Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing (22 page)

After nearly three lessons a week on draping, pinning, sketching, and hand-stitching, almost all the students were finally pushing the pedals to the floor with confidence. The machines hummed at a steady pace, except Olivia’s, the sound of which could be likened to a new driver learning to use a stick shift.

With the island grooves of Celia Cruz piping through the sound system, Mary Theresa wadded up her light cotton poppy-hued dress-in-progress and threw it across the room. “When is Scarlet getting here?” She sneered. “The neckline is too low, the chest area is too big, the waist is unbalanced. It’s all wrong. I’ve tried so hard to embrace patternless sewing, but it is impossible.”

Stephanie and Jennifer ignored Mary Theresa’s hissy fit; they were too busy slaving away on their own projects. But Olivia walked over and picked up the dress. “You sweated over it; respect it and give yourself some credit,” she said before handing it back to
Mary Theresa. “Plus, it’s way better than mine. It doesn’t seem right to you because you’re used to wearing jeans and polo shirts.”

Rosa took the dress from Mary Theresa and tugged it down the dress form.

Mary Theresa propped her rimless glasses on her nose. The dress didn’t look half bad. In fact, it looked quite… pretty.

“I did it,” she said, her voice more astonished than excited. The surprise success of it reminded her that she needed to have faith, instead of always expecting disaster. She may not have been a superstar sewer—or mom—but she wasn’t a loser, either. This dress served as tangible proof of that.

Olivia stood up and put her hand on her hip. “That slinky number is damn sexy. Wear that for your man with a swish of matching lipstick and he’ll be biting your ankles.” Olivia playfully bumped Mary Theresa’s hip, laughing hysterically at her own joke.

Mary Theresa flashed Rosa a glare as if she had been betrayed.

Rosa responded with an innocent “I didn’t say anything!” shrug of the shoulders and returned to her sewing machine.

Olivia sat back down at her sewing machine too, and continued with her dress. “Girlfriend,” she said without looking away from her work, “we’ve been stuck in this room for weeks. I don’t need to know the details to smell trouble in the home. When you’re ready to spill it, I’ll gladly offer my two cents. Lord knows I’ve been through the worst of it.”

Mary Theresa tightened her already cinched ponytail. “Thank you for the offer, Olivia, but I don’t want to burden all of you with my marital issues.” She sighed, picked up a stray needle from her work area, and inserted it into her apple pincushion.

“It’s not a burden,” Stephanie chimed over her machine. “Dang, our parents argue all the time about money. But my mom says their secret to happiness is they always go to bed with a kiss and a snuggle.”

Mary Theresa wished it were that easy.

“I wasted years married to a gambler,” Olivia blurted. “He secretly blew all my parents’ estate money. I had a feeling all along, but ignored it. We had a luxury custom home in Laveen. Six months ago, I came home from work and the electricity was off, my daughter, Missy, was crying at the kitchen table, and the house was empty. You know where he was? Sitting on a damn rickety folding chair in the living room, playing solitaire. That was the last straw for me, boy. I was at the lowest of the lows. I packed a suitcase and me and Missy left for my sister’s. I couldn’t sleep, so I went online and stumbled onto DaisyForever.com. It was the Word-to-Life Transformer blog post Scarlet wrote. Have you seen it? You jot down your biggest fear and then add empowering words to it make it an affirmation. The point is to show that you can take any negative situation and with some heavy thinking you can turn it around to be empowering.”

“What were you afraid of?” Mary Theresa asked before she could stop herself.

Olivia bent over, grabbed a couple sheets of scrapbook paper and a Sharpie from her craft caddy, and wrote for a minute. She lifted up one sheet of paper in front of her buxom chest and it read:

I AM AFRAID TO BE ALONE.

She then wiped a tear from her eye, blinked away the others that threatened to fall, and held up the second paper:

I AM
A STRONG WOMAN AND A GOOD MOTHER. I WILL NOT BE
AFRAID TO BE ALONE
IF IT MEANS SHOWING MY DAUGHTER A LIFE OF HOPE.

Mary Theresa sniffled, as did everyone else.

