Pink of Perfection

Erin McKean is kind of amazingly cool. There’s the fact that she is a lexicographer (which means she pretty much takes the “sexy librarian” thing to a whole ‘nother level), and that she loves words and frocks so equally she has been known to make dresses from crossword fabric. But I like her most of all her for whip-smart, funny, oozing-with-personality-and-charm blog, Dress A Day, on which she makes sewing dreamy dresses look not so terrifying. In fact, she even makes it look fun.

How did you learn to sew and tell us about the beginning and evolution of Dress A Day?

My mother, bless her, taught me to sew when I was about 12 or so. We chose a pattern and fabric together. She made the first dress (pink rosebuds, slightly dropped waist, sleeveless) while I watched, and I made a second dress (blue floral) from the same pattern while she watched and corrected. Then I was off to the races!

As, for the blog, I was out with my husband Joey one night and was talking about the blogs I was reading, and I told him I really wanted there to be a blog that talked about a dress every day. And because my husband is the kind of guy that intuitively understands what you really want and then eggs you on to do it, he said “Why don’t you do it?”

I registered the domain name dressaday.com and then sat on it for a year, not doing anything. So when it came up for renewal I felt as if I had wasted a year in which I could have been doing something fun and cool, just because I was “too busy.” I figured I would never be LESS busy, so I’d just have to make time for it. I’m so glad that I did!

No beating around the bush: you’re hilarious. Who or what cracks you up?

Aw, thanks! I’m a huge fan of absurdist humor, and language-y humor. And if you don’t find something to be absurdly funny every day, you’re not paying close enough attention.

What do you think is the essence of great style?

Being yourself — and being fearless about being yourself. You should never be yourself half-assedly. (Go ahead — be entirely an ass!) Also, no one on their deathbed says “I should have worn more black, I would have looked skinnier.”

What’s some of the best advice you’ve ever gotten?

Nobody will notice (insert flaw here), and if even if they do notice, only rude people would say anything about it.

Word on the street is you’re writing a novel. Can you tell us about it?

Um, yeah! It’s about a woman named Dora who goes home to run her grandmother’s vintage shop. And it’s about being brave enough to do what you want to do and not what you think you should do. And it has “Secret Lives of Dresses” in it. And some other stuff. (But no car chases. We’re saving that for the movie.)

What or who most inspires you?

I think I’m inspired most by having an interesting problem to solve. Why can’t we do something in a different way? Why not try a new approach? The worst that can happen is that you still have the problem you started out with, only now you know one more thing that won’t work.

What’s your surefire way to unwind after a stressful day?

A novel by Georgette Heyer, Donald Westlake, or Angela Thirkell, a hot bath, and maybe some popcorn (but not popcorn in the bathtub, that’s weird). Or watching House with my husband while we hold hands.

What’s in your fridge right now?

Olives, pickles, roasted red peppers, mild yellow peppers, giardiniera (basically anything that is steeped in vinegar and comes in a jar) and every possible thing you can put on top of ice cream. I like condiments.

Last but not least: Maryanne or Ginger (from Gilligan’s Island)?

Oh, totally Maryanne, but you have to let her raid Ginger’s closet. That’s the best of both worlds. (Also, I’m totally Betty, but I wish I were Veronica.)

One of my favorite things about blogs, hands down, is how you can feel like you can count people as your friends who you might never get the chance to meet in real life. Amber Karnes, of the super fabulous My Aim is True, has long been that for me. Her craft room is a site to be seen, and I’m constantly inspired by a life that seems to be a flurry of friends, good food, creative fun, and lots and lots of colorful, meaningful beauty.

Amber (looking the happiest) with super cute hubby on the last day of her honeymoon

Tell us a little bit about your blog and what the name means.

Well my site is sort of my life in notes and photos, if that makes sense. I talk a lot about crafting, cooking, my grumpy dog, music that I like, stuff like that. The name is a line from an Elvis Costello song called “Alison“.

