Cute as a Button

by Chloe Taylor

  “I thought today was Twinsies Day,” Libby said when Zoey and Kate reached them.

  “Oh no. I’m so sorry!” Zoey exclaimed. How could I forget to call Libby? she thought.

  Priti’s and Kate’s eyes volleyed between Zoey’s and Libby’s faces.

  Zoey took a deep breath and tried to explain. “It was supposed to be Twinsies Day. But I’ve been really busy with the Doggie Duds stuff. I didn’t get a chance to wash the dress—to get Buttons’s pee out of it—until last night. I didn’t realize the fabric I used was dry-clean only, and the dress got completely ruined. I meant to call to tell you, but I got so crazy with making rewards for all the new Doggie Duds orders that I just . . . forgot.”

  Libby’s expression didn’t change. “What about today?” she asked. “You could have texted or something.”

  Zoey felt her heart sink to the floor. “I should have, but I overslept, and all I could think about was finding something to cover up these paw prints on my arms, so Ivy wouldn’t tease me about them. I’m really, really sorry, Libby. I should have called the second it happened.”

  Libby didn’t say anything, which Zoey realized was even worse than if she had said something mean. She just stood there looking at her shoes—the shoes that went perfectly with her twin dress.

  Priti broke the silence. “Hey, guys, cheer up! It’s not the end of the world.”

  “And guess what?” Kate added. “I’ve been busy making things too.” She reached into her backpack and pulled out a BFF bracelet that she’d made with all four bead colors: one for each of the four best friends. “This one is for you, Libby. We all felt awful that we didn’t make one for you in the first place, so I remade all of ours with a fourth bead color: copper, to match your hair,” she said, giving out the rest of the bracelets to Zoey and Priti and slipping the last one onto her own wrist. “How could we leave out one of our BFFs?”

  “Really? I’m a BFF too?” Libby asked. She held her wrist out next to Zoey’s and Priti’s arms. “I love it! You know, I did feel kind of left out when I saw you all had BFF bracelets and I didn’t have one. And when I came back from getting frozen yogurt at the mall and you all stopped talking, it made me wonder if I was ever going to be a part of the group, you know?”

  “You are!” Zoey said.

  Then Kate spoke up. “And I wasn’t a part of that conversation either, Libby.”

  “Priti and I just had to talk about something,” Zoey added. “Something private.”

  “It’s true,” Priti said quietly. “Zoey had asked about my parents. You see, they’re still having trouble, and I didn’t want everyone to know.”

  “Oh!” Libby said. “I didn’t know that. Well, BFFs don’t have to share everything, I guess.”

  “So, are we good?” Priti asked. “I don’t want any more drama.”

  “We’re great,” Libby said. “And, Zoey, maybe I can come over and help with your Myfundmaker project—and meet Buttons? It sounds like you have your hands full.”

  “We could all help,” Kate said.

  “Not that I’m inviting us all over to your house or anything, but how about a Doggie Duds working party this weekend?” Priti suggested.

  “That would be awesome!” Zoey exclaimed, relieved. “You know what? You really are the best BFFs ever!”

  Chapter 11

  Doggies Are a Girl’s Best Friend

  You know how they say a dog is a man’s best friend? Well, what about a girl’s best friend? Buttons is definitely becoming my BFFF (my best furry friend forever). She is totally adogable, just like Draper! When I finish making the last of the outfits for the local Doggie Duds customers, I’m going to make us these matching outfits for whenever she comes to stay with us. I hope it’s often.

  But my human BFFs are pretty amazing too! Sew Zoey—and all the incredible adventures I’ve had because of starting this blog—would never have happened without them, and neither would Doggie Duds. So I’d like to thank my three best human friends forever—Kate, Priti, and Libby—for all their help with making the rewards. What would I do without you?

