Inspiration
October 3, 2008
Hi everyone! Jenn here… This is my first entry and since I’m totally entrenched in design mode right now, I thought that I would write about inspiration.
When you are looking to be inspired, you never know what’s going to get the ball rolling!! Anyone else out there in love with vintage aprons? I have a thing for aprons…always have, at least ever since I can remember. Maybe it stems from happy memories of my mother’s kitchen and wonderful cooking. So many of the wonderful tastes and aromas I remember from my childhood began with the simple act of my mother tying on an apron covered with harvest gold and avocado green pears. My early fascination with I Love Lucy may also be partly responsible. After all, let’s be honest—Lucy raised the humble apron to an entirely new level. Doing the dishes never looked so glamorous!
Anyway, I suppose it doesn’t really matter why I love aprons…I just do, so it wasn’t a great surprise when they worked their way into Hopscotch’s repertoire. I was sitting at my sewing machine, staring at a bookcase full of fabric, just waiting for inspiration to strike…and out of nowhere, it did, in the form of a 1940’s apron. Pretty yet hardworking, functional yet fetching—the basic principles needed for the perfect little girl’s dress had already coexisted happily for years in the form of an apron. Ruffled sleeves, square neck, belt that ties in the back, and wonderful vintage-inspired fabrics—all of these elements were already there, ripe for the picking and just waiting to be reworked into a very small dress for my, at the time, very small daughter. Just like every other prototype we’ve ever made, it took a few tries (including an especially unfortunate attempt with ruffles larger than her head) to work out the kinks and have a working pattern. When it was all said and done, Megan stood in front of me, spinning happily in her new dress and looking like the most darling thing I had ever seen (of course maternal pride should be taken into consideration here, but even so, she did look awfully cute).
So that’s how the Sophie dress was born and all of its success we owe to the timeless garment that inspired it. Here’s hoping that my mother and Lucy would be proud! So now, onto bigger and better things, like maybe “coming soon, scratch and sniff Sophie dresses”…but then again, maybe not…
Below is a picture of one of my favorite Sophies– feel free to search around the site and pick your favorite. Thanks so much for listening and talk to you later…
