Customer / patron / mentor San-D sent her picture into Dove, who featured her, wearing her Secret Lentil jacket, on a gigantic billboard on Times Square. Look once, then look again and take in the scale. That's right, We're crushing the golden arches. rawr.

eat, issue 4

So, what happens is, I post a weird meal I made on facebook, Dan gently cajoles me about submitting a recipe to eat, I claim there is no recipe, I just made it up, nothing comes of it. (I cook the same way I sew, rarely the same thing twice.)

Finally he wears me down and I send a few recipes. Months later, my copy of eat arrives in the mail. IT IS FULL OF AWESOME. It is fun. It includes my recipe for Wasabi Deviled Eggs and some chicken dish with a clever name I can't remember any more (It's spicy, with orange sauce and fresh spinach) plus a screenshot of the aforementioned cajoling. I'd forgotten so much of it by the time it arrived in the mail that I got to guiltily enjoy laughing at my own jokes, but don't tell anyone else, because that isn't proper.

Apparently there are other people in it too. You can get your copy of eat right now from their Etsy shop.

elizabethish frockatoria: black linen babydoll dress

This just in from the new owner:

"It's so so comfy and I love, love, love all the linen tiers and the wildly fantastic sleeves. They're perfectly sculpted and not too tight. It truly is a piece of art that I will love wearing!" – Bridgette

I admit it, even after all these years it's still a tad bit scary to put clothes in a box and ship them to a stranger. Or a friend. Or someone in between. Like going on stage, it gets easier over the years but there's still always a tension there. I don't mind it really, I want to care and I want people to be pleased ... but still,  it's good to know when everything's good at the other end of the mail. Yay!

It's one of those things ... you know - makers, writers, musicians, lots of us have those little entry rituals that get us rolling - the traditions, or superstitions or obsessions - the things that help us enter into the process of making. For me it's getting my hands moving - not sewing, but folding or cutting paper or even just writing a list for the day. But it can't be any paper. Limp printer paper doesn't do it. It has to be heavy card stock, thick, unforgiving, sturdy. I need to feel the weight of it in my hands. So today I cut a dress out of thick gray letterpress stock, a favorite, wrote some ideas and sketches on it, and I'm off, into the wilds ...

For a long time I wanted to make up a ritual that would work for me - the favorite black-inked pen and square notebook for writing, the perfect cup of coffee before commencing - and I think a lot of people get stuck there, in the blank book aisle, panicked and wanting to attach the magic pre-emptively. But now that I've done this for a while I get that you don't choose it. You find your ritual by trying things, through flailing crazy trial and error, then you figure out what works and keep it. You do it backwards.

It's a lovely gray and rainy morning, warm and delightful. I'm listening to Bill Evans and looking forward to a day of sewing but also plotting out some new patterns. I'm just finishing up a one-off navy blue linen dress. It's one of my best drapey plus-sized pieces so far, I think - with an asymmetric neckline and big floppy collar, and lots of curvy sculpted-ness.

about mutual admirations:
After plunging into this life of making for a while I had an epiphany: the point of my job is to make clothes for remarkable people as a great excuse to meet them. I don't know how this happened, but everyone who wears Secret Lentil is nice. And many are also makers. They cut, glue, write, they stitch, paint, hammer, file - they connect things to other things, they make meaning through making. I'm grateful to know them (even when it's virtual) and I want you to meet them too.

Karen Thurman of Karen Thurman Designs makes gorgeous wet-felted wool table runners, scarves, pillows - and the colors! They are always refreshing. There is something tender about her design touch that I find moving. Let's just sit quietly and look at some:

pink grapefruit dotted mini table runner

dotted pea pod shaped scarflette

chartreuse pod pillow