Somehow, time has slipped away from the Craftstitutes. There has been travel, and illness, and the usual demands of busy 21st century living. We have dropped the ball.

My family had a wedding to attend in Florida this month, and quite honestly, I can't tell you how thrilled I was to hop on a plane and fly south to sunshine and warmth. There is something so freeing about putting on clothes in the morning and that being all you need besides a pair of flipflops to step outdoors. We forget about that in the depths of winter.

Because this family wedding was a must attend celebration that we had known about for months, we tacked on some extra days in Orlando to visit Harry Potter World at Universal. It was such fun for these Muggles to immerse ourselves in the magical world. We don't do this kind of thing very often, and it was very easy to travel back and forth between suspended disbelief and our more typical DIY "how did they do that" approach while hanging out in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. We drank every kind of butterbeer they offered - and I sure wish I was as confident about breaking down a food recipe as I am a piece of clothing, because the butterbeer ice cream is something I would like more of in my life.

You probably don't want a bunch of travel details, so I'll explain my purpose for this blog post. I made clothes for this trip and wore them. You know how you look at your wardrobe when you have some big event coming up and immediately jump to the conclusion, "I have nothing to wear!" For the first time, that didn't happen to me. It happened to all the other family members, but I don't make men's sports coats or shoes, so I was not obligated to freak out on their behalf.

I made a linen dress that I wound up wearing to the rehearsal dinner, which might have been a little dressed down in light of what everyone else was wearing, but my sister-in-law did say sundress, so I paired it with my Doc Martin sandals and called it a day. This dress was an Alabama Chanin special - hand-stitched with no distracting patterning. Simple. The dress I wore to the wedding was made locally by my friend Kate of Woolen Moss. I can't tell you how amazing it is to get fitted for a custom dress. This was a simple and elegant solution to the age old challenge of what to wear - look local.

By far, my favorite piece of clothing that I wore that week was my newest Alabama Chanin skirt with a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson appliqued on the front. I've always been fond of words and had already created a skirt for my daughter with her favorite children's book quotes. I decided for this skirt to simplify - one skirt, one quote. If I had been really forward thinking, I would have used a Harry Potter spell, but I can always make another.

You can make your own Alabama Chanin skirt in our upcoming class, now posted. The possibilities are endless for what your clothing can say. Or you can follow Erika's lead and stick with patterns and dye your own colors. Every possibility is there.

Robin xo

Gone Dark