Despite the fact that a calendar year is really an arbitrary block of time, there is something about an impending new year that gets me motivated to check things off the list. Be it a sewing project or the never ending To Do list at work, I always try to make that final push to put projects behind me, add one more tick in the Done Column. Almost as if, in doing so, I will truly feel as if I deserve a break. (Note to self: You deserve a break anyway)
With the Turkey in the oven and the sounds of family swirling around my house, I sat down during a quick lull to put together my annual list of Black Friday Deals! I love shopping small around the holidays, and have really embraced getting huge chunks of Christmas shopping done before December even starts, when I can snag some amazing deals!
Have you ever had an idea that, when thinking about it in retrospect, you realize if you had known then what you know now, you never would have started it? (the wave skirt comes to mind…) That’s a long winded way of saying my latest sewing project started as a sketch that seemed very doable, and yet took more hours and more steps than should ever be humanly possible.
When I was little, one of the biggest treats was getting to visit my Mimere (our name for grandmother). She called it our “bonding time” and always made me feel so special. The pantry was always stocked with my favorite cereal (Cinnamon Toast Crunch – dubbed a “sugar cereal” and therefore forbidden in my house), let me watch Pretty Woman (though put a pillow over my face during the rude bits), and would stroke my hair until I fell asleep.
I think, no matter how daring you are, you can always get stuck in a bit of a rut. While I have a reputation for being somewhat fashionably “You Do You“, I’ll be the first to admit that I have my comfort zone. Without fail, day or night, you can be sure you’ll see me in a full skirt cinched within an inch of its life and as many crinolines as I can conceivably stack beneath some manner of glitter.
I don’t know what it is about summer, but I swear the months conspire to move at different speeds. I always seem to glide lazily through June, sipping mules from copper mugs and meeting friends for outdoor BBQs. July is always on a mission, moving forward with a blink-and-I’ll-miss-it ferocity, and August barely even seems to exist, her eyes already on autumn and the start of a new school year.
I’m an 80’s baby, which was all about color and exuberance and some seriously poor fashion choices. There is something about stone washed jeans and puff paint that makes me both nostalgic and horrified at the same time. And I must admit I was definitely one who gleefully joined the splatter paint phase, unapologetically adorning my clothes, my version of “art”, and even my bedroom walls with color.
There are certain kinds of fabric that just call to you. As someone who is all about the clash of geometrics and florals, with a particular penchant for border prints, it should come as no surprise that Gertie’s latest Hopscotch Gingham in cotton sateen would steal my heart. The tricky part: which color to choose??
There is nothing more important than self-care. After the kind of semester I’ve just had (and let’s face it, the kind of 2 years we’ve all just had), I’m looking for it more than ever. And self care can take a variety of forms: either spending some time to yourself getting lost in a good book, heading to the beach for a girl’s weekend, or a splurge on the cutest new handbag range from Vendula London.
I find inspiration for my skirts from all kinds of places. As many of you know, this often comes from the vintage stylings of Juli Lynne Charlot and Marjorie Montgomery. Or from dresses I never quite got my hands on. Dresses that in their original form would fit my pinkie toe (if we were lucky). But, every so often, I get a crazy, whimsical idea. And I just run with it. Or oink with it, as the case may be…