Gah!! It’s February already. Shite!
NEW Belty belts for the new month in my shop!
HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!

A Page With My Design!
So, each of the 78 book contributors was given a sewing pattern and their choice of fabric and were told to personalize it in any way possible. This meant chopping it up, cropping it, or mangling it in any way they saw fit. For my blouse design, I decided to remove the sleeves, add a few things, and make a flirtatious whirl of a skirt…
This was the original pattern as given:
And this is my rendition after some heavy duty pattern reworking & in a seersucker:
Voila! The party was a lot of fun and for more information on the book, go here:
I just realized something, I have been blaming myself and turning my anger about the shitty economy inward. In the last two years or so since countless jobs have been lost and wallets have gotten beyond tight and open only for necessities, I’ve allowed this all to take a toll on my ego. Etsy and private sales and wholesale accounts, which were my all-consuming sole source of income just two years ago when I had a magnificent studio overlooking the ocean in Red Hook, Brooklyn, have become a distant drone of crickets in the present. Although I have branched out and focused my energies on acting as well in those two years, I also can’t help but point out that even a year ago, my studio was my constant companion. While watching an interview on CNN about Occupy Wall Street, it dawned on me, I have been covertly hating and blaming myself for my decline in sales. As an artist and fashion designer, when you sell your creations, you get a great sense of pride and self-worth from these sales. In the last six years, I identified myself as a fashion designer and my clothing and accessories were my prides and joys. They defined my income, brought me praise and appreciation and named who I was in the grand scheme of life.
Just like any job (in a good economy), there is a direct connection between profitability (in m case enough to pay bills) and ego. When that profit or sales is slight, the ego suffers. I seriously have been beating myself up over the last year thinking no one likes my designs anymore or enough to buy them, yet when I look at the state of the economy, the trillion more sellers who now inundate Etsy’s pages/blogosphere, AND the number of people who call my designs favorites or the inquiries I get, I find that that’s just not true. I swear, I just put two and two together. I know that there are some other factors in here and I should spruce up my shop, but I hope that I can breathe a little easier today knowing that it isn’t me, we need to keep on trucking, supporting Occupy Wall Street, small businesses, independent designers, and each other.
Now is a good incubation period for my design ideas and I have been dreaming up a whole bunch of houseware ideas (my first love, decorating, has been calling out to me lately). Thankfully I have been able to do a bunch of acting, freelance sewing gigs and restaurant work in the last year to supplement the gabillion dollars it takes to live in NYC.
I hope that things improve soon, but if they don’t, at least I know it’s not me. It’s also not my friend R, who can’t find paid work, K, who is a brilliant geographer, but is working at a shop and who hasn’t even been getting rejection letters from potential employers, businesses that have been shuttered, nor is it any of us who are not on Wall Street or any place near it.
SERIOUSLY, EVERYTHING MUST GO. DESIGNS PAST AND PRESENT:
in the words of the Mamas & the Papas, :
I used to live in new york city
Every thing there was dark and dirty
Outside my window was a steeple
With a clock that always said 12:30
Young girls are coming to the canyon
And in the morning I can see them walking
I can no longer keep my blinds drawn
And I can’t keep myself from talking.
At first so strange to feel so friendly
To say good morning and really mean it
To feel these changes happening in me
But not to notice till I feel it.
Cloudy waters cast no reflection
Images of beauty lie there stagnant
Vibrations bounce in no direction
And lie there shattered into fragments.
Young girls are coming to the canyon
And in the morning I can see them walking
I can no longer keep my blinds drawn
And I can’t keep myself from talking.
An Exit Statement…
I am taking a much needed break from fashion design…I’m giving California a try… Please take advantage of all the sale has to offer and thanks for your support these last six years. I’ve reached 1000 sales, which I never would have imagined when I first started. Etsy has given me strength, beauty, love, support, true friends & a wonderful lifestyle where I can support myself sewing!! Being able to share what I make has been a tremendous dream come true. I am someone who used to watch fashion tv and read countless magazines dreaming of cooler clothes than what was available in my small Pennsylvania town. I used to sew and paint and sculpt and put together costumes… I would make my own clothes at 14 and courageously wear them to my conservative Catholic school on “dress-down days”. One time, I wore a purple jersey drape top I made; and a snarky popular boy asked if I had made it. Excitedly, I said yes, only to hear him say, “Well thank God, I would hope you would never pay money for that.” Fourteen years later, I am a two-time almost contestant on Project Runway. I got to meet Tim Gunn & Zanna Roberts twice, as well as Christian Sirriano. I’ve been lucky enough to have gotten mention in Lucky Magazine, Bust Magazine, Style.com, the Martha Stewart Show, the Huffington Post, Daily Candy, The Awl, and others.
I’ve had fashion shows to rave reviews, I’ve sold at numerous boutiques, shows, fairs, etc. I’ve taught sewing classes at Etsy and NYU. I shared studio space with prolific designers and artists. I sewed for The Row & Ohne Titel, as well as gotten to see shows firsthand, such as Rachel Roy. Magic has happened. I can’t even recount all I have done or all that has happened. I’ve never worked harder in my life and I have the grey hairs to prove it. Life has been very satisfying being my own boss. It’s also been remarkably challenging. I am taking a leave of absence and leaving knowing I worked my absolute hardest and put my business first 90% of the time. Life is what you make of it. You can truly do anything you put your mind to. Do what you love. You only live one life. Thank you for making these last six years magical.
xo Desira
My sister found this awesome iPhone app that makes any iPhone photo into a slew of different retro-esque photos. There are a several filters that make that regular ole photo of her dog into a 1975 polaroid of her dog. I’m now addicted. I freaking love old photos and films and film stills and so Instagram is my homeboy.
It does a pretty good job, eh? Instagram
—-> http://instagr.am/
Two New Sophie Belts Made from Vintage Materials in the Etsy Shop