Mesh Ruska
Pattern: Ruska Tee by Named Clothing
Fabric: Mesh refashioned from a ready-to-wear tee
Sewn up: July 2020
One of the brightest spots in quarantine for me has come in the form of virtual dance workouts. In March, my sister invited me to join her for a Friday night “Fancy Dance” Zoom workout hosted by her circus arts school in Boston. She assured me that I wouldn’t need to have my camera on, and under those terms I accepted. We both danced from our apartments in our separate cities, led by the warmest (and coolest!) instructor ever named T. Something about jumping around my living room with my hands in the air, singing “Club can’t even handle me right now,” knowing that 10 other people in another city were doing the same, was just good clean fun, and I was hooked.
My sister dropped off the Fancy Dance train after that first time, but I have joined every Friday night since then – four months and counting. After the first couple weeks we realized that cameras on didn’t cause any lag, so now we are all on camera, a fact that I am surprisingly comfortable with since I am usually a two-drink wedding dancer. There is something very beautiful to me about convening with these Boston circus artists every Friday night to mark the end of the week. Sometimes I’m in a wonderful mood and the dancing only improves it, sometimes I’m exhausted and the dancing lifts me out of it, sometimes I’m exhausted and the dancing doesn’t help and I just cry it out to Beyoncé. At the end of every class, T lifts his hands to the camera and cups them into a heart shape and tells us he loves us.
This new ritual made me want to have more fun workout clothing, i.e. something other than tee-shirts from tech conferences and the running shorts I’ve had since college. A few internet searches caused my Instagram feed to be flocked by ads for activewear, and I kept seeing this same rainbow mesh top pop up. It didn’t come in my size, so I kept not buying it, but eventually it went on sale around the same time I realized I could refashion it into something that fit me.
It arrived and the colors were so bright and so happy, I cut into it the same day. I loved the way the neckband and sleeves were sewn up with contrasting parts of the fabric (plus very nice turquoise twin needle top-stitching!) so I left those intact. I just cut up the side and sleeve seams, laid everything flat, and traced my pattern pieces onto the originals. It is quite see-through, so not necessarily my style for wearing out and about, but feels perfect for stay-at-home Fancy Dance!
“Before” shot of the top.
~ Photos taken by Greta, who stayed with me during her break from college and attended Fancy Dance!
Drawing process reel: table photo, pencil sketch, digital drawing.