“The next day I learned we had lost our home. Our cars. Our credit. All. Of. It. We started fresh with a twenty-dollar Starbucks card and five dollars cash. But Missy and I held our heads high. At least I still had my job and we had our health. I divorced his ass and I’ve since dedicated my life to showing my daughter the art of starting over. There is always room for a second chance—sometimes a third or fourth, too. And even though Scarlet’s late again for class, I’m forever grateful for her words of inspiration.”

“Wow,” Mary Theresa said, moved by Olivia’s honesty and courage. “I would have never known you’ve been through so much. You are always so upbeat.”

Olivia folded the papers and put them back in her caddy. “That’s why I told you on the first day, you can choose your mood. I choose an Oh-LIVE-yah state of mind!”

Stephanie began to clap slowly and chant,
“Oh! Live! Yah!… Oh! Live! Yah!”
By the second round, the rest of the class joined in and Olivia broke down in tears. They took turns hugging her until Olivia wiped her eyes on the inside of her plus-size sweatshirt and looked up at Mary Theresa. “No more about me. Now, what’s up with your man? Is he good to you? Do you love him?”

In that moment, Mary Theresa decided that if Olivia could go through all that and still be such a positive force, she could certainly lighten up too and share with the class.

“We’re having a trial separation until February,” she said. “I guess I bossed him right out of the house. But I do love him; he’s a good guy.”

Olivia strutted over to Mary Theresa. “Don’t go blaming yourself. Did he need bossing around? Come on, be honest.”

Mary Theresa cracked a smile. It felt good to have someone as strong as Olivia stand up for her. “We both did, and we could
have handled it in a different way. We’re working on it. I miss him, I took a lot for granted.” She took the dress off the form, held it up, and admired it.

“If you wear that dress, he’ll work on it harder!” Olivia giggled.

Mary Theresa had a sudden flash of genius. “I’m going to surprise him with it,” she said. She was just about to describe the fantasy scene when Marco appeared.

“Anyone heard from Scarlet?” Marco asked, looking around as he ran his hand down the center of his fitted red T-shirt. Jennifer stared at his chiseled upper arms and elbowed Stephanie to check them out too. She slapped her sister’s leg and ordered her to get back to work.

“Want us to give her a message?” Stephanie asked, practically flirting.

“Nah, it’s cool. I just wanted to let all of you know that there is nothing scheduled for this room for all of January, so feel free to come in and work whenever you want.”

Stephanie and Jennifer pursed their lips and winked at each other. Olivia noticed and raised her head and blew kisses to the air. “Marco, we all know you’re—how would Scarlet say it—drooly for her. When are you going to ask her out?”

Marco brushed off the comment by offering a courtesy chuckle. Scarlet had pretty much become a slave to earning any kind of income she could. A date would be out of the question until that changed. Hopefully she’d have time to mend a pocket here and there, if he was lucky.

As if they felt a cool breeze swirl into the room, the group turned to the doorway to find a petite, slouchy woman carrying a thick load of laundry, which she dumped on the floor. “I have an announcement to make, could everyone please take a break and listen up?”

“Scarlet?” Rosa and Mary Theresa said in unison.

Between her disheveled look and slurred speech, they almost didn’t recognize her. She walked over to the refreshment table and poured herself a cup of black coffee. Marco ran up behind her and removed it from her hand, replacing it with a bottled water. She didn’t even notice. Her hair hung limp like cooked red spaghetti under a red trucker hat. She peeled off a lumpy flannel jacket to reveal baggy track pants and an oversized Cardinals T-shirt. She didn’t even have on a lick of makeup, but she did have dark shadows under her eyes.

Olivia tossed down her pinking shears. “I knew this would happen. She went over the edge. Scarlet, what have you done to yourself?”

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Scarlet grumbled. “I was so deep in thought, I got lost driving here.”

“It’s not about being late, it’s about your health. You can’t go on like this,” Olivia lectured. “You didn’t sleep last night, did you?”

