blows dust off top of blog, hits power button

Well, I’ve gotten two shots (shoutout to my Pfizer Pfriends) and in a week or so I can perhaps consider leaving the house, so I suppose it’s time to start sewing again?

I have basically been wearing the same seven dresses for a year, mostly in shades of gray and black, and I am assured that at some point I will emerge (like a cicada, only quieter) into the light of the sun. So this seemed like a relatively sunny fabric to start with.

I think I bought this fabric at Scrap in Portland, in the beforetimes, but I’m not sure.

So yeah, this is the Chalk and Notch Fringe dress, which is super-comfortable, even more so when you turn the skirt into a six-panel one and add gathering to the center front and back and extremely deep pockets. As you can see I also turned the facing to the outside so I could play with stripes and piping.

I’ve actually done a tiny bit more sewing since putting this together—I finally bought a cutting mat large enough for my cutting table, so I am now a late convert to the Church of the Rotary Cutter. (Wow, those things are neat!) Rotary cutting means that a bunch of knit projects I always bought fabric for and then dismissed as too much effort to cut conventionally are now within reach—I made my first jersey knit dress in more than a decade (a Cashmerette Turner) recently, and it was such a quick sew! (I also acquired some stretchy bobbin thread and a jersey double needle for topstitching, which was extremely satisfying.)

Anyway, in addition to not sewing, I’ve mostly been spending my time this past year appreciating how lucky I’ve been and trying to quash my incandescent rage at those who made the decisions that caused other people to be hideously unlucky. Also, as is now required by statute, I started a newsletter. (It’s free.)

How’ve y’all been? I’ve missed you.