  You were all so awesome about spreading the word, the orders went crazy in the last few days in the campaign, and we ended up being over 800 percent funded—way, way, way over our goal! Awesome, right? And thanks to the campaign, even after paying manufacturing costs and website processing fees, I’ve got money to buy fabric for new projects. Yay!!! Thanks especially to Fashionsista for telling me about Manufactory.com, because by the time the campaign came to an end, more than THREE HUNDRED OUTFITS were ordered.

  If I had to make all the outfits and rewards myself, I wouldn’t be able to play with Buttons and take her for walkies (she’s starting to learn that word now, so we have to start spelling it like we did with Draper), and that wouldn’t be any fun now, would it?

  Last but not least, an extra-special thanks to everyone who made super-duper pledges! You’re sew cool, your names are listed—now and forever—on a new Sew Zoey Supporters page on the blog! Check it out!

  “What have we got here, a full-scale production line?” Mr. Webber asked when he walked into the dining room on Saturday night.

  “Pretty much,” Zoey said. “Kate’s in charge of cutting cards, Priti’s stamping, Libby’s addressing envelopes, and I’m sewing outfits.”

  “Can I offer some refreshments?” Mr. Webber asked. “Lulu brought over some delicious chocolate chip cookies this morning when she dropped off Buttons while she was antiquing.”

  “Yes, please!” Priti said.

  “But we have to be careful not to get chocolate on the rewards,” Libby said. “Otherwise, it won’t look very professional.”

  “I’ll bring in napkins, too,” Mr. Webber said, smiling. “I’m very impressed with how hard you all are working. You make a great team.”

  “We do make a great team, don’t we?” Zoey said after her dad went back into the kitchen.

  “The best team!” Priti said. “Ever!”

  “Seriously, though, we do,” Kate said. “Because we’re all good at different things.”

  Kate is right, Zoey thought, looking down at her BFF bracelet. Each one of her friends brought something special to their group. When you put them all together, they were a really great combination.

  After being fortified by Aunt Lulu’s chocolate chip cookies, they managed to finish making all the rewards for Doggie Duds and addressing every single envelope. Everything was all stacked and ready to go into neat piles at the end of the dining room table, waiting for Zoey’s dad to take them to the post office on Monday.

  “Thanks so much for helping me,” Zoey said. “It’s such a relief to have those done!”

  “That’s what friends are for,” Libby said.

  “I just have three more local dog outfits to make tomorrow—one of which is Chester’s,” Zoey said. “The rest, the factory will make—yay!”

  “So you can start making people clothes again?” Priti said hopefully.

  Zoey laughed. “Yes. Glittery, sparkly people clothes, just the way you like them, Priti.”

  “Speaking of clothes, I was thinking, Zoey—since you love the dress from Très Chic so much, and the one you made got ruined, I’m going to give you mine,” Libby said.

  “For real?” Zoey exclaimed. “You would do that for me? I love that dress!”

  “I would have done it before, but I was hurt because I thought you kept forgetting to be twins and it didn’t mean as much to you as it did to me.” Libby twisted her BFF bracelet on her wrist. “But I know that’s not true.”

  Kate raised her glass of milk. “Here’s to Zoey’s business—and to BFFs!”

  “To BFFs!” all the girls chorused, clinking their glasses together.

  When Aunt Lulu had to go on another business trip a few weeks later, Zoey was thrilled to have Buttons back in residence at the Webber house—especially since she’d used some of the money from her newly replenished funds to get the cutest fabric to make the two of them matching ou
tfits.

  “Come on, Buttons,” she said after putting on her dress. “It’s time for these twinsies to go for walkies. Am I rightsie, Buttonsies?”

  Buttons had learned “walkies” as well as Draper by now. She spun around three times and barked, her tail wagging furiously.

  “Chill, Buttons! You have to put on your outfit first,” Zoey said.

  Buttons’s tail didn’t stop wagging, but she stood still, patiently waiting as Zoey put on her outfit. As soon as Zoey finished buttoning it, Buttons raced to the door and stood looking up at the handle.