Instead of responding to Olivia, Scarlet dragged a chair away from the wall and fell into it like a limp sandbag. “I have good news, bad news, and more bad news and good news….” She pointed up as if to draw a diagram in the air. “Or maybe it’s bad news, good news, bad news, and then good news—depending on how you look at it….”

“Just tell us,” everyone snapped.

Scarlet capped the top of her hat with her palms. “I received a letter from House of Tijeras the other day. The Emerging Designers Program has been moved up to mid-January… and the remaining balance is due
now.
” Scarlet’s voice quivered somewhere between laughing and crying.

“What?” Rosa said, standing up. “That can’t be. Ew, that Johnny!”

“It’s true. And I still have several thousand dollars to go. I called and they told me if I don’t pay it by January 5, they’ll give my spot to someone else. And the letter also said this is the last year of the program. This is the end of the road.”

Scarlet moved her hat brim away from her face. “I’m going to have to cancel the rest of this class after the New Year. Either I’ll be going to New York for Johnny Scissors—or, if I don’t raise the money, I’m taking a break from fashion and taking a full-time gig in engineering. Look, guys… I’m sorry I dragged all of you into this. The engineering job will allow me to refund your money.”

Mary Theresa ran to Scarlet’s side. “Oh no. I’m so sad to hear this, Scarlet. You wanted it so bad. How much do you need? Maybe we can hold a car wash or something. If I had the money, I would invest in you.”

“Thanks, but there’s no time,” Scarlet said. “I do have a last-minute wholesale order for forty of my Mexibilly Frocks. They’re almost done. I’ve been working on them for the past twenty hours. Would you guys mind if I finished the hems here today? They’re due Thursday morning. It’s not enough to cover my balance, but it’s a nice chunk. I have to finish them.”

Jennifer and Stephanie scooped up the dresses from the doorway, carried them to the front worktable, and set them down. They each held one up and made a stink-eye face at it. The dresses were lopsided, with loose threads dangling, and some of them were smeared with stamp ink. Not Scarlet’s usual pristine craftsmanship.

“Were you blindfolded when you made these?” Stephanie asked.

Rosa pushed her jumbo black glasses up her nose and inspected the dresses. The ladies and Marco awaited her verdict. “I hate to tell you this, dear, but these dresses are not saleable. As your friend, confidente, fan, and student—I can’t let you send
them out. You’ll need to buy new fabric. I suppose if we help, we could remake them all by tomorrow night. But we would need a pattern. Do you have a pattern, Scarlet?”

Scarlet shook her head slowly. “No. Patternless sewing, remember?”

“I guess we’ll have to make one, then. Do you have an extra Mexibilly Frock that we can use?” Rosa asked.

Scarlet’s lip quivered. “No. I sold them all.”

“Scarlet, it’s OK, I have the dress you gave me. We can use that as the pattern!” Mary Theresa said with enthusiasm. “I’ll race home and get it and bring it back.”

“I can’t sew for shit,” Olivia said, pulling her chin into her chest. “But I’ll call Scarlet’s Auntie Linda from the quince shop and bring her down here to help. Jennifer, Stephanie, you think your mom can come? I have to pick up my daughter, but I’ll bring back food for the night.”

Scarlet dragged off her hat. “No, Olivia. I don’t want you all to do this. This is
my
mess. I don’t deserve your help. You guys should be hopping mad with me for taking your money and then not even showing up on time for class. I’ll figure it out.”

With her sunglasses already on her face and her keys in her hand, Olivia strolled out with a chuckle. “Oh, we’ll find a way for you to make it up to us, don’t worry. But today we’re making your dresses. So you can get some rest. So you can get back to blogging. Adios for now!”

“Thanks for the help, everyone…,” Scarlet said dazed. She stood up and rubbed her forehead with the back of her palm and teetered a bit.

Thinking she was about to fall, Marco darted over to help her. She finally caught her balance and pulled out two small bottles from her pockets. She unscrewed the top from one of
them and began to drink the contents, but Marco snatched it from her weak fingers.

“Instant energy drink?” he said, alarmed. His eyes skimmed down the label. “These are like two cups of strong coffee each. It says not to exceed more than two a day. How many bottles have you had today?”