Spring Bloom: the Margaret Dress

Posted on March 1, 2018March 13, 2018 by Melissa Harrison

I wrote, earlier in the week, about my new design process. Basically, I’ve decided to no longer sacrifice anything for speed and efficiency, to keep the end cost down, and instead make all new clothing this year true to my vision. This means more sizes, more fabric, more interesting t-shirt inks, more everything. The second piece to come out of this year’s new philosophy is the new Margaret Dress and I’m absolutely in love with it.

I’ve also decided this year, to reduce my four seasons of annual new designs to two, alternating spring and fall one year with summer and winter the next, to spend more time focusing on each. I’ve been planning this spring season since Christmas but I just started sewing and making new print screens. I’ve felt so inspired, creative and charged with positive energy since I started bringing these new pieces to life a couple of weeks ago, that I feel like I’m blooming right along side the snowdrops in my front garden. I have one more skirt, one more dress, a t-shirt, a tank, and, for the first time, a children’s t-shirt in the works for spring, then it’s on to getting a jump-start on fall designs. I couldn’t be more excited for all the work the lies ahead of me.

Dress Sophster-Toaster
Shoes ModCloth
Ring old

Pepper’s Bandana Sophster-Toaster

All photos by me.

Tea Rex Skirt

Posted on February 27, 2018March 13, 2018 by Melissa Harrison

I’ll be doing things a little differently this year. Instead of trying to keep all of my new designs under a certain price point, and sacrificing exciting options and features to accomplish this, I’m going to make things the way I want and let them cost what they cost. With my first new skirt of the season, this meant doing things like using more fabric to make a fuller skirt, taking more time to line the skirt with lots of voluminous voile for a fuller, softer silhouette, and improving my patterns to include 2X and 3X as size options. In other years, I may have skipped the lining, or offered a more limited size range, to keep the cost of my materials and labour down when it came time to determine how much I need to charge for my work; this year, I’m doing things differently – and I’m so pleased with how this piece turned out!

Of course, all of my older designs will continue to be available at their original price points and I will still strive to make a variety of items that range from lovely, but labour intensive dresses to high quality, screen printed tees to the accessories that I make with fabric salvaged from the leftover scraps of those dresses. I hope that new and returning customers and admirers alike will see the benefits and the importance of this type of ethically minded, eco-friendly slow fashion and be there with me as I hope to make some of my best work yet!

T-shirt Sophster-Toaster
Skirt Sophster-Toaster
Shoes ModCloth
Necklace Craft Arts Market / Emery & Opal
Earrings old

All photos by me.

Hello 30

Posted on February 16, 2018March 13, 2018 by Melissa Harrison

I’ll be turning 30 this weekend, and I couldn’t be excited. I think most people morn the end of their 20’s but I’ve always been a driven, goal-oriented person and always eager to reach the next milestone. I have no fear that I’ve left anything unaccomplished and I’m very ready to set new goals and see what the next decade has to show me.

Being someone turning 30, I was born in the 80s, so, I’ve planned to celebrate this big birthday with an 80s theme party! Not the tacky, neon 80s everyone seems to recall, but the everyday-overdone glamour vibe the decade did so well. I’ve organized a sushi and champagne menu, found a mint chip cake that does not represent any colour found in nature but seems so right, dug out all of my collected or self-vintaged 80’s decor, and purchased the perfect dress.

Let me talk about the dress! I usually buy myself a new dress for my birthday party, but I normally stick to the sales and end up with a very nice dress that’s maybe not right for winter. This year, I searched for a dress that was just right and paid full price, it’s a special year after all. The dress is a little out of my mid-century style comfort zone and the cut and the fabric are not something I would typically chose, but there’s something special and undeniably me about this dress. When paired with my practice hair and makeup, it’s leaning a little 70s disco but I couldn’t be more pleased with how the look turned out!

Dress Urban Outfitters
Necklace & Earrings old
Ring family heirloom

All photos by me.

Chocolate Cherry White Russian

Posted on February 13, 2018March 13, 2018 by Melissa Harrison

It recently came up, over dinner, that my friends had never seen The Big Lebowski. With this wrong needing to be righted as quickly as possible, we made plans to watch it together the following weekend. Of course, my husband and I informed them that White Russians were required viewing accessories. They were apprehensive about a cream based cocktail but agreed to let me push them out of their comfort zones.

There was a problem with the plan, however: I couldn’t put my money where my mouth was because I have a moderate-to-severe coffee allergy and can’t drink Kahlua. Slightly disappointed that I’ll never know what a real White Russian tastes like, I spent the past week developing a new cocktail, inspired by the classic, so I could join in with the fun.

After some research, I decided the closest swap for coffee liqueur would be chocolate liqueur. I was hoping to find a dark coloured chocolate liqueur to best mimic the look of a Kahlua cocktail, but discovered the only thing available in my area is a clear creme de cacao – so that’s what I used. I didn’t want to be creating what would be, essentially, hard chocolate milk, so I added some kirsch to make things a little more interesting. The result is a decadent, surprisingly smooth and refreshing cocktail that’s just perfect for Valentine’s Day!

Chocolate Cherry White Russian

Ingredients

1 oz vodka
½ oz Kirsch (or other cherry brandy)
1 oz creme de cacao
1½ oz half & half cream

Method

Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice and stir until chilled and thoroughly combined.
Fill an old fashioned glass with a handful of fresh ice and strain mixture over. Serve immediately.

All photos be me.