our new studio

A few days ago, my landlord - who, by the way, I haven't actually seen in over a year - sent me a lovely email informing me that rent was going up. Substantially and immediately. Blarg. [seriously, fellow, are you not aware of all the "for rent" signs around town?]

So I had to look for a new place, fast. And I found one! I now have about three times the space I had in my old studio, so there's room for us to grow, yay!

I've been packing my old studio and cleaning the new one all week, so things have been extra crazy. The new place is kind of a mess, but the price was right - it's just going to be a lot of work to get it to the point of being my super cute dream workshop.

It has lots of amenities that shoemakers dream of, such as three (3!) walk-in freezers and four shiny chili cauldrons:

This is the 'before' shot of the main space. The windows have a nice Chicago skyline-ish view - I can see the Hancock and Trump, but the Sears is blocked by Circuit City.

Here's the exterior shot. I have basically the entire second floor of this white building. This is the view from the Circuit City/Midtown Tennis Club parking lot on Elston.

I met my new next door neighbors today. They're awfully sweet, except for the part where they mentioned that my space reminds them of the Saw movies. Yeah, I have a lot of work ahead of me.

new shoes! 12th pair

Oops, it's been a week since I last posted a new pair. This is supposed to be Fresh Shoes Daily, not Fresh Shoes Whenever I Get Around To It. So I'll get back on the ball.

However, I do have a good excuse. I'm moving to a new studio, yay! More on that in the next post. More importantly, it's time for new shoes!

I love this shot. It was taken by the spectacularly talented TS Harrington. We have the sandals tied in the basic ankle tie, then wrapped UP the leg, goddess-style. This look uses about 5 yards of lemon satin ribbon per leg - that's 10 yards in all, or 30 feet of ribbon. It's not always easy to find spools of that much ribbon in the fabric shops, so I'm hoping to carry similar ribbon in the next couple of months.

The secret to making sure the ribbons stay up is to wrap them all the way to the top of your calf as shown. That way, they're secured where your leg tapers right under your knee, and gravity can't do its dirty work and drag them down as you walk. If you'd rather have the ribbons go up to your mid-calf or so, I recommend double-sided tape to keep them up. Otherwise, you'd have to tie them really super tight, and that would be uncomfortable and give you muffin calves.

do the ribbons really stay tied?

A few people have asked me lately whether the ribbons really stay tied. If you're anything like me, your tennis shoes come untied every 10 minutes unless you make a kindergarden double knot, so I understand the concern.

However, the ribbons really don't come untied on their own. Most of our ribbons have enough 'tooth', and the surface area of the knot is great enough, that it just does not happen. However, I do often tie a knot before I make a bow when using satin ribbons because they are a little slicker. So there you go.

new shoes! 11th pair

Here we have the basic ankle tie again, shown with our 5/8" black and silver metallic ribbons. We laced the first and fourth loops, then wrapped the rest around the ankle. For a streamlined look, the ribbons were tied in a knot with the ends tucked in. The ribbons were used in the length they come in, 66" per shoe.

new shoes! 10th pair

Oh man, I love these ribbons so much. I wish I could find a source for them, but I just found a few yard of it online, and have no idea who the manufacturer is.

A variation on the basic ankle tie for a sophisticated look. The first three loops are laced, then the ribbon is simply wrapped over the top of the foot and tied behind the ankle in a knot or bow. Depending how big you'd like the bow or loose ends in back, as well as your shoe size, this look uses about 56"-72" of ribbon per shoe - about 3 1/8 to 4 yards total. This is another style that works great on lower heels as well.

new shoes! 9th pair

Continuing with the basic ankle tie theme:

These ribbons are so cute, with their red scalloped edge on one side. Unfortunately, I have no idea where I found these ribbons. This is another look that works really well on the lower heels as well. We've laced the first and third loops, crossed the ribbons over the front of the foot, around the ankle, and finished with a bow toward the side, easy-squeesy. We're using about 60" of ribbon per shoe, or 3 1/3 yards total, for a size 9.

the cpsia

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is a new law that requires manufacturers to test all components of any products for use by children 12 and under for dangerous substances such as lead and pthalates. Sounds great, huh?

The problem is, testing is required for each component of each item produced and will cost thousands of dollars for every different product (including each colorway, and each size). Clearly, small and micro businesses can't afford that, and the penalties for non-compliance are steep, up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. I have lots of friends who make children's products by hand, and this law, as written, will put them out of business. These are great businesses that make their products in the US, with materials that are obviously safe.

It would make more sense if each manufacter of children's products needed to get some sort of certification from the manufacturer of their components... say, for example, someone who makes onsies would need the manufacturer of the snaps and the manufacturer of the fabric to forward something that says the materials are compliant. But to have every component tested on every size and color of onsies made is just silly. The properties of the snaps do not magically change between a size small and a size medium, sheesh. I could go on, but suffice it to say that the law was written very quickly as a reaction to tainted toys from China, and did not take into account the realies that small, handmade manufacturers face.

I believe an amendment to the law is necessary. To help push this along, please take a second to vote for this at Change.org. I would love to make sandals for tweens, and doing so would be breaking the law (it becomes effective in early February) - please help us small manufacturers out!

new shoes! 8th pair

Another variation on the basic ankle tie:

This is very similar to the 6th pair, also using 66" gold lame ribbons in each shoe. We've laced the first and third loops, crossed the ribbons over the top of the foot, and wrapped around the ankles. For a sleek look, you can tuck the ribbons in, ballerina style. We no longer carry these gold lame ribbons because they really don't hold up very well after a couple of wearings, but you can probably find something very similar at your local fabric/craft store. These are blinding in the sunlight.

christine haynes

Super talented indie fashion designer Christine Haynes is having a birthday sale this week! So exciting!!! Her prices are already extremely reasonable - and she designs and makes her clothing herself. It feels so good to buy well-made, unique clothing directly from designers. This is why I'm smiling all the time ;) I have a couple of her dresses already. They're super comfy, flattering, and look awesome with Mohops! Her dresses are great for layering as well - I like to wear them with a long sleeved tee (or two) and tights underneath in the colder months, and it looks sooooo cute while being ultra-cozy.

new shoes! 7th pair

This is a great look with our lower heel styles. It will work with any of our styles, of course, but this is particularly good for our flats and low heels because the back half of your foot can move more freely.

This is a variation on the basic ankle tie. We laced the first three loops, then crossed the ribbons over the top of the foot and around the ankle a couple of times. You'll need at least 66" for this style, more if you'd like more wraps around the ankle or a larger bow. The pretty vintage ribbon in the photo was found on eBay or something, sorry we don't have a source for it!