Blow the trumpets of triumph; the dress is done!  Thanks to LIRR’s drastically reduced service last night (read: poor Lois in a vintage beret and vintage elbow length leather gloves is confused by the deserted LIRR platform and returns home crestfallen), I spent a pleasant evening zigzagging the edge of the hem and sewing on a bias strip.  This afternoon, after an equally pleasant morning of vintage scavanging, I hand sewed the hem and added the snaps and buttons to the midriff.  (This while listening to NPR StoryCorps Podcasts - highly recommended by the way.)

For those of you who don’t know, I started this project in early July and gave myself a six week (August 18th) deadline.  Well…better late than never, eh?

Sometimes things seem to crumble and recreate themselves at their own will.  For some reason, after weeks of reticence, I sat at my machine tonight.  I constructed the two sleeves to my dress, added a bias strip to the cuff, hemmed them, and basted one on.  It looks pretty good.  The next step is to sew it on with a smaller stitch and then do the same for the second sleeve.  Hopefully I’ll finish this dress after all!  

Unfortunately tonight’s progress wasn’t that visual.  Meaning that that little strip of white that I’m holding up in the pic is sort of disappointing to behold, right?  Believe it or not it was kind of a lot of work.  That’s going to be the midriff.  I’d love to keep working but, alas! there are other tasks calling my name tonight.  Like taking care of my horribly overgrown and polish-chipped nails!  (I can’t stand long nails…)

It’s been a week and a half since I’ve done any work on Project Replica.  And I am ashamed.  In my defense, I’ve been very busy otherwise.  Plus, it had been even longer since I had added anything new to my LonesomeBrown shop, even though I have a stack of clothes that have been laundered and photographed and are ready to list.  So, after finishing my Anita Shreve novel (omg, The Last Time They Met was soooo good!) in my yard (while being attacked by bugs who thought my eyelid was tasty), I spent this evening adding a few more things to my etsy shop in hopes that customers will be drawn in, items will be sold, and I’ll get rid of some of the clutter in my house!  (Long sentence, I know.)  Anyway, rest assured I *will* work on the rockabilly striped dress this weekend even if I have to chain myself to the sewing machine.  My goal is to do little bits at a time.  Slow and steady wins the race.  But I have just under 4 weeks to meet my deadline.  Yikes! C’mon guys - start rooting for me!

Upon my decision to open a vintage store, one of my brainstorm births was a fictional character who I dubbed LonesomeBrown.  I figured I would name my store after her and all of the items for sale would be her possessions.  At first Lonesome was left underdeveloped, a mere sketch of a character described in my shop announcement:

Lonesome Brown lives in the past with her memories and possessions, with her wool Scottish sweaters, ceramic trinkets, and record player. She loves her wellingtons, always wears a floppy hat, and goes swing dancing on Saturday nights. During the week she just waters her flowers and reads Sherlock Holmes.

After a few weeks, I decided to include short fictional stories in each of the item descriptions, thus increasing the believability of the items being “owned” by LB.  As I did so, the character started to really become fleshed out.  LonesomeBrown, who had always been whimsical and old-fashioned, took on a distinctly 1950s persona.  It became clear that she was sheltered, artistic, and extremely lady-like.  Her background and childhood have been alluded to and new characters introduced to my shop’s audience.  (Audience may be an odd word-choice, but I have received feedback from shoppers who say they check my shop daily for new stories.)

With time I decided I wanted LonesomeBrown to be more than a shop.  She’s a story to be followed.  In order to encourage her growth I’ve created a Facebook Fan page, and a Twitter account.  Please fan my Facebook page and follow my Twitter updates to gain daily insight to the LB world.  And of course to shop vintage, please visit www.LonesomeBrown.etsy.com.

Wishing on a star,

LonesomeBrown