One year in New York City
Hello!
Today marks the first anniversary of my arrival in New York City. As NYC in general and Brooklyn, my adopted home, in particular have provided me with a sewing mojo like I’ve never had, today seemed the appropriate day to start a sewing blog.
Moving thousands of miles away from your nearest and dearest can be a strain and spending the first six months of that time enduring what is widely regarded as the most ‘brutal of New York winters’ (read perpetual snow drifts, daily temps hovering around -10c, climbing the walls of a small apartment as it’s my fourth day on the trot without going outside and my two very small children are going insane) was at times challenging.
But, it was all new and it wasn’t drizzle and greyish, and there are brownstones and stoops and the subway and the marvel of a US Hallowe’en and Brooklyn Bridge and brunch like nowhere on earth and Prospect Park and Nolita and the museums and Amy's bread and Music Together and Hudson River Park and food trucks and ad hoc glimpses of the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State and Crate & Barrel and the Hamptons and Shelter Island and Trader Joe’s and burritos and the Rockaways and margaritas and glorious glorious sunshiney summer days and, let’s cut to the chase here, the Garment District.
The first time I walked into Mood Fabrics I literally started hyperventilating. I had never ever seen anything like it in my life. Many many internet hours have been dedicated to its finery, so I’ll just say floor upon floor, aisle upon aisle, row upon row of the most luscious fabric. For someone who had really only shopped for fabric in John Lewis (I love love love that store, but the fabric department is limited relative to the joys to be found across the Garment District), I could not get my head round the fact there are whole aisles dedicated to different types of silk and three floors of fabrics just for making clothes. Overwhelming.
And since that day, and my subsequent discovery of more caverns of bankrupting-fabric-pleasure, something I’d never had before has entered my life; The Fabric Stash … an ever-growing hoard of beautiful fabric, which at some point will get made into something to wear, but in the meantime will bring me silent joy every time I open my trunk.
So the stash, plus a renewed sewing mojo means a lot of clothes have been sewn over the past year and my notebook is overflowing with ideas for things to come. So by writing this blog I hope to keep a record of what I've made, how I made it and how it fits with this life in this city.
See you soon.
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