Preserve Minneapolis walking tour

I branched out to more walking tours!

After how much I enjoyed the Minnesota Historical Society's Summit Avenue tours, I wondered if other Twin Cities organizations offered similar excursions. