Why I Need to
Rename This Site
The Lazy Milliner

I did not make it to Manny's Millinery. I wanted to go. I really did, I had his address onto a Super Sticky Post-It Note, right there underneath directions for Mood Fabrics. I made it to Project Runway's favorite fabric haunt, and left with no less than six swatches of swoon-worthy swatches of textiles. Eyelet? Check. Italian pink paisley cotton print and psychedelic green flower stretch fabric? X, x, and X! I got all these tidbits because I wanted to ponder my choices. What did I feel comfortable spending $15 or more a yard? And I did do that, watching the Tuesday night finale of Dancing with the Stars in my Pod hotel shoe box, I mean, my room. Did I return to Mood to make a final decision? No, I went to Metro Textiles, which is the next street over from Mood in the Fashion District. I blew my budget out of the water into the stratosphere and onto a fast track to Mars. Really I had no intention. But there was there was the persuasive owner, Kashi, pulling out bolt after bolt of lovely fabric from the moment I rang the doorbell on his showroom door.
"You like this? How about this?" he'd say, as he pulled off these long spools of fabric of the shelf like he was dragging kids off the playground by the corner of their jackets. He'd wrestle with these bolts, which seemed to tower over him like lanky bullies. But he didn't fear these things, and he'd push them into a pile along the wall just for me. When I demurred over a heart-imprinted fabric because I don't have love in my life now, he said, "That's because they don't understand you." How right he was! I don't need a shrink - I can just visit Kashi when I need some sympathy!
Honestly, I felt a little dizzy with all the fabrics he set aside for me. Twelve, 13, 15 bolts? I couldn't possibly afford all these textiles. Never. Not now. Not in this Lifetime. Even with a great salesman who understands me. I had to be ruthless. And I figured out how much I was going to spend.
And I whittled away at the pile, so I ended up with a bluesy stretch fabric, two yards of black eyelet, a lace-trimmed black batiste, a huge black-and-white floral print, orange paisley jersey, and I must be forgetting the rest because I'm hungry.
Anyhow, Kashi just put each fabric on this metal pole and figured out the yardage measuring against the length of his arm! They don't do back at home in Illinois! At least not in the land of Jo-Ann, Vogue Fabrics, and Hancocks. He put it all in a pile on a chair as I prayed very fervently that it would not add up to Very Much. I was only $23 over my limit by the time I was done. My guardian angel was working over-time - although I know she really doesn't give a hoot about how much I spend on my hobbies.
I decided I didn't want to stuff my goods in my luggage (which, by the way, sits in North Carolina as I write) so I had it shipped home. It arrived hours after I walked in my door. The irony is that I have all the fabric I ever want to sew while I have a major Personal Grooming Accessory Deficit that rivals the United States'. Ah well, better to stitch and gripe while I'm waiting for United Airlines' telephone telling me that my stuff is on my way. I actually did turn on my sewing machine last night, but the sewing gremlins were wreaking major havoc so I decided to call it a Tuesday night, and turn out the light before any more mistakes could be made. What hobbies do you turn to when your luggage gets lost?