  Zoey clipped on her leash, and they went out into the neighborhood together, proud twins.

  The first dog they encountered was the Labradoodle, Rusty, wearing the Draper.

  “Doesn’t he look handsome?” asked Mrs. Lynch. “And look at the two of you in your matching outfits. . . . Too adorable for words!”

  “Thanks!” Zoey said.

  A little farther along they bumped into Mrs. Silverberg and Princess, who was sporting the Buttons.

  “Princess loves her outfit!” Mrs. Silberberg said. “And I love your matching outfits. Are you going to sell those, too?”

  “I don’t know,” Zoey said. “The business was a lot of work. I learned a lot, but right now I’m going to concentrate on school and blogging.”

  “Well, if you ever decide to do another Myfundmaker campaign for those, count me in as a customer!”

  “I will,” Zoey said.

  As Zoey and Buttons walked around the neighborhood, they saw more Draper outfits. Zoey still missed Draper terribly, but seeing all the neighborhood dogs wearing his outfit made it feel like he was still there in spirit. After all, the Draper outfit was everywhere she looked. Now, she and Buttons were walking their way to a whole new set of very fashionable adventures.

  Don’t leave Zoey—or her wardrobe—hanging! Keep reading for a sneak peek at the next book in the Sew Zoey series:

  A

  Tangled

  Thread

  Brand-New News!!!

  The great thing about fashion is that there’s always something NEW happening, right? Well, my life’s like that too. I earned enough money from my Doggie Duds campaign to do some serious shopping for brand-new fabric, including the really pricey kind that I usually drool over from afar. I can’t WAIT to get started on some new projects!

  And speaking of new projects—drumroll, please—I’m also superthrilled to announce my next venture! Actually, it’s a team thing. I’m going to be launching a collaboration Etsy store with another young designer, Allie Lovallo (with our parents monitoring, of course). Some of you might know her from our feature together on TresChic.com, or from her blog, Always Allie Accessories. The store will be called Accessories from A to Z, and—you guessed it!—we’re going to be focusing on accessories! It’s a pop-up shop that will be online for a limited time only, so get ’em while they’re hot!

  When we came up with the idea, I was going to sew clothes and she was going to make accessories, and we were going to call it Fashion from A to Z. The thing is, sizing clothes is complicated, while accessories are usually one-size-fits-most. So we decided to have an accessories store with some Allie stuff (Allie’s the A) and some Zoey stuff (I’m the Z). It’s going to be A for “awesome.” As you can see from my sketch of some of the things I’m offering, I’ve already been hard at work. But I want to hear from you, readers. Let me know what else you’d like to see in our store!

  We’re launching the site as soon as we can, so this weekend I’ll be doing all the last-minute work to get it ready. Tonight, though, I have a very important movie date—with two of my best friends! TGIF!

  “More chocolate chips,” Priti Holbrooke insisted. “Really, we need more.”

  Zoey Webber and Libby Flynn eyed each other skeptically, but then Zoey shrugged and went ahead and shook the entire bag of chocolate chips into the bowl. Priti grabbed a wooden spoon to fold them into the batter.

  It was Friday night, and the three friends were at Libby’s house, baking cookies and watching a movie, but they were barely paying attention to the screen. There was just too much to talk about! And too many chocolate chips to eat.

  “We’re going to have to rename these cookies chocolate chocolate-chip cookies,” Libby said, laughing. “I’ve never used two whole bags of chips before!”

  Priti smiled confidently as she folded melted chocolate into the batter. It went from a light tan color, to chocolate striped, to a deep chocolate brown. “My sisters and I always make them this way. Trust me.”

