so this is test one of a fall dress that will be called kathryn (it has the same bones as the kat dress), just finished up this morning. i’m really excited about it, even though it’s still not entirely worked out. for one, this organic cotton is a total dream come true. that 50 yard bolt was ordered with fingers crossed, as i’d only seen a tiny swatch and you know how sometimes these things don’t live up to expectations. well, this certainly did; it’s heavier than the liberty lawn (obviously, lawn is very lightweight) but not tooooo heavy at all and the best part is that it’s brushed ever so lightly so that it is almost (but not quite) like a flannel. in short, i love it. and i hope you will too because almost everything for fall will be constructed from it! i think it will be particularly nice for men’s shirts.

it’s almost august and most designers (even little people like me) are already sharing their fall collections, which were designed last year! i have to admit that this makes me feel very inadequate sometimes. but! i am one lady alone*! hopefully you, my friends will understand and be patient with me. pretty things to come! promise.

*this is not, of course, to neglect the important graphic contributions made by my lovely mr. ian whitmore, but try as i might, the boy refuses to learn to make patterns and sew!

unrelatedly, i am still on a major fleet foxes kick. does this happen to you as well? am i just musically stunted? i went a solid year in which i listened to ys at least once a day and after that it was camera obscura *all the time*. there are others to be sure, but why is it that certain bands or songs just STICK for a while? this album makes my heart swell like nobody’s business.

oh haiiiii!
that’s just little ol’ me acting natural for the time out folks. completely natural. not nervous at all. can you tell?
heh.
this is very exciting, so i will refrain from being too hard on myself. no. it’s awesome! check it out.

(photo from time out ny)

ps– what is up with wordpress squishing all of my photos and making me look smirky??

+this little green plaid amelia top will be in the shop tomorrow, along with at least two other items. we’ll see how ambitious i’m feeling after work today, but i would like to get another extra long tshirt or two sewn up, since they seemed to be somewhat popular this week (thanks friends!)

+dropped off 8 pairs of undies to kill devil hill yesterday. it’s nice to add another local shop to the list. it’s especially nice that they’re interested in the men’s shirts. more news on that front pending.

+placed our first wholesale organic fabric order yesterday! just one roll for now, but it’s exciting! and scary! still have not figured out exactly how this printing thing is going to work.

and on that note, do you think this place must have closed down or something? i found it online yesterday and was so so excited that #1 they’re in greenpoint and B. they print on yards of fabric. i wrote them a ridiculously enthusiastic email and it bounced back immediately. when i checked the spelling for a typo, poof! there was one (strangely, on their end, since i cut and pasted the address) so i fixed it and half an hour later, it bounced back. omgwtf??? i’m not sure why the universe is so against valerian designs being printed on fabric, but if this kind of thing persists i’m concerned i may develop a complex!

oh crimini. time to go to work. enjoy your saturday!

hello weekenders. how’s your weekend going? spent most of mine indoors (it’s technically over since i have to work tomorrow) photographing, editing, measuring, posting, but i did manage to sneak out for brunch with ian AND we walked down to grand street to check out a friend’s bass playing skillz. today was crazy town madness bands playing everywhere day in williamsburg and the weather was amazing. all seemed orchestrated to mock the fact that i have too much work to do to spend much time out there, but what i caught was heartwarming and totally awesome. there were two super loud bands on bedford at one point, maybe half a block away from one another and totally canceling each other out. it was beautiful.

anyway! that’s neither here nor there i suppose. the big news is that i finally updated the etsy shop with some of the renegade leftovers + tons of new undies + 2 new valerian card designs. yes, i just finished and still need to send out an email to the list and no, my work is not done because i have to do as much cleaning/organizing as possible tonight and tomorrow night because something exciting is happening on monday that i don’t want to talk about yet, but will later on. um. yes! so check out the stuff!

and please try to ignore the fine down on those legs in the shorts photo. i’ve decided to emulate this blue furry wild woman in an attempt to attract a unicorn. though now i’m somewhat confused by the endeavor, having been made semi-aware of a certain feminist subset hellbent on banishing unicorns from the archetypal image catalogue that *i* always thought most girls were born with. well whatever. life is far too short (and uh, complicated) to worry about which kind of feminist i am. though “furry blue feminists” has a certain ring to it, no?

