where I work

Good morning and welcome to my studio!  My studio is the spare bedroom of our two-bedroom apartment where I live with my husband in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, NYC.  It is in the back of the apartment, with two windows overlooking the “courtyard” (a nice way of saying that I can look into my neighbors’ apartments across the entranceway – I always wave!).  It’s small, (about 10′ x 12′), quiet, warm and gets a bit of sunlight for a few hours a day – my little slice of heaven.

The door with the “hats” decal on it is the entrance door; the other two doors are to two shallow closets, which are perfect for me.  In the left one hangs all of my patterns, and in the right closet are shelves with bolts of fabric.  The decals are left over from a tradeshow that I did a while ago – I found them recently during a clearout and thought I’d put them to good use.  The shelves in between the closets house lots of my reference books, as well as stacks of tissue paper and hatboxes for packaging finished hats.  Behind the “hats” door is my little packing area with a small table, and stacks of shipping boxes.  

A bit of my work table in the foreground, and my iron which sits on an ironing board just in front of it.  This is where I do all of my pattern drafting and fabric cutting.  I use all the mirrors when I’m designing and need to check a hat from different angles on myself.  In the corner are more bolts of fabric and rolls of pattern paper and oaktag; fancy hat and wig carriers; and on the shelves are vintage hat blocks and display heads. 

My little workhorse of a sewing machine where I sit for many hours.  From that vantage point I can gaze out the window, or watch a movie on my computer while I do my handsewing.  To the right in the picture are shelves with lots of supplies; and in the corner is my little photo snapping area.  The boxes stacked up on top of the shelves contain my inventory and samples – the stars are post-its that list what’s in each box.  The photo strip hanging between the windows, just over my sewing machine, is of my grandmother and my father in about 1930 when he was about 3 years old, taken in a photo booth in Atlantic City.  My grandmother is elegant as always, wearing a beautiful cloche.  I love that they watch over me as I work. Here’s a close-up:

The last picture is my desk and inspiration board above it.  The desk is just a frosted glass tabletop that I got on clearance at Ikea for $9.99, and it sits atop two red file cabinets.  Perfect size and height.  My inspiration board is separated into four sections, one for a calendar, and then a section each for spring/summer, fall, and winter/holiday.  I used to change out the whole thing regularly, but then was always coming across things or ideas that I wanted to hold on to and explore for a different season than what I was currently working on, so I broke it up this way.  It also helps me to see themes or arcs for the entire year.

I’ve got post-its all around my computer with reminders, positive messages, my UPS guy’s cell #, etc.  The “sassy” sign is a gift from a dear friend and acts as a prop for little gifts and finds that remind me of dear ones and lovely times.  Add a cup of tea, a little music or NPR, and let the fun begin!

Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit!  I hope your day is happy and peaceful…

hello there

 

winter

And how are you?  I know it it’s been days and days since I’ve written but I’m here, keepin’ on keepin’ on. Feeling very quiet.  Life seems to have sped up and slowed down, all at the same time.  Does it seem that way to you?  I’ve been sticking pretty close to home, head down, working away.  Experimenting really, with how I work.  It’s a fun adventure and I’m so grateful for the time and space that I have right now.  Money is tight and sales are slow, but that’s to be expected.  It’s fine really and quite freeing, in it’s own way.  The extra time has allowed me to focus on designing and trying things that may lead me somewhere wonderful or nowhere at all. Just joyful creating. And we’re staying in NYC for the time being.  Bruce has decided to not continue with the new job in Vermont.  It just wasn’t the right fit, and though it’s not the best of times to turn down financial security, it’s always the right time to follow your instincts and I’m proud of him for that.  I think we’ll end up in Vermont eventually as we do love it there, but we want to go with full and happy hearts.

So in between working, I’m making holiday cards and gifts and I have a couple of loved ones with birthdays this time of year too.  My friend Mark’s birthday was yesterday, and the image above is from the book I gave him to celebrate.  Mark is a very talented musician and the book was an old children’s songbook, published in 1900.  All the songs are about nature and how to care for it – very au courant – and there are lovely illustrations throughout.  So beautiful, and I think Mark really liked it. 

Beginning tomorrow, I thought I’d share more of my process, both designing and making.  I’ll start with some pictures of my little studio, where I’ve been spending so much time.  Until then, I’ve been making weekly shop updates and there are a few new hats there, including more Fedorables, for which I’ve had some requests.

Be well, stay warm, and thanks for stopping by.

taking a little break

 

sheep in the cotswolds

Today I’m off to the wilds of Manhattan for supply sourcing and to fill up on art.  A few of my stops will be:

art in odd places

ny art book fair

chanel mobile art

I’ll be taking a little blogging break next week to finish up a couple of projects and complete my holiday collection.  Have a fantastic week!

autumn weekend

 

vermont forest, early autumn

Happy Friday! It’s raining like crazy here in New York (rain hats, must make rain hats…) so it must be autumn.  It’s chilly too, so I started the day off by making a big batch of granola.  Homemade granola has become our breakfast of choice, and I love changing it up a bit each time.   Today I added extra almonds and ginger and now the apartment smells fantastic!

It’s a good day to stay safely tucked in my studio catching up on orders and doing some planning for the next few months.   This weekend, I have a few projects I’ll be tackling, and then Bruce and I are headed to this opening, which I’m very excited about.  

