Wednesday Walk: Linens and Treats
Wednesday Walk: Linens and Treats
Reusing old bedsheets, climbing every mountain, and churning ice cream again
Welcome to Willoughby Hills!
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As is typical every Wednesday, I’m bring you a smattering of topics that I hope will make you a bit more curious about the world around you and give you something to think about later. I call these Wednesday Walks, as it’s the type of conversation we might have walking down a path in the woods. Shall we take a stroll?
The Hills Are Alive
This past weekend, we visited the Berkshires. Careful readers of this newsletter may think this is a duplicate of last week’s newsletter where we also visited the Berkshires, but I can assure you, this was a second, rather impromptu trip.
We had a last minute appointment in Upstate New York just over the border from Massachusetts and we decided to bring the RV and make a weekend out of it. I’ve gushed about Harvest Hosts on here plenty of times, but if you’re new here, it’s the service that allows RVers to park overnight at farms, wineries, breweries, and other interesting spots. There’s no camping fee, just the expectation that the campers will support the small business hosting them.
We spent the night at Catamount Mountain Resort, a ski resort which straddles the New York and Massachusetts border and which also is a Harvest Host member. In the summers, they offer an outdoor adventure park with things like zip lines, but because it was a rainy day, the park was closed on the night we arrived. We were alone in their parking lot with the rain and some thunder.
The next morning, we were greeted at the ski lodge by an employee who was very friendly. We had planned to stop in the gift shop and buy a T-shirt or some other souvenir to fulfill our Harvest Host duty when the woman who greeted us mentioned that they offered rides in the ski lift (for a fee, of course).
We’ve been focusing on paying for experiences versus buying more stuff, so we decided to take a ride up the mountain. I am glad we did- the views of the Berkshire and Taconic Mountains were breathtaking! I’ve actually never skied, but if the hobby affords a view like that and some thrills on the side, I can understand why people like it.
Bonus: on the ride back down the chair lift, we got a pretty unique view of our RV in the parking lot below. I’ve never seen it from such a height before!
Sweet News
If you’ve been a long time follower of the podcast, you are probably familiar with one of my favorite ice cream brands, Ample Hills Creamery. I spoke with the founders of the company Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna back in September, 2020.
Ample Hills had a meteoric rise. It began as a neighborhood ice cream parlor in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn in 2011. It was so successful that it began to spread throughout New York City, opening a giant factory in Red Hook, Brooklyn. They published an amazing cookbook, which is my wife’s go-to when making ice cream. The brand attracted a lot of Hollywood attention too, counting Oprah Winfrey, J.J. Abrams, and Steven Spielberg among its fans.
Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney at the time (who retired and then became CEO again) also became a big booster of Ample Hills and helped Brian and Jackie expand their footprint into Walt Disney World in Florida. I first discovered it on a stay at Disney’s Boardwalk and was immediately taken with the unique flavors. Eating Ample Hills became a pilgrimage for me anytime I was in Florida or New York (they eventually opened West Coast branches in Los Angeles and Long Beach too).
Ample Hills expanded very quickly and became loaded with debt, a condition that was made worse by the COVID shutdown in early 2020. The business declared bankruptcy, many locations were shuttered, the brand was sold to an Oregon-based company that specialized in manufacturing machine parts, and Brian and Jackie were forced from the company that they had founded.
At the time I spoke to them on the podcast, the loss of the ice cream parlor was still fresh and Brian and Jackie were plotting their next move. They eventually opened The Social, a new ice cream parlor also in Prospect Heights (which is literally around the corner from a house This Old House renovated in 2009 when I was on the production team).
In December of last year, the remaining Ample Hills locations closed and it looked like the end of the line for the business. Although according to The New York Times, not only is Ample Hills coming back, but Brian and Jackie are back in control of the company. They recently purchased the business back from Schmitt Industries for $150,000 (Schmitt paid $1 million for the brand three years ago), have reopened the Prospect Heights location, and are in the process of reopening two other shops in Astoria and the Upper West Side.
Food businesses come and go. Many don’t last through their first year. Ample Hills somehow continues to go on and get second, third, fourth chances. It has become something much bigger than just a neighborhood ice cream parlor though. Its flavors are unique and innovative, its shops have a nostalgic and familiar vibe, and the brand is known for its whimsical artwork almost as much as its ice cream.
I’m hoping that with Brian and Jackie back at the helm, Ample Hills can rebuild some of what the company once was again. So much of the ice cream business is similar, and visiting Ample Hills was always innovative yet nostalgic and familiar. I’m excited to see what this next chapter holds for this fascinating duo.