How did you first get into making, crafting and cooking? Any particularly memorable flops or successes?

I was homeschooled for most of my life, and my mom always encouraged creativity and artistic pursuits. We made a lot of crafts when I was younger, everything from teddy bear bread to a heck of a lot of t-shirts covered in puff paint. I guess I grew out of it for a while, then after college I decided I wanted to learn to knit, just out of the blue. I showed up to a stitch ‘n’ bitch night, and the rest is history. I love teaching myself whatever new thing I want to tackle and making things myself so it was a great fit. I taught myself to cook mostly by experimenting, then from cookbooks and the internet after I went vegan in May 2007. Vegan cooking is a totally different game.

I think my most successful DIY projects have been things around the house. I can follow a craft pattern pretty well but I feel like I’m more creative with interior design and making just so-so things into really special things.

Flops? Ask my husband, I’ve cooked some pretty awful things. A lot of it involves eggplant. Why are those suckers so hard to cook properly?
Dude, I hear you. The craft scene in Norfolk seems really vibrant. Tell us about the 7 Cities Crafters.

The 7 Cities Crafters are a group of crafters and visual artists who sort of represent the indie art scene in the area. We’ve been a group for a few years now in one form or another. We’re a pretty diverse group, most of us are in our 20s and 30s but we have had everyone from high schoolers to 70 year old women come to our get-togethers. We have a monthly meetup where we bring food, hang out and craft together. We also host free skill-sharing workshops where one member of the group will hold a demo and teach the rest of the group a skill like knitting, photography, whatever. They’ve been very popular and we just scheduled several more for the next few months. I got the group going out of a totally selfish desire to meet more creative people in the area, sort of bring them out of the woodwork, and it worked!

What do you think the significance of the crafting movement is particularly for young women?
I think the coolest thing about the crafting movement is the information sharing. I am a big advocate of knowledge sharing, skill sharing, making or doing something and then getting the word out about it so others can do and enjoy it too. One of the
things that makes the DIY/craft movement most appealing is that someone can look at something I did and say, “Hey, I can do that too!” Then they might take the technique I used and put their own awesome and unique spin on it. I love that! I think the craft movement has been a great outlet for young women to be a part of something bigger than themselves. I am going to have a hard time articulating this, and I’m sure some women’s studies major could do a much better job, but I feel like young women have a hard time bonding with other women a lot of times. Men seem like they are just born to support each other or bond with their “bros” but girls are bred by society to compare themselves to one another and compete with one another. I feel like the craft movement has been one way for young women to find their own voice, express themselves creatively, and be a “team” with other girls just like them.

I think you hit the nail on the head — and very articulately, I might add! So what most inspires you?

Continue reading “Amber Karnes of My Aim is True” »

Cat Morley is a one woman crafty movement. Her kick ass site, Cut Out + Keep, is a community of doers, eager to share their how-to projects for making everything from clothes to cocktails.

Tell us about Cut Out + Keep. How did you get the idea, how long have you been doing it? Does it pay the bills or is it a labor of love?

Cut Out + Keep started as my crafty blog in 2003. I’d post how-to’s of all the things I made. I added hundreds of how-to’s and then one day I thought, wouldn’t it be neat if everyone could add projects to it and then it would be this amazing resource for learning how to make things. At the start of 2008, Tom (my boyfriend) and I relaunched the site and now we have over 6000 projects posted by over 13, 000 members. It’s growing fast and I can’t wait to see what everyone’s going to post next.

As for the money side of things, if I still lived in Scotland, it would pay all the bills and then some, but we’ve moved down to London, which is a much more expensive city. Hopefully it will start to pay all the bills again soon. I don’t mind though, because it’s a dream job and I see it as (hopefully) an investment for the future.

How did you first get into making, crafting and cooking? Any particularly memorable flops or successes?

