by Chloe Taylor
Zoey hadn’t even thought to check last night after she got the Très Chic link.
“I don’t know,” she said. “But now I can’t wait to go home after school and check!”
Sure enough, Sew Zoey was showing major traffic. There were a bunch of comments from names Zoey didn’t recognize, telling her they’d found out about her blog from reading about her in Très Chic and complimenting her on her designs. She scanned down the comments—there were more than a hundred! Many were from her regular readers, saying how awesome it was that more people were discovering Sew Zoey.
Then Zoey saw something she couldn’t believe. She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times to make sure she was seeing properly. Because there, on her blog, was a comment from DaphneShawNY, the designer who Zoey looked up to as one of her biggest inspirations!
Hi, Zoey! I’m a big fan of your blog—usually a lurker, but I read the posts and the comments. I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with such unpleasantness recently. Every creative person has to learn to deal with critics because every art form is subjective. But when you’re in the public eye, some of them can be pretty nasty, and sometimes, it’s because they’re jealous of your talent and your success. You have to learn to develop a thick skin, hold your head up high, and be proud of your fabulous self. Remember that saying about how “sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me”? Well, words DO hurt sometimes. Even so, try not to let them get to you. You’re a star. Keep up the great work!
Daphne
Zoey fingered the bracelet she was wearing on her wrist. It seemed like everyone was talking about the sticks-and-stones thing lately.
She read through the post again, still hardly able to believe that Daphne Shaw read her blog and looked at her designs and liked them.
A few comments down there was another one from DaphneShawNY:
I forgot to mention: The next time you’re in New York, do let me know, so I can give you a personal tour of my studio.
Daphne.
Zoey shrieked with excitement, jumped out of her chair, and ran to her brother’s room.
“Marcus! How soon will Dad be home?”
“Why? What’s the matter?”
“Nothing’s the matter! Everything’s AMAZING!” Zoey said, leaping onto his bed and bouncing up and down.
“Ooookay. . . . Can I ask what news has got you bouncing on my bed?”
“You’ll never believe it,” Zoey said.
“Try me.”
“Guess who commented on my blog!”
Marcus screwed up his face as if he were thinking really hard.
“Um . . . Justin Bieber?”
“No, better than that! DAPHNE SHAW!”
“OMG!” Marcus shrieked in a high-pitched falsetto, like he was really excited. “Wait, who is Daphne Shaw again?”
Zoey took the pillow from the bed and threw it at him.
“You know! Only my favorite designer ever!”
“Ooh! That Daphne Shaw. That’s awesome, Zo. What did she say?”
“That she’s been reading my blog for a while and she’s sorry I’ve had to deal with all the nasty comments, but I have to get used to criticism if I’m going to be a famous designer and stuff, but the best part is . . . SHE INVITED ME FOR A PERSONAL TOUR OF HER STUDIO WHEN I’M IN NEW YORK!”
“Wow!” Marcus wasn’t pretending to be excited now. “That’s really amazing, Zoey. I’m sure she also said you should bring your bestest brother in the whole world with you on this trip to New York. ”
“I think she forgot to add that part.” Zoey grinned. “Maybe if he’s super-duper nice to me.”
“He’s always super-duper nice to you, isn’t he?” Marcus said.
“So when is Dad getting home?”
Marcus glanced at the clock.
“He should be home in about half an hour.”
Zoey tried to do her homework, but it was too hard to concentrate while she was waiting for her father to come home. Anyway, she had to call all her friends to tell them about the post from Daphne Shaw.
As soon as she heard her dad’s car pull into the driveway and the garage door open, Zoey raced down the stairs. She was waiting for him in the kitchen before he even walked into the house.
“DAD! You’ll never guess what happened!”
“What ever happened to, ‘Hi, Dad, how was your day?’ ” Dad asked.
“Hi, Dad, how was your day? GUESS WHAT HAPPENED?” Zoey said.
Her father put down his bag, poured himself a glass of juice, and sat down at the kitchen table. “Well, how about you tell me, since it’s been a long day at work?” he said. “Good news?”