  Zoey spread out cookie sheets on the counter, and the three girls began dropping balls of dough onto them. As their hands moved back and forth, Zoey noticed that everyone was wearing their friendship bracelets. They had made the bracelets with a pattern using four different colors of metallic beads to represent each of the four best friends. There was rose gold for Priti, silver for Zoey, copper for Libby, and classic gold for their fourth BFF, Kate Mackey, who was at soccer practice that night, gearing up for state championships. Kate was Zoey’s oldest friend in the world, and Zoey couldn’t help feeling like there was something missing without her there.

  “Kate would love these,” Libby said.

  “Yeah, she would,” Zoey agreed. “When we were little we called her the Cookie Monster. Too bad she couldn’t be here.”

  “Well, state championships are in a few weeks,” Priti said. “And when it’s over—and she scores the winning goal—she’ll have more time to hang out! And eat cookies.”

  Zoey nodded. “True.”

  “You guys!” Priti shouted suddenly. Her hand flew to her mouth. “I can’t believe I forgot to tell you!”

  “Tell us what?” Libby asked. She slid the loaded cookie sheets into the oven, set the timer, and turned back toward Priti in one graceful move.

  “I’m going to India!” Priti squealed. “Finally. For real.”

  “What? When?” Libby and Zoey both shouted at once.

  Priti’s eyes glowed. “My cousin is getting married in a few weeks, and we haven’t seen most of our family in forever since they live all over the world. So all the relatives—from England, Canada, everywhere—are traveling to India for the wedding! It’s going to be huge.”

  Immediately, Zoey began picturing a huge Indian wedding, with beautiful music and colors and food. “Oh, Priti, that sounds so cool!”

  “I haven’t been to a wedding since I was a flower girl in my uncle’s wedding,” Libby said. “You’re going to have so much fun!”

  “I know!” Priti said gleefully. “It’ll be my first big traditional Indian wedding. My mom said the groom rides in on a white horse, and the bride and groom exchange garlands to show they accept each other as spouses. The celebration goes on for days. And everyone wears the most amaaaaazing saris. . . .”

  Priti dug around in her bag to pull out her phone. She typed in a search term and held out the phone so Zoey and Libby could see as she scrolled through the pictures of saris. Despite the distracting smell of cookies baking in the oven, Zoey’s mind immediately went into fashion overdrive.

  “Oh my gosh, Priti!” she said, grabbing the phone so she could get a better look. “These are amazing! Look at the colors!”

  Zoey kept shuffling through the pictures, completely entranced by the bright, jewel-tone colors; metallic embellishments; and sumptuousness of the fabrics. Her mind was already buzzing with ideas. How had she never noticed before that saris were the most beautiful dresses on Earth?

  “They look complicated to put on,” Libby said, studying one picture over Zoey’s shoulder. “Are they one piece?”

  “Some are, some aren’t,” Priti explained. “Some have a little top that’s separate, and some just fold over one shoulder. It’s, like, nine different steps to wrap one properly. My mom knows how, and my sisters, but I don’t. There’s a lot of tucking and pleating, and it takes a lot of patience!”

  Zoey was barely listening. Already an idea was forming in her mind
of how she’d design a sari, using one of those beautiful, beautiful fabrics, but making the style a bit more contemporary. . . .

  Chloe Taylor learned to sew when she was a little girl. She loved watching her grandmother Louise turn a scrap of blue fabric into a simple-but-fabulous dress, nightgown, or even a bathing suit in an instant. It was magical! Now that she’s grown up, she still loves fashion: it’s like art that you can wear. This is her first middle grade series. She lives, writes, and window-shops in New York City.

  Nancy Zhang is an illustrator and an art and fashion lover with a passion for all beautiful things. She has published her work in the art books l’Oiseau Rouge and Street Impressions and in various fashion magazines and on websites. Visit her at her blog: www.xiaoxizhang.com. She currently lives in Berlin, Germany.

  SIMON SPOTLIGHT

  Simon & Schuster, New York

  Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Chloe-Taylor

  Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Nancy-Zhang

  SewZoeyBooks.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  SIMON SPOTLIGHT

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  Text by Sarah Darer Littman