I was always crafty as a kid, I loved being creative and making my own jewelry, comic books and toys. I use to pretend that I was presenting my own cooking shows when I was in the kitchen and cook up meals for all of my family. I seem to remember that the food was pretty tasty, considering my age, that or everyone was too polite to say.

One of the most memorable thing was at Halloween, when my mum would take me to the fabric store and ask me what Disney princess I wanted to be that year. She’d whip me up an identical outfit to the movie in no time and I was always so amazed. I guess when I grew up and became too old for my mum to be making me princess outfits anymore, I started learning how to do it myself.

I’ve had some major flops with candle making and one time, without thinking, I managed to melt some plastic molds in an oven – which was terrible! My successes have been learning how to put fillings in chocolates, the many wonderful things that are possible with shrink plastic and figuring out how to make bath bombs stick together. According to Cut Out + Keep, my best project is a plushie of a fish that turns in to sushi and back again (9 versions and 441 favorites!).

Any projects you’re working on now you want to tell us about?

I’ve been sewing a coat for the past few months now, I have no idea why it’s taking so long considering it’s freezing outside and that should motivate me. I met a drunk Irish guy last month who taught me how to cross stitch and I’ve been hooked since. I’ve also been busy crafting up stuff for our new house, which is a mews with loads of space.

What do you think the significance of the handmade movement is? Of women,
particularly young women, who are interested in crafting and cooking?

Continue reading “Cat Morley of Cut Out + Keep” »

Saturday, November 15, marks the official grand opening on Flirt’s design studio, class space, and retail shop filled with unique home finds, Home Ec. If you head down to the space on Saturday from 12-6pm, you’ll be treated to free craft tutorials for kids and adults alike, snacks, 15% off purchases and class sign-ups, and a trapeze performance (whoa). The Flirt ladies are super great and just look how cheery this place is!

I love the idea of this space, not least of all because I’m particularly fond of the notion of home economics, especially in its modern incarnation (and one of the many reasons why I love Jean Railla‘s Get Crafty: Hip Home Ec). But maybe most importantly, I also love the feeling that comes from a community of people engaged in creativity together. It’s amazing what a sense of connection you can feel for the person cutting out a pattern next to you while the two of you discuss the finer points of  Rock of Love. That is, after all, what the real magic of quilting circles was all about: bringing women together under the auspice of practical creativity, when the end result, of course, was so much more meaningful than a warm blanket.

If you’re in the nabe, go!

Home Ec
303 3rd Avenue
between Carroll and 1st Street
718 852 2889

I have to work hard to remind myself that successful crafts, cooking, and lives do not depend on an ascending scale of bigger and better. Sometimes you cook a souffle that rises higher than Conan O’Brien’s pompadour and sometimes you impress the entire neighborhood with the abundance of blooms on your windowsill or the most beautiful scarf in creation. Sometimes you take a trip to Paris that is a whirlwind of kir royales and romantic looks.

But then there is everyday life, which can want for inspiration and loveliness. Rather than feel the pressure to make a random Tuesday a carnival of amazement, I’m trying to remember how great the little touches are, and how satisfying making one tiny, pretty thing can be.

I’ve gotten back to basics here with the simplest materials: big squares of felt for $.44 and $.29 skeins of embroidery floss. I used a straightedge as my guide to cut the felt into smaller felt squares about 2×2 inches. Then I tried to figure out the blanket stitch. It was a cinch once I made up a way to stop and start a line of stitches. I worked on these while listening to great Brazilian music some friends brought back from their vacation in Rio. The coasters turned out sweet and lovely, a sure way to brighten any random Tuesday.

• High bandwidth

In my magical pretend life, I don’t ride the train for an hour each morning to sit cubicle-bound under a whirring air conditioner vent. My ideal lifestyle has more sun and more pajamas: I spend the early hours lolling around in bed drinking coffee out of brightly-hued latte bowls, the day pursuing creative endeavors, and the afternoon at yoga.
Continue reading “Look Ma! No Pattern: Sewing a Yoga Mat Bag” »