“Daphne Shaw, who is only my favorite designer ever and my biggest inspiration, COMMENTED ON MY BLOG!” Zoey said. “She said she reads it all the time. But best of all—she invited me for a personal tour when I’m in New York. So, Dad—we have to book a trip to New York right away, so we can go visit her studio!”
“Honey, we’re not going to do that tonight—”
“But DAD! It’s Daphne Shaw! What if she changes her mind?”
“Zoey, Daphne Shaw is a public figure. She wouldn’t have made an offer like that on a public blog if she didn’t mean it.”
“But—”
“And you have school and I have work. It was one thing to take a day off for Fashion Showdown, but school is important.”
“I know,” Zoey said, but she felt like a deflated balloon.
Her dad noticed her subdued expression.
“You know another thing, Zo—you’d want to give Ms. Shaw some notice. She might want to plan something special. I don’t think showing up on her doorstep tomorrow is a great idea.”
In her excitement, Zoey hadn’t thought of that. “Oh. I see what you mean.”
“Don’t worry, honey,” Mr. Webber said. “We’ll plan a trip to New York when the time is right, and we’ll make sure that when we do, you get to visit Daphne Shaw and tour her studio. Dad’s promise.”
- - - - CHAPTER 10 - - - -
Sticks and Stones
Welcome to all the new readers who have come to Sew Zoey from reading about me and my blog in the Day in the Life of a Designer feature on the Très Chic website. I hope you stay and comment on my designs, because I’ve learned so much from my regular readers. Just, when you make a critique, think about how you would feel if someone were making it about something you created. It’s great to be honest—the only way I’ll get better is if people give me real feedback about the stuff I make—but you don’t have to be mean-spirited.
Today’s sketches are inspired by one of my readers—someone I didn’t even know read my blog until yesterday, but who’s been my inspiration since before I even started it—Daphne Shaw! Thank you, Ms. Shaw, for leaving such an encouraging comment and such great advice. I’ll do my best to remember about “sticks and stones.” Most of all, thank you, THANK YOU, Ms. Shaw, for the invitation to visit your studio the next time I’m in New York. I wish it could be tomorrow, but Dad says I have to go to school. Anyway, I hope it’s sometime very, very soon. It’s given me something superspecial to look forward to!
One thing I’ve realized is how designing clothes—I guess like doing anything creative—is really personal. So it hurts a lot when people don’t like your work and it feels really great when they do. I guess that’s what Ms. Shaw means about having to develop a thick skin if you’re going to be a professional—learning to not let it hurt so much when people don’t like your work. Because the fact is, not everyone likes the same things, and, really, that’s a good thing, because if they did, it would be really boring—we’d all be wearing the same clothes. It would be just like when we had to wear a uniform at our school. It’s a lot more fun now that everyone can choose what to wear every day. Okay, so sometimes there are people who don’t like what I wear, and they tell me. And sometimes they aren’t very nice about it. But as long as I feel like I did my best, I’m going to try to let it roll off my well-dressed sho
ulders!
Before she went to school the next day, Zoey checked her blog to see if any more comments had come in from the Très Chic feature. At the bottom of more than one hundred and fifty comments, there was one that had come in after she had checked last night.
I don’t know what makes Zoey think she’s so special. She looks like she got her clothes at a thrift store.
She deleted it and blocked the user. It made her wonder what was going on with the investigation at Mapleton Prep. Would the IT director be able to find out who had posted the comments, and if so, what would Ms. Austen do?
That’s when Zoey realized she was late. She logged off and ran to catch the bus.
She was in social studies when the person sitting behind her tapped her on the back and passed her a note. Zoey waited to open it until Mr. Dunn turned to face the Smart Board.
Curiously, the note was from Shannon, asking Zoey to meet her by the vending machine before the next class.
Zoey wondered why Shannon would want to talk to her. Or was it part of a prank? Was Shannon getting her to the vending machine so Ivy and Bree could play a trick on her?
