friday feels (on a Saturday)

I'm starting off this week's letter with a sweet-sweet (not bitter-sweet, because—while I'll miss her BIG time—there is nothing bitter about her embarking on this next chapter) goodbye to our dearest Carissa. Many years ago Carissa joined ES as my assistant, and has played many roles and become one of my dearest friends since. She has been helping you all with customer support via email for the past couple years, and I *know* that anyone who's had a chance to interact with her will understand why she's such a treasure.

Carissa, you are truly a beam of sunshine personified. My business and my life would look very different without your supportive, peaceful, and wise influence. You will always be a part of ES, and your love for our customers and our purpose will remain.

Carissa and her husband are expecting their first child very soon, so as of next week she will be stepping away from the inbox and fully entering maternity mode! Want to send her off with well wishes? Just reply to this email and I'll make sure they get to her. I know she'd receive them gratefully. If anybody deserves to be showered with love, it's her! WE LOVE YOU, C!!!

Another dear friend and long-time ES alumni, Emily T, will be stepping in to take over the inbox and help me with some administrative things. She was one of my very first hires in 2015 as a cutter and has done just about every job (except sewing) in the decade since, with a few breaks in between. Emily has a rock solid handle on all things ES and I know she'll take excellent care of everyone. She also loves an obscure Office reference and appreciates a good GIF, just for a little insider info on who you'll be chatting with if you ever need to email support!

production updates

Last week I shared an overview of how our production workflow operates in nitty gritty, practical terms. If you missed it, you can read last weeks email here.

This week I started receiving some finished Lightweight Linen garments back from sewers! A lovely fluffy pile of Salt Linn Tees pictured above. Once garments get to me, they go through their final wash, then get pressed (not super crispy, just a little steam), and packed.

We recently had our first hiccup with projector cutting: a handful of garments were cut without correct scaling, so they came out larger than intended. But we caught it early, and now we have a check in place to measure a calibration square on each pattern before cutting. With age and experience, I am trying to change how I respond when things go wrong. I'm aiming to be more diligent about incremental improvements and problem solving to strengthen things, rather than reacting with fear and trying to overhaul the entire system (which is a silly reaction when problems are typically small).

sewing workshops

Our Clyde Outerwear workshop is officially underway, and—as usual—I am enjoying it immensely. The pattern for this style will be releasing soon! We're finishing up the instructions.

Also, the Live Andy Trouser Masterclass is coming up next month! If you're interested in learning to sew pants, I hope you'll join us. We'll cover all the basics from measuring yourself, selecting your size, preparing your pattern, cutting your fabric, and of course constructing them every step of the way. I love to help source fabrics and talk through pattern hacks too! Plus we cover putting in professional inseam pockets. Ticket sales will be closing soon, you can sign up here!

If a live workshop isn't in the cards for you this year, we have our recorded Georgia Workshop that you can join anytime. I put a call out for some help creating video content to promote this workshop, and I've started to get some finished videos back (they are INCREDIBLE and make me so happy!). I wanted to share this quote (below) from Sara, who has been sewing for years but still had such wonderful things to say about exploring the workshop to create her video. Maybe I'll see you inside!

unexpected romance & an email I can't stop thinking about

I'll start with the email. Someone recently responded to a newsletter and shared this (among other things):

"What I think you'd enjoy is the concept that contentment comes from serotonin, and pleasure/reward comes from dopamine. Contentment comes from making, creating, growing, cooking and giving and is typically close to, if not totally, free. It also is a feeling of enough.

Reward and pleasure are about taking and are expensive, often costing people everything, and come from drinking, drugs, sugar, shopping, social media, gambling, etc., anything you can get addicted to, and with these, there's never enough. I had never heard it explained like this and he does a much better job and I thought you'd enjoy it because it falls right in line with moving your tv-reconnecting with our serotonin centers and minimizing, the best we can, our dopamine."

She was referring to something she read in The Hacking of the American Mind by Robert H. Lustig. Also, she followed up with the exact passage and clarified her stance on dopamine, saying that she felt she'd given it a slightly bad rap, lol! But the point stands, and she REALLY me helped calcify a concept that has been taking root in my mind for a while now: that consumption and creation are antidotes to the other, and that when you engage in either, you beget more of it, like a flywheel.

This is why I feel so driven to invest in the making/teaching part of this business, because it feels like the healthiest way for me to impact other people. I love making clothes that make people feel good, and I don't think it's wrong to sell them. But I also know that buying things doesn't enrich our minds, ignite our spirit, or bring us peace in the way that creating does. And I know from experience: the more I create and make with my own two hands, the quieter the desire to consume, buy, acquire gets. The more I create, the less I hunger for more, the more content I feel.

That feeling of contentment—safety in a sense—is something I think most of us are desperately lacking. We all know the impact modern technology has on our minds, and we are becoming more aware of how damaging our addiction to some sources of dopamine is. If we could foster more natural serotonin production, more genuine contentment and peace in individuals, how could that affect how we interact with and engage with each other? I think taking better care of our hearts and minds in this way could have a profound impact on our society.

If I can encourage folks to engage in creating, quieting the hunger to consume—and that brings even a small amount of contentment and peace—that feels like a worthwhile purpose to me.

Ok, onto the unexpected romantic thing that happened this week. One of my favorite ways to wear my hair is in two mini-buns, but right now my hair is short so it can't all be pulled into the elastic. It has to be like half up, half down. I have *never* been able to create neat, straight lines in my hair when putting it up. Even when I try to use the pointy end of the comb and look at the back in the mirror. It's just impossible for me, and trying to divide my hear neatly into...quadrants (?? I am describing this terribly, but if you have long hair hopefully you know what I mean!) to put it up into little buns just wasn't happening. A few days ago I came out of the bathroom defeated after trying for like 20 minutes, and it just occurred to me to ask my husband.

I described what I was trying to do, gave him the comb, and he fumbled through it. Side note, he plays the piano beautifully so he's very dexterous, which makes it kind of funny when he struggles with something like this. Our three year old very kindly "helped" and there was a lot of "I don't know, I can't tell if I'm doing it right," so when I walked to the mirror my expectations were low. And then they were TOTALLY EXCEEDED. I had two perfectly sectioned buns, from the front and back. I was SO happy!

Every day since, I have asked him to do my hair, and it feels so tender and special. Both the physical act (who doesn't love having their hair played with?) and the fact that he is able to do something for me that's both small and meaningful feel incredibly romantic. So, peep me with space-buns for the foreseeable future!

Be well,

Liz