The Winning Ticket

This is a new design I worked on to submit to Lark Books for consideration for their upcoming Apron Book. I know there must have been tons of other sewing bloggers out there working feverishly on the same project. This one didn't make the cut. So now I get to show it to you! I have to admit that I love it.

It's been so long since I've had the time to sketch and draft new designs. I knew I had to submit a few designs for this book or I would really regret it. So I cleared the decks. Let the kid starve, the dog go unwalked, the garden grow six foot weeds, and I hunkered down with my rulers, dot paper, and muslin and got my elbows deep in thread and pencils.

I loved working with a new fabric and playing with buttons and trim combinations. My work space was not Marth-neat. It was a whirlwind of scraps and pins and patterns and mock ups. It was so bad a pocket walked away. But this isn't the design I'm most proud of.

One thing I absolutely love about so many of the crafting bloggers out there is the deep commitment to recycling and the clever use so many people are putting to discarded items. However, when I try to think of cool ways to re-use things my mind goes blank. It takes a special tweaking of the brain and a slight blurring of the eyes as you look at something to see it new and differently.

When it comes to clothes, I also have a fear of tearing them apart. It's counter intuitive for me. How an architect probably feels about demolition jobs. My training is in building garments from scratch, not fixing them, not re-doing them, not taking them apart. People are always wanting me to do alterations for them, as though I must be good at that sort of tedious meticulous work which requires that you very carefully unbuild a garment until you get to the point where you can adjust a seam. It's like plastic surgery for clothes. I don't do that.

But I've always wanted to get my hands dirty with re-purposing because it's just so cool.

So I made smocks out of men's button up shirts. I thought this was so clever and original it was kind of deflating to discover (right after submitting this) that someone else had already been making half aprons out of men's shirts. Which leads me to wonder: is it even possible to come up with a single completely original idea?



Technically speaking, I got permission from the editor to not only talk about getting accepted, but to show pictures of the design that will be included in the book as long as I don't give anyone instructions for making it until at least six months after the book is out. (It's a book of apron patterns for those of you who haven't already heard all about it.) So I could show it to you. But I'm not going to because I'm superstitious and I'm afraid that if I show it to you I will somehow blow this amazing opportunity.

I went to Fabric Depot yesterday with my mom to collect swatches to show the editor of the book because they need the fabric for my project to work well with the other accepted projects. (The fabric I used for my submission is a delicate cream silk fabric with thread thin black pinstripes. The other projects are all much bolder in print and color.) In San Fransisco I would have headed right to Britex and I would have found a whole floor full of silks. Not just bridal silks, but a whole range of silk shirtings and silk suitings. Silk for fashion. Fabric Depot has a tremendous selection of cotton quilting fabrics but their fashion fabric selection was very limited, as it is in most fabric stores these days.

When I asked if they had any other silk besides bridal silks, the employee who was helping me asked me what kind I meant. Like, what would I be using the silk for? I said I needed to find silks meant for more casual clothes like shirts. I swear she looked at me like my tongue had just forked itself in four. Can you imagine how she might have looked at me if I'd told her I needed the silk for a hostess apron?

Today my mom is taking us back to Portland for more swatches, only this time we're going to Bolt, and to Mill Ends to see what we can find there.

There were two things I was made to do: write, and design. Right now I'm doing both and it feels like coming home.


Note: The panic is still with me but not directly a result of anything going on. I mean, it's more a result of the building stress I've been under managing the store and all that that entails. Yesterday was particularly bad with my stomach full of adrenaline all day long. This morning, however, my body feels calmer.