#NoNewClothes- Week 37
It’s been a while since I checked in on my quest to go an entire year without buying any new clothes. So far, I’ve only purchased two used tops (a vintage Sears sweater and a used Patagonia flannel). Even though I’ve been quiet about it in this newsletter, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been on my mind.
One way to avoid buying new clothes is to find a reuse for old fabrics. There is perhaps no greater fashion moment in cinema than watching Fräulein Maria turn her bedroom curtains into play clothes for the Von Trapp children. (And yes, this is my third The Sound of Music reference in this issue.)
With reuse on the brain, I was quite inspired recently when I came across the Instagram handle @ropedropdesign, which is run by Kelsey Swarthout.
Kelsey takes old bed sheets, primarily Disney designs from the 1990s, and turns them into really beautiful dresses and other types of upcycled fashions. She and I emailed back and forth a bit because I was very curious to learn more about her work.
She’s always enjoyed sewing, although much of her prior work was in altering her own clothes. She only started designing and creating dresses last year (if that’s not inspiration to just get started on doing something awesome, I don’t know what is!). Kelsey explains how it all started with a simple pair of mouse ears:
“I started making my own ears to wear to the parks and when I was looking for new fabric to use, I came across a 90s Disney bedsheet that I thought would be perfect. I had so much leftover fabric after the ears that I decided to make a matching dress! I love vintage Disney t-shirts and fashion so I was very excited to make something similar of my own.”
Kelsey began looking for old bed sheets anywhere she could find them- thrift stores, flea markets, swap meets, estate sales, secondhand sites, and even fans who offer to send her old sheets. She is able to make good use of all types of bedding:
“The flat sheets offer the most amount of fabric so I usually prefer those when I'm making a dress since I love a full skirt and sleeves! I will use any size or bedding type I can find though for other types of pieces. Fitted sheets are good for styles of dresses that don't use as much fabric or for styles like skirts and corset tops. I'll sometimes use a pillowcase for the bodice of a dress and combine it with a matching sheet for the skirt! I've also recently begun making totes bags from pillowcases which are the perfect size! I've found that comforters and sleeping bags are great for puffer jackets.”
If you find a cool old bedsheet at a thrift store, Kelsey’s advice is to thoroughly inspect it for things like stains, holes, tears, or places where the fabric is worn too thin.
Themed bedsheets have been a trend for decades. I recently discovered the website Wishbook Web, which features full color scans of catalogs from Sears, JC Penney, and other retailers. The 1982 Sears Wishbook includes a full 9 pages themed to the movie Annie, including dolls, outfits (modeled by Aileen Quinn who played Annie in the movie), an Annie wig, a locket, a table and chair set, and an entire bedroom set which includes bedding, curtains, and even Annie wallpaper!
Kelsey has some interesting thoughts on why her work resonates:
“I think since a bedroom is often a safe space as a kid or one of the first things that we get to help decorate when we're young, things like bedsheets and curtains really stick with us! So seeing that bedding years later can sometimes jog a memory we forget we had of being a kid.”
You can follow Kelsey on Instagram and TikTok or check out her website to order her unique creations!
And by the way, if you haven’t been following along with this No New Clothes challenge, it was inspired by a newsletter I wrote about Amory Sivertson, who did a similar challenge last year.
Would you be willing to spend the night in the Annie room from the Sears catalog? Have you ever made cool clothes out of old bedsheets or curtains? Would you travel all the way to Brooklyn for some Ample Hills ice cream? What’s your favorite mountaintop view? Leave a comment below- I love hearing from you!
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Other Wednesday Walks
If you’ve missed past issues of this newsletter, they are available to read here.
I lived in a Beauty and the Beast bedroom and a Barney bedroom in the same vein. And even though all my old sheets are faded, it harkens back to when our parents would sometimes use them as rags and blankets for outdoor eating. I totally will look for some of the better quality ones for similar upcycling. I'm challenging myself to only shop yarn at re-use shops, unless I'm looking for a specific thing, that I plan to wear until I can't wear it anymore.
And, such a motivating story about the ice cream! I love hearing when smaller places grow easy or manage to get back on track. Not a small brand, but our closest Sur La Table closed permanently, then once things reopened more, came back! I think they realized us home cooks weren't giving up on them, especially those of us who got better and more gourmet with it during the pandemic lockdowns.
What is old is new again... making dresses out of whatever fabric is available. I read sewing is making a comeback. I don’t remember when I finally got to wear store bought clothes to school. I was old enough to babysit and buy my own. Bless her heart, my mother was a terrible sewer.