Readers, This morning I was recalling an experience I had a few years ago that I’ve been pondering ever since. I was visiting New York to take part in a Saturday afternoon browsing and shopping tour of the Garment District with other avid sewers. Before the shopping began in earnest 25 or 30 of us […]
Spinning Plates Instead of Spinning My Wheels
Readers, To you, this may look only like a bulletin board covered with pattern envelopes and swatches. But to me? It’s been a radically effective tool in an experiment I’ve named The Getting Things Sewn Project Management Improvement Daily Challenge I love projects. I’ve done loads of projects. I have the endless enthusiasm of a […]
A Flamingo Shirt for Jack
Readers, Nobody needs a flamingo shirt. But almost everybody could use something flamingo shirt-ish. What I mean is, most of us want something in our wardrobes that has some zip to it, that makes you smile when you wear it, and that makes others smile, too (one hopes for the right reasons). Last fall I made […]
Zipper-Dee-Doo-Dah
Readers, That merry tune you heard someone whistling Sunday afternoon was just me celebrating a major milestone. Yes, after starting this saga a year and a half ago, finally I have a pants pattern that fits! Until I can model the pants myself in the ideal lighting conditions of my sister’s photo studio, I am […]
Shedding Light on My Beautiful French Sign
Readers, About 25 years ago, when I was living in Minneapolis, I happened upon an object in the window of a little antiques store in St. Paul that stopped me in my tracks. It was this sign: It was love at first sight, and I was immediately seized with the desire to own it. Two […]
Free, Fast, and Easy; Fun, Reversible–and Inspiring
Readers, For the last month or so I have been opening my closet door to behold not only my spring-summer clothes and accessories but–my spring-summer fabrics! Earlier this year I’d subjected my whole wardrobe to a new level of scrutiny, weeding out about a third of it. The remainder I divided into what I labeled […]
The Four Types of Discards
Readers, The Kondo effect has reached me even though I haven’t watched any of the Netflix shows yet: I recently examined everything in my wardrobe. I pulled coats, hats, and gloves from the coat closet; raided the laundry basket and to-be-ironed pile; unearthed shoes waiting to be polished since last summer; retrieved skirts from a pile […]