy for it! - I\u2019m finally working my way back to taking custom orders once again.<\/p>\n As of May 2022, I\u2019ve recently been seeing a LOT of improvement in my mobility, so I\u2019m in a bit of a holding pattern. <\/p>\n Due to the nature of the issue - including a risk of flares \/ recurrence - I\u2019m holding off on reopening. I want to be absolutely sure I\u2019m capable of meeting deadlines before reopening.<\/p>\n ... but it\u2019s definitely getting closer to being the case!<\/p>\n If you\u2019d like to ne notified when I reopen, send us an email<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They say that necessity is the mother of invention. In my case, it was the birth of my career! I was raised first by a single mother, and then by my retired grandparents. Figure skating isn\u2019t the most financially appropriate for someone in my position to be in, but somehow we made it work. The...<\/p>\nThe Future<\/h2>\n