and *that* my friends, was a tangent.

goodnight!

hey thursday, how’s it going? i finally uploaded the few photos i took last weekend to flickr and i’m just now getting to cleaning up and reorganizing our little live/work arrangement. sheesh! it’s been a great week though, filled with work (the not-so-good part) but also lots of tiny pockets of fun and relaxing. but now it’s back to working constantly and i think i might be ready for it. just have to get this place in order first.

there is a good amount of renegade leftovers that need to be posted to etsy and that will begin in earnest on saturday the 21st, which is my next day off. and hopefully i’ll be able to maintain a weekly update after that. i’m really excited to get to work on some fall samples and ian and i have some tentative textile patterns in the works. fun times ahead!

but for now, it’s time to get ready to ride over to sodafine! i’ll be bringing some more valerian cards over there for now. oh! and there’s a batch of those + some undies + some liberty print t shirts headed over to renegade handmade in chicago. fyi.

bye!

hello!

oh my gosh…i’m wiped out! renegade was so awesome. in spite of the horrible weather (saturday turned downright frightening with a torrential rainstorm complete with some major lightning) i had the best craft fair experience to date so thank you SO much to everyone who stopped by the dear birthday tent and special thanks to poppytalk for the kind mention today. whew!

i’ll have a better account (with photos!) later on, but it’s time for some shut eye. i’ve got to work one of the day jobs tomorrow and tuesday and my best and oldest friend is in town so please pardon the slow arrival of renegade leftovers to the etsy shop. they’re coming! promise.

thanks again!

today today today is last last minute minutiae from tagging/labeling, making an inventory sheet and running various errands for rope and kraft paper to uh…printing the third valerian card. why must i be a last minute kind of lady?? ah well, it will all be done in time for tomorrow AND i’m so excited about the fair! i’ve had so much amazing help from ian and my friend erin of sodafine, who both worked on the burlap sign, which can be glimpsed above so i was already riding high on a friendly wave of awesomeness when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a super sweet mention on the refinery 29 blog (not racked, as i previously, mistakenly posted!) nice.

so yes, i’m totally too rattled to be blogging at the moment and it’s time to make a few last dashes through the neighborhood before my amazingly awesome karie friend arrives, but! i hope to see your lovely faces at the fair tomorrow and/or sunday! from the vendor list and all i’ve read on blogs and whatnot, i know i’m going to have to be constantly entertained in my own booth to prevent my wandering about gawking at all of the awesomeness all day! so, see you!

hi hi! yesterday was Undies Day and i spent the ENTIRE DAY cutting, screening and sewing undies. many were produced, but i did not hit the 50 mark, which is perfectly fine because that was an insane (and only half-taken-seriously) goal and i will definitely have way more than 50 done by the time renegade rolls around. hooray! i do hope renegade shoppers are in the mood for underwear when they stroll by my little tent, because i’m going to have a lot of it. lots of other stuff too. but heaps and piles of undies. hooray!

oh right. so! the point: there are three new undies prints in the etsy shop this morning.
though i suspect that Pace (the carousel horses) will be the most popular, my favorite is Wiltshire, a classic Liberty print that i would not mind having on everything. i can’t explain exactly why i like it so much…it just speaks to me, i guess. sometimes i worry that i have some seriously flawed old lady taste. maybe that just means that when i’m a granny, i’ll be so awesomely in my element? only time will tell. ha!

my friend kathryn modeled for the dear birthday summer photo shoot today. here is a tiny preview!

expect a site/look book update as well as an etsy update later this week.

just a little reminder to stop by and say hello and have some snacks tomorrow if you’re over williamsburg way! popomomo, sdn and dear birthday (moi!) will be hangin’ with erin at sodafine from 1-7. all of dear birthday’s spring items will be on sale and there will be a nice selection of brand new summer things as well. oh! and shirts for the men! guys are more than welcome! this is not just a girly tea party! oh no. there will be dear birthday shirts and sdn will have beautiful handmade organic cotton jeans (uh-mazing) for guys too.

in other news, i made a new pattern for a breezy summer tank last night. the finishing touches will go on today and i’ll try to make at least one more for tomorrow. no sneak peeks though–the camera needs to be charged!

ok, see you tomorrow!