About

LyndenTree Designs started as a seed of an idea in 2011 when I read a Threads Magazine in college. They announced the winning designs of a zero-waste fashion competition and I was fascinated. Each garment had an accompanying diagram showing how it had been patterned and cut from a piece of fabric with no leftovers. I studied that article for hours when I should have been doing my actual Apparel Technology homework. 

I decided to go for it and started LyndenTree Designs with an official business name and everything in 2020. Hah. The pandemic stress got to me after a few months, and I had to put my plans on pause. 

Finally, in 2022, the tiny little seed of an idea for a zero-waste fashion business sprouted and began to grow. Currently, it's just me in the basement with my sewing machine and a desire to make garments with no scraps left over (seriously, I'd drown in scraps if zero waste fashion wasn't my thing). I love the challenge and the creative constraints that zero waste design gives me, and I love the idea of playing a part in making a more sustainable fashion practice. 

LyndenTree Designs is, as far as I can tell, the first zero-waste fashion business in Canada. Many other companies have zero waste practices that use offcuts to create small things like scrunchies, utilize deadstock fabric, or upcycle scraps into garments (which is awesome!). However, none use zero waste design principles, where waste is eliminated during the pattern cutting process itself, before the garment is even sewn. 

LyndenTree Designs also currently one of the few places where you can purchase ready-to-wear zero waste clothing. Most other zero waste clothing comes as either patterns for home sewists, or fashion school graduate collections. I'm super excited to make zero-waste fashion accessible for people who can't sew or just don't feel like making their own clothes. Hopefully zero waste fashion will become far more common in the future!

My aesthetic is heavily influenced by historical clothing and fantasy costuming, due to my background as a costumer for stage and screen. 

Oh, and the name comes from my own name: Lyndall means "valley of linden trees". 

A young woman with long wavy brown hair smiles at the camera. She wears glasses and holds a sketchbook. The spring green background contrasts with her bright red skirt. In the background, a thread spool holder sits on a desk.
Lyndall Cave, founder of LyndenTree Designs

Photo Credit: Tiffany Oud