Sometimes I forget that Chelle Summer was born on my honeymoon with Greg ten years ago. And it’s hard to believe Chelle Summer turns ten this year– more on that at the start of August when I celebrate Chelle Summer’s “birthday.”
We had decided to go on a “surfing safari” for our honeymoon. We drove to LA to stay with our friends there a few days and pick up our surfboards that we stored in their garage. What we didn’t anticipate was how cold the more northern California beaches would be (we expected them to be cold, but not that cold).
On the way to LA from our home in Albuquerque, however, we had stopped at the outlet mall in Barstow, a place that was a sort of usual break for us each time we’d driven to LA for the previous year. And it was in the Old Navy store where I said something out loud, wondering why they didn’t make colored denim skirts, just shorts.
Greg’s response– the one he might regret some days– “Then make them yourself.”
After our return to LA, before heading back to New Mexico, we decided to make our first trip into the garment district. I don’t recall now if this was really related to me making any skirts so much as we thought we’d check it out and maybe find some good clothes, too. I did buy a handbag and a dress, but it was the start of our fabric buying adventure that has fueled where Chelle Summer is today.
When we arrived home, I started to seek out estate sales again, something that had been dormant for me for several years as I pursued other things. And that led me to a house where I bought my first vintage dresses and began the sewing experiments that would continue to propel what had gone from a surfing safari to a sewing safari honeymoon.