Have a lovely weekend!

raspberry beret

 

third birthday beret

The super of our building, Semmy, has two gorgeous children and the eldest, Selma, turns three years old today.  She loves nothing better than standing outside the building with her daddy and greeting everyone as they come in and out.  Miss Personality Plus.  No one can ignore her and it doesn’t hurt that she has a smile that lights up the entire neighborhood, and long dark curly hair.  Beautiful!  Bruce is completely in love with her, so in our home, she’s known as his girlfriend.  When she stands outside at around the same time everyday, she will frequently call up to our window for him to poke his head out and say hello to her.  So sweet.  I thought she should have a special present from her boyfriend for her birthday, and she loves pink (what three-year-old doesn’t??), so this morning I whipped up a mini-version of the Ballon, in a very soft bright pink wool boucle, with a pale pink silk lining.  Her boyfriend is now busy making a special card for her.  Update: we caught her just before her nap, but I think she likes it!

 

happy birthday girl

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!  It’s hot and sticky in NYC, so instead of sweating it out on the beach, I am happily ensconced in the studio, with the a/c set at an eco-friendly 78 degrees, great music on the radio, and lots of lovely lightweight fabrics kindly telling me what they want to become.

There will be a shop update on Monday, July 7th, so I’ll be sewing and photographing all weekend.  And I’ve been thinking a lot about Yves Saint Laurent since his passing, so while I do some hand sewing, I’ll be re-watching this DVD.   It’s a double feature: an incredible portrait of how he came to be such an amazing designer, and a behind-the-scenes peek at the creation of his final collection.  I highly recommend it. 

Best wishes for a wonderful weekend!

*Terry*

refreshing

Frozen grapes – my favorite summertime treat!  We always keep some in the freezer and I like to have them as a refreshing snack when I’m in the studio.  Especially when I’m designing new styles and things aren’t going as smoothly as I would like.  But do they ever really?  I’m trying to have more realistic expectations and allow myself the time to work through everything to their best conclusions.

A week or so ago, I was thinking about my design school experience.  My undergraduate degree is in theatre (performance, of all things – what was I thinking?!?!), and after a couple of years I went back to graduate school for fashion design.  The design part of the program was not good for me at all – it was geared toward what I call “career-girl-wear” with no room for other areas like accessories.  To be fair, it was a very tiny program and the women who were running it had no experience outside the “career-girl” sphere, so they didn’t even attempt to guide/teach anyone who had divergent interests.  The technical training was fantastic, however, so I stayed long enough to complete those courses and am happy I did.

I was always a school geek.  I loved school and most everything about it – loved learning, loved books, loved the opportunities to expand my horizons.  I loved most every subject (yes, even math!).  I counted down the days of summer vacation because I couldn’t wait to go back in the fall.  Heck, I even loved taking tests.  I loved the challenge of tests and the opportunity to show both myself and my teacher what I had learned.  I have been thinking about the tests that we had in design school, and yup, I loved them too.  We were told what tools we would need, the students showed up and claimed a work table.  Then we were given a design problem to solve, and would have 2-3 hours to make a finished piece.  Stressful but fun!  

In an effort to free myself up and work a bit faster, I been starting my days in the studio for the past week or so with what I now call the “Two-Hour Challenge”.  I’m loving it!  I haven’t actually had a finished piece in those two hours, but boy, I have certainly learned a lot and moved much closer to a resolution then I would have normally in that period of time.  It’s really fun, has helped enormously with my concentration, and I can easily get some quality design time in, even on the days when I work at my part-time gig.  I feel refreshed!!  

I’m making sure to document my process with pictures and notes.  As soon as I have a finished piece, I’ll share the entire journey with you.

 

fun with silk & vintage lace

I’m having some fun today, just playing with softer fabrics like the striped crinkle silk pictured and thinking about using vintage lace for trimming.  It’s really a different experience to work with such soft fabrics, as usually I’m trying to create stiffer structures and need fabric with lots of body to hold the shapes I’m going for.  But I’m wanting a dreamier, softer, more romantic feel for the styles I’m working on now and I do have some lovely silks and really soft cotton seersuckers in my fabric stash that have been begging to be used.  Did I ever tell you that I never use interfacing with my fabrics?  No?  Well, it’s true.  I just hate the stuff, whether it’s iron-on or sew-in.  Could be from all those years making costumes where it felt like you always had to fight with the fabric and everything had to wear like iron to stand up to the rough-and-tumble backstage world.  I hate fighting with fabric (or anything for that matter).  I really work to allow the fabric and the seaming to combine and naturally do what they want to do, real peaceful like.  That way, nobody gets hurt.

Hope you’re having a peaceful weekend too.

opening space, opening eyes

After spending quite a bit of time cleaning up my studio, I found that not only do I now have more space, but I can actually see (and find!) the things that are taking up residence. Hopefully their stay will be temporary, as I’ve decided to launch a creative juggernaut (gulp!) and am committing myself to creating something – anything – every day. I’ve also decided to force my hand, literally and figuratively, by making it a new rule that I must wear something that I’ve designed and made every day. As I know that I’ll quickly become bored with the things I’ve made in the past, I’ll be forced to make new and exciting things to drape myself with! I’ve definitely been looking around more, taking the time to appreciate the details in the beauty that surrounds me every day.

Sometimes you know exactly what inspires you. Other times, you only realize after the fact what must have sparked something. Take this hat, which has been sitting on my lovely little lady’s head for a while now, and the unfinished and decaying painting that has hung on my studio wall for ages. I only just now saw the connection…