There was a time when Zoey and Shannon used to pass notes back and forth to each other all the time. Back in elementary school, when they were friends. Before Shannon started hanging out with Ivy. Zoey decided to give Shannon the benefit of the doubt. She scribbled “Okay” and surreptitiously passed the note back.
The rest of the period seemed to drag by. It was harder than usual to pay attention to Mr. Dunn when Zoey kept thinking about all the possibilities of what Shannon might want to say to her. When the bell finally rang, she almost jumped out of her seat.
She left the classroom before Shannon and walked to their rendezvous spot at the vending machine. Shannon skulked up a minute later, checking over her shoulder and pulling Zoey into the alcove by the side of the machine so they were less visible.
“Thanks for coming,” Shannon said. She seemed really jumpy and nervous.
“That’s okay,” Zoey said. “Uh . . . what did you want to meet about?”
“I just . . .” Shannon twisted the hem of the sweater she was wearing in her fist. “I wanted to say that the powder thing—you know, putting it in your hat? Ivy made Bree do it. She said she wouldn’t be friends with her otherwise. And she made us post the mean comments on your blog, too. Because of what you said about her snakeskin-patterned dress on Fashion Showdown.”
“Wait . . . what? I don’t understand. I didn’t say anything about Ivy or her dress on Fashion Showdown.”
“Yes, you did,” Shannon said. “You saw the dress Ivy wore to the dance, and then there was a dress that was almost identical on Fashion Showdown, and you said you didn’t like it.”
“But . . . the whole segment was taped before I even got to the dance,” Zoey said. “How was I supposed to know what dress Ivy was going to wear? I just gave my honest opinion, like I was supposed to do as a judge.”
“Oh . . . wow. I didn’t know the whole thing was already taped before the dance. It didn’t air until later!” Shannon said. “I guess Ivy got it wrong, huh?”
“Yeah, she did.” Zoey said, hardly believing her ears.
“But, anyway, you told on us to Ms. Austen about the hat prank,” Shannon said. “We all got in trouble right after you and Libby were in her office.”
“I didn’t!” Zoey said. “She asked me if I thought you did it, and I said I didn’t know who did it. It’s not my fault if she thought it was you guys.”
Shannon was confused. She’d come prepared to be angry at Zoey for a whole list of things it turned out Zoey hadn’t done.
“Well, even if you didn’t snitch on us then, we’re in serious trouble now,” she said. “Mr. Arenzini in the computer lab looked at the logs and figured out Ivy, Bree, and me were the ones on the school computers at the times the comments from the Mapleton Prep IP address were posted on your blog. Ms. Austen called our parents in for a big meeting yesterday, and now we’re all on probation because we broke the code of conduct.”
“I’m really sorry you’re in trouble, Shannon,” Zoey said. “But those comments really hurt. They made me feel really bad—so bad I was even thinking of giving up my blog.”
Shannon’s face turned red. “I’m sorry, Zoey. I really am,” Shannon said. “Posting those things was wrong. I shouldn’t have listened to Ivy.”
“I guess Ivy can be kind of hard to stand up to,” Zoey said.
“Yeah,” Shannon said. “But don’t give up Sew Zoey. I lied when I said the mean things about it. I love reading your blog. I think it’s really great.”
It wasn’t awesome knowing Shannon was one of the people who’d written some of those nasty comments. But hearing she actually loved Sew Zoey made Zoey feel pretty good. After all, there was a time when she and Shannon had been good friends. She didn’t want to think of her as an enemy, not really.
But already, Shannon was getting edgy, glancing around, worried Ivy might be nearby and spot her talking to Zoey.
“I better get to class,” she said.
“Yeah, me too. But thanks for telling me this,” Zoey said before they went their separate ways again.
That weekend, Zoey invited her friends over for a sleepover. Since the one last mean comment the day Daphne Shaw posted on her blog, there hadn’t been a single nasty remark on Sew Zoey. It was a relief for her to not be scared to look at her blog every day, and she was beginning to enjoy it again without any worry or hesitation. In fact, she loved the great feedback she was getting from all her new readers.
