A Tangled Thread (Volume 6) (Sew Zoey, Band 6) - Softcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

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. Chloe has written more than thirty books for children and 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 Nancy-Zhang.com. She lives in Berlin, Germany.

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A Tangled Thread

CHAPTER 1

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. 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.

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. Plus we’re going to Delhi and the Taj Mahal.”

Immediately, Zoey began picturing a big 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 Indian 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.

“My mom would never let me wear one like that,” Libby said, pointing. All the girls looked at one picture, which showed a woman in a sari with a bit of midriff showing on the side. “She’d say it’s too risqué.”

Priti laughed. “Things are different in India. My grandmother wears a sari like that! It looks great, actually.”

They all laughed before the ding of the kitchen timer interrupted them. Libby grabbed an oven mitt to take the cookies out to...