Here's the dress

The commission is coming along well and I'm excited
to send it to my client. I thought I'd post a a picture
of the dress. I hope to get the hat photographed next
week before I send it out.

A Nice Commisson

I've been blessed to have a customer who, on many occasions,
has commissioned me to make her hats. That in itself should
be a wonderful thing, but the really great thing about working
with this client is that she doesn't try to tie my hands.
She gives me some basic guidelines (she's fond of the little
cocktail hats) and tells me to do my thing.

This particular time she sent me a dress that she's going to
be wearing to an art museum event, a satiny little number the
color of a brand-new penny. I got to go out on a hunt for the
perfect fabric and immediately fell in love with some upholstery
material that I found. It suits the dress so well because the
dominating color is the same color in the dress and the little floral-like embellishments are the color of the satin material
when it appears in shadow—as it does around the collar where there are folds and gathers of the same material.

I'm really excited about the project and am including sketches of the design that I hope to execute once I get the
thumbs up from her.

It was a tough show

It just so happens that I caught a cold the day before we were to set up for
the Craftboston show. It certainly added to the challenges. I sanitized my
hands every five minutes or so. Generally speaking, I'm pretty miserable
when I'm sick—just ask my husband. But I've discovered that nothing
makes me forget that I'm sick quite like selling a hat. I love helping people
try them on.

I got back in the studio and started working like made last week, that is,
after I put all the show stuff away. And I was ready to do the same today,
but we had another steam pipe leak. This time is was closer to my work
area. It's tough being in a building that is over one-hundred years old and
has plumbing the same age. It seems that when a pipe gets replaced the
rest of the system suddenly can't handle all the water flow. I was frustrated
enough to drop a few four-letter words, which my studio mate promptly
forgave me for. Let's hope the contractors can get this straightened out
tomorrow so I can get back to work.