The SOCK pole

The other day, my husband and I spent the night at a hotel for a little getaway. Our room was on the third floor, the former attic space of the place. Pretty much next to our bed, there was a green colored nice size (vertical!) pole. It gave him ideas right away. But no, we did not use it for that purpose at all. However, it gave me ideas, too….of a different kind. I am expecting a load of socks and have absolutely no room for them anymore on my SOCK wall.

All of this, of course, when the weather is a balmy 60 degrees and the Portlanders strip their feet immediately of any leg wear whatsoever. Go figure!

Anyway, I am in dire need of more display space for the incoming socks. Hence, the idea for the pole. For the entire time I had this store (2 years!) – there was this eye hook in the ceiling, leftover from the previous tenant. I do not like it when dandy things like this go unused. I was thinking of suspending an advent wreath from it. It would have hit anyone coming in smack in the face. So much for that. It was too high up for clothing. Again, my customers would have been greeted by a brush of cloth in the face. Then I just simply chose to ignore the hook. Until our stay at the hotel. Ha!!! There was the pole – and the hook – and maybe a chain – and I had it all figured out.

I moved the hook (had to: see above). Went to the hardware store and found a pretty chain. Snuck off with one of my husband’s cowboy boots (he has not found me out yet… ) and put the whole thing together. Bingo!

Now I only need the socks. (it has been two full days since I finished the contraption… ) And there is another hook right above the cash register. I have ignored it for a long time……

Grandma’s coat

This is one transformation I am rally proud of. I hope my customer likes it as much as I do. She was telling me about a coat she had inherited from her grandmother before last Christmas, in perfect shape, however hopelessly out of style. My customer wanted to preserve the coat in her grandma’s memory… and wear it too, if possible. As I am always curious what my customers love and why, I was intrigued and wanted to see the piece before making any commitments of altering it.

So finally, about two weeks ago she brought it by. When she put it on, we determined it needed to be taken in, mostly at the waist to give it shape. It is probably around a 1940’s vintage, broad and generous at the chest, 3/4 sleeves, high side pockets, knee length. The tailoring on it is pretty creative – instead of straight princess seams down the length of the coat, it has angled, outward curving seams at the back, which meant I could not take in the seams to make it slimmer. In addition, I always want to preserve as much of the original lines as possible. Therefore, I opted to take in the side seams and shape it that way. At the same time, I felt it needed some updating to make it look more modern without sacrificing the ‘vintage feel’ of it. I whipped out the needles and just pinned it up about 5 inches. What a difference! Now it looked more like a car coat with enough enough fabric around the bottom to keep her warm.

The work itself evolved over a few days. Taking it in was easy enough – them came cutting it off. Once something is cut off, it is pretty dramatic; it won’t go back on and look good so I have to be careful. The cut off piece wanted to be a belt right away – it is slightly curved and therefore will smoothly lay around the body. After the usual hemming and finishing, I now had to find a buckle for the belt – the fabric is thick wool and probably would look too bulky if just tied. This was a lot more complicated than I thought. Back in Berlin, I had found a store that would wrap just about anything button-ish or belt-ish. But here – no luck. Not the local button and notion emporium, nor the web had any solutions. I envisioned a simple pull-through buckle, not one with a thorn, because I did not want to get into punching holes in the belt. When I ventured out to one of my favorite local big fabric stores (with coupon in hand – so I had to go anyway!), I found just the right size buckle, not oval as I had wanted but square, which I thought would look just as good. I guess I could have used it as is (after removing the thorn), but I SO wanted it to be covered. This particular challenge actually followed me to bed and by morning I had discovered a way that might do it. (sometimes sleeping over a challenge proves to be helpful!)

The next day at the store, I made a simple pattern, cut out the fabric from the belt left-overs, pinned the buckle and the fabric under my sewing machine – and broke a needle right away. Learning this lesson – do not hit metal with machine needle! – I pretty much zoomed through the rest of the project. When I tied the belt and buckled it, I was so enamored!

So here it is – the finished project:

He passed me today… :(

When about 3 in the afternoon rolls around, I strain to look down the street. Maybe he’s stopping today? I look for his truck, for his manly appearance. I can see the lights for more than half a mile. He stops about 10 houses down. I can hear the diesel roar of his truck. I pretend I have something else to do. Another diesel sound – I look up – no, this is not him…yet.

He pulls up to the street corner – I can almost see his face. He does not stop, does not park his truck. Not today. He did not stop to see me! There is always the faint hope that he might make it around the block, because there was no place to park. So another few moments go by and he does not come back. Even if I have nothing to hope for, I look for him. Maybe something unexpected will arrive? You never know who thought of me in my little store. Darn, another day and he passed me. My UPS man.

puhh!

I guess, I did it! Managed to find a blogging website and am getting ready to put in the first words. Puhh! Always looks so easy when others do it. I have been fascinated by this world for a long time. I always thought that I might be of the wrong generation to blog. But heck – I’m even wearing a pair of orange stockings today!