Just finished the dress and I’m excited that I already have something(s) to wear it to! First, Nook is reopening in Pittsford this evening. I’ve been visiting the store for lunch breaks over the last two weeks, as my good friend Shanna has been slaving away getting it set and ready for the opening tonight. Check out the sneak peak here.
Then, we’re off to the grand opening of Good Luck. We’ve been watching this restaurant take shape all spring and summer, as our good friend Chuck (manager of the best Rochester cafe ever, Javas and co-owner of Good Luck) has given us weekend and late-night sneak-peaks of the space for the last five months. I’m thrilled that the restaurant is opening in the old Fabrics and Findings space (small tear); now my former favorite fabric store will be my new favorite bar/restaurant. I’m particuarly excited about the cocktail menu, which Chuck developed and perfected himself–we were lucky enough to sample some of these drinks in process over the last few weeks.
Hope you’ll stop in and support both!
Pictures of the finished dress to follow…
I’ve been really inspired by the work of Natalie Chanin, who recently published Alabama Stitch Book. Chanin focuses much of her work on hand-stitched clothing, often made from repurposed materials. After pouring over her book and looking at all the interesting takes on her projects posted to the Alabama Stitch Book Flickr group, I decided to leave my sewing machines for the evening and try some hand-stitching again. I was surprised at how enjoyable the process was for me to leave my sewing machines and attempt to sew something together.
This is the bottom half of the dress I’m working on that I started yesterday. Hoping to have it put together by tomorrow morning:
This project inspired another goal: To use all of the fabric I have now for fall clothing and see what I can do with it. The dress I’m working on is make from stretch demin I bought a year a go, and a large piece of soft gray cotton I found in a bin of fabric in our cellar.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the last few days about where I’m headed, what I want to do creatively, how I feel spent on so many levels. Maybe if I get the guts, I’ll post more about that internal process later. Today, I’ve decided to sew myself a dress and really take my time doing it. I might not finish it today, but I’ve decided that’s okay. In fact, I’ll probably love it more if I finish it tomorrow.
Until then…
I’m feeling so giddy about my very first ripe tomato that I took a picture of it:
Tomorrow, I’m going to pop the entire thing in my mouth and savor my first organically grown, locally produced tomato from my own little garden. Yay for summer!
(A student of mine said she got sick eating tomatoes from her garden this week and I’m only slightly worried about that brown speckling on the leaves that you can see in the picture…should I be concerned about this?)
Update: I ate half the tomato wrapped in a piece of basil from my garden and the other half plain. Both bites were perfect.
Today has been a totally odd day. Woke up and cleaned for two hours and still didn’t finish. Then my close friend, who is leaving me for Brooklyn on Friday (yea, I should be happy for her, and I am, but right now I’m feeling the sad leaving-me part), came over for a few hours of bloody marys on the roof. Then I realized it was already 3 p.m. and I hadn’t showered or figured out what I was going to do for the class I teach Monday nights.
Now I’m wasting time on someecards while my students work on their introductions and I’ve already laughed out loud twice in class. If you ever need to brighten up your day, spent 10 minutes on someecards and try not to giggle.
Allie did this meme today on her blog, so I’m following suit. The goal is to pick five cards from someecards that describe yourself in “amazingly unflattering ways.” Here goes:
(I have an iPhone, so how can I not pick this one?)
I’m also going to pick one for my husband:
I think July is the month of tiny dresses:
I made this dress for my friend’s daughter, but accidentally cut it out too small. Now I have two identical tiny dresses and no tiny girls to give them to…
Someone in my life needs to have a baby girl instead of all the baby boys that are populating the families of my friends. Any takers?
I was recently interviewed by rocloop dot com about MadeByRachel. You can check it out here. I don’t look like I’m enjoying myself…in fact, I don’t really feel like I look like myself at all in the picture, but despite that fact, it was fun!
Update: You can also read the story here!
My friend sent me some pictures of her daughter in the tiny blue dress I made her. I’m not sure what she enjoyed more: wearing the dress or the juice she drank while wearing it:
