Since I started Phoebe&Egg I’ve met a lot of cool people. All sorts of people all over the world. It is part of what I hoped would happen when I started my business.
What I didn’t expect was to meet to a long lost friend. That was a totally unexpected bonus.
It all started with this blog post and The Making of the Rag Doll. After I finished the post, two things happened.
I reordered another copy of the book from Amazon because I could not find the dress pattern piece. I had looked everywhere and decided to give up and buy another copy of the book just for that piece. I figured I could copy the missing piece and use the book as a giveaway on my blog.
The second thing was I received an email through my blog commenting on the Jess Brown post. It was from Amy B., an old high school friend who I hadn’t spoken to since high school graduation.
Although she and I were at Mark Zuckerberg’s high school, there wasn’t Facebook back then, so after graduation many of us lost touch.
Amy said she had always been curious about sewing a Jess Brown doll and she’d been following my blog and, well, the conversation, just took off from there.
Amy and I had been on the ice hockey team together. We had spent many lunches and dinners (it was a boarding school) talking about hockey, assignments, college applications, clothes and boys.
We had never once discussed sewing, dolls or anything crafty or creative.
Yet for both of us these things have remained lifelong passions. They just weren’t at all cool way back when.
The next day, my second Jess Brown book arrived and I found my missing pattern piece…in my copier.
So I sent the extra book to Amy.
And we continued to text about the pattern and about sewing dolls and sewing in general, and knitting and crocheting and why we never ever brought any of these things up in high school.
Two weeks ago, Amy and I finally met halfway between our two homes. Since we had last spoken, I had added three children, a masters degree and two different careers to my journey. She had added a law degree, a documentary film career and a PhD.
But what we both really wanted to talk about was sewing and doll-making. Amy had many awesome tips for me that I cannot wait to try. Like how to soften linen and make wool yarn ringlets.
And we both admitted we weren't very into hockey, we just did it for our college applications.
Thank you Amy, and indirectly—Jess Brown.
Below are a few of the dolls Amy made from the book.
