snowy day

Despite the strep throat (me), flu (Todd), and sniffles (Tsia), I love this weather. I had to run to the store for dish soap tonight, and the air is so clear! All the Christmas lights are vibrant, even the stop lights at the intersection look festive. Of course, our new snowfall (11 inches, according to the radio) makes the weather and season feel even more festive and pleasant.

















Four must be the perfect age to enjoy snow. She's close enough to the ground to flop or fall down with abandon, which she did every couple of seconds today, just to roll around and enjoy herself. Really, I've never seen anyone have so much fun. We both giggled endlessly!

Tomorrow after school we'll take a pass or two at that sledding hill.

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

winter coat

Remember how a few weeks ago I went fabric shopping for S's new winter coat? Well, the results are now up on the Oliver + S blog.

I tried a little experiment with this coat and lined it with Thinsulate. See the post if you're interested in the details.

handmade, etc.

Did you see the article in the New York Times last weekend? It turns out that handmade gifts aren't just a little trend among crafters--they're a phenomenon! Of course, you already knew you were on the forefront of this movement, right? Give yourself a little pat on the back, handmade holidays crafters.

Here is a quick list of semi-related items regarding handmade holidays:

1. There are a couple of holiday giveaways happening right now: STC books is doing a handmade holidays giveaway, and it's always fun to read what everyone is making for gifts. Lots of good ideas. Also, BurdaStyle is giving away a whole bunch of good stuff this month. I'm drooling over the colored pencils. Wow.

2. Tsia and I are doing a little handmade holiday crafting of our own. Last week I neglected to show you another book that's related to handmade gifts and to book week. We're doing a project from Kata Golda's Hand-Stitched Felt book, but we can't show you yet because we think some of the recipients might read this. It will have to wait until after Christmas, I'm afraid. We're both enjoying sewing with felt, but Tsia is obsessed with a felted pink sweater she found in my stash, and I'm not sure what she thinks she's going to make from it. I'm a bit fearful.

3. Also related to handmade gifts, I'm finally getting around to listing a few pieces of jewelry from a previous handmade venture. Long before Oliver + S, I had a small business making jewelry that was sold in a boutique bridal shop in our neighborhood. I still have quite a few pieces around and thought maybe I should let some of them go (they're not doing much good stuck in a box at the studio, are they?), so I've listed several pieces on Etsy. But I can't for the life of me remember what the names of these stones are! Can anyone help?

a. I know the grey stones are smoky quartz and freshwater pearls, but are the blue stones aquamarine? Tourmaline?


b. Let's see: peridot, turquoise, smoky quartz, green freshwater pearls, and (again) aquamarine?


c. Grey freshwater pearls, but what are the navy blue stones? No recollection on my part. You'd think I would have a record of this, no?


4. Oh, and one more thing. I'm not even going to try to take photos of this because other people do it so much better than I. So here is a link to images from the windows at Bergdorf's men's shop. The actual figurines and props from The Fanastic Mr. Fox. The detail just kills me. Tiny buttons on the clothing, etc.

photo by Rudy Pospisil

scarf, revisited

I feel like we're taking a trip through the disdressed archives a bit over the last few days. First the mitten ornaments and now the baby scarf, this time made a little bit wider for a bigger kid.


The original scarf still fits her well, but I continued to increase stitches for a few rows this time so it covers a longer neck. I'm thinking maybe I'll make one for myself next--you could really make this to fit anyone!


By the way, here's a little help if you have trouble remembering or trying to decide which stitch increases and decreases to use. I can never remember, and it's nice to have the visual with a description.

made in New York

I've been spending some time in the garment district over the past few weeks (an interesting project I'm working on--I'll tell you more about it sometime), and just outside the window of the room where I've been working, in the next building, is a real working cutting room! Since small-scale manufacturing like this is getting more and difficult to find in the U.S., I thought you might like to take a peek (literally) at how it works. To give you a better sense of what you're seeing, the stripe of white you can see in many of these photos is the fluorescent light that is mounted above the tables:

This cutting room has two giant tables--each at least 40 feet long! First the fabric is laid out. A special fabric roller is used to spread fabric across the table evenly:


The fabric prep guys always work in tandem. Here you can see them feeding a layer of fabric across the table:



Here you can get a sense of how long it is. And this is just a small portion of the table!


After a layer of fabric has been spread, the fabric is weighted and cut at the end and a second layer is laid over the first layer, going the opposite direction. Multiple layers are added in this manner, and on the day I took these photos the workers were switching fabric colors every few layers so they could cut smaller quantities of each colorway in an efficient manner.

Once the layers of fabric are weighted and cut, the marker is spread across the fabric


and the marker is stapled to the fabric layers. A marker is the garment pattern itself, each piece positioned as closely to the others as possible to minimize fabric waste. Multiple sizes are cut at the same time, which is why the tables need to be so long!


Then it's time for the cutters to get to work. This, to me, is the most fascinating part of the job. These guys are so good at what they do--and they're incredibly fast! Their blades are completely hand operated but are powered by electricity. The motors sit on a small platform that is manipulated so dexterously it actually looks easy to do, but I promise this isn't nearly as simple as operating the simple rotary cutters many of us use at home when we sew.

I wouldn't want that to be my left hand located that close to the cutter...


When all the cutting is finished, the pattern pieces are stacked and ready for sewing.

If you look at these pieces sitting on the table, you can get a sense of the number of fabric layers that are cut at one time, just from seeing the thickness of the pieces:

Pretty impressive, yes? The garments are assembled elsewhere in the building, but that part of the manufacturing process wasn't really visible from my location.

If I have time one of these days, maybe I'll pay a visit to one of the sample rooms where I once worked. You might enjoy seeing how a sample room operates before they become extinct, too.