Busy week! Fabric, press, and deep thoughts ...

This has been such a fun week! It started Saturday at the Salvation Army Ladies' Auxiliary annual fabric sale, where we scored bags and bags of amazing vintage fabrics to play with and share with you. Some of them will be showing up on the site soon ... stay tuned.

Then, on Tuesday, we were featured in the Post-Gazette -- thanks so much to Clutch: Get a Hold of Style author Sarah Sudar for doing a fantastic job telling our story! This girl really hustles to connect the threads here in Pittsburgh.

Yesterday, we were stoked to see that the always inspiring Pop City decided to write about us, too. I just love Pop City -- I always feel so happy about our town and what's going on here whenever I read it. And Innovation Editor Deb Smit, who wrote about us, totally gets it!

We've also been working on beefing up our website this week to include more photos, more information, and more fun. We added a video to the front page and new sections describing our shifts and slips in detail.

As we worked on drafts of this text, I remembered a piece written by Sci-fi author and Viridian Design visionary Bruce Sterling. We quoted a bit of it on our shift page, but I think the whole quote (and the whole piece) is worth reading and thinking about:

It’s not bad to own fine things that you like. What you need are things that you GENUINELY like. Things that you cherish, that enhance your existence in the world. The rest is dross.

Do not “economize.” Please. That is not the point. The economy is clearly insane. Even its champions are terrified by it now. It’s melting the North Pole. So “economization” is not your friend. Cheapness can be value-less. Voluntary simplicity is, furthermore, boring. Less can become too much work.

The items that you use incessantly, the items you employ every day, the normal, boring goods that don’t seem luxurious or romantic: these are the critical ones. They are truly central. The everyday object is the monarch of all objects.

I thought about this again as I tidied up my closet last night. I have sooo many clothes in there! Many of them were bought on sale or at thrift stores -- bargains, sure, except for the fact that I hardly ever wear them. Instead, almost every day, I find myself reaching for a shift.

For me, the shift has become the monarch of all outfits, replacing dozens of not-quite-right "great deals." And my attitude toward shopping has changed, too -- I no longer salivate when I find myself in a freshly restocked Target, because I know that, no matter how many things I try on, none of them will compare to my lovely comfy shifts.

And I can't help but wonder -- what would the world look like if a bunch of us got used to and refused to settle for less than the highest possible quality? How much waste could we avoid? And how would it feel?

I propose that we find out together. :)