Marcus and his band were downstairs in the basement practicing while the girls made cookies in the kitchen.
“There’s a new episode of Fashion Showdown on tonight,” Zoey said. “And guess who is one of the judges? Daphne Shaw!”
“You mean your new BFF?” Priti said. “Do you think she’d let me come visit her studio too? I wonder if she gives out free samples?”
“I don’t know,” Zoey said. “I just hope it’s not too long before I can go take her up on her offer.”
“I just can’t believe Ivy thought you purposely criticized that dress on Fashion Showdown because you saw her wearing one like it at the dance,” Kate said. “Why would you do that?”
“Maybe because she says mean things about Zoey, she thinks Zoey would do the same thing?” Libby suggested.
“Or maybe it’s like Daphne says—maybe she’s jealous or something,” Zoey said.
“Well, I’m just glad you don’t have to worry about her and Bree and Shannon being nasty on your blog anymore,” Priti said. “It would have been awful if you’d had to give up Sew Zoey.”
“Hey, something smells good!” Marcus emerged from the basement, followed by the rest of his bandmates. “Any cookies to spare for hungry musicians?”
Zoey checked the timer.
“They come out of the oven in twenty-nine seconds. But if you want some, you have to play our karaoke song for us.”
Marcus glanced at his friends. They all nodded except for Dan, the guitar player, who had a pained expression on his face.
Dan finally spoke. “As much as it pains me to play that Top 40 commercial stuff, my stomach is telling me to sell my artistic soul for a cookie.”
Marcus looked back at Zoey. “You got yourself a deal, sister.”
They all counted down to the oven buzzer. “Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . ONE!”
Zoey took out the cookies from the oven, and as soon as they were cool enough to touch, everyone pounced. Within a minute, the tray was empty.
“Those were amazing,” said Dan. “They almost make it worth suffering through that song.”
“That song is awesome!” Priti exclaimed.
“Yeah, if you’re a middle school girl,” Dan retorted.
“A deal’s a deal,” Zoey said. “Come on! Karaoke time!”
They headed down to the basement, and Marcus led off.
Without the entire school watching, Z
oey was completely relaxed, and she and her friends had a blast singing and dancing.
“I hate to admit it, but that song is beginning to grow on me,” Marcus said.
“Traitor!” Dan exclaimed.
“Play it again!” Priti begged.
Dan groaned, but he went along with it as soon as the rest of the band started playing.
“No more!” he said after the encore. “Twice is my max!”
“It’s okay,” Zoey said. “Fashion Showdown starts soon.”
The girls trooped upstairs to the living room and settled in to watch Fashion Showdown.
It had been a difficult few weeks, Zoey thought. But Priti seemed a little happier lately, and things were back to normal—in fact, better than ever—on Sew Zoey. It was true. Everything did work out in the end—as long as you took it one stitch at a time.
Who is cute as a button?
Find out in the next book in the Sew Zoey series:
Cute
as a
Button
It’s Nifty to be Thrifty
Designing and making clothes is definitely my favorite thing to do, but there’s one big catch—buying fabric starts to add up. It’s not just the fabric—it’s all the trimming, buttons, zippers, sequins, you name it! The only reason I’ve been able to make so many outfits lately is because of the money I won in the Avalon Fabrics Break-out Designer Contest—and because both Jan at A Stitch in Time and my Aunt Lulu are so great about giving me scrap material. But I’m going from riches to rags, even though I’ve been doing my best to shop on a budget. My allowance only goes so far and I’m too young to babysit, so Dad said I can do odd jobs around the house to earn money, but there are only so many of those. Lately, he’s been paying me to dust the house plants and sew buttons on his shirts! What’s an aspiring fashion designer bursting with ideas to do? I’ve been digging around at the thrift store again, trying to find clothes I can take apart for the fabric. But I loved this dress too much to take it apart. Instead I got creative and “Zoey-fied” it. I made some tweaks here and there and added a belt that used to be my Mom’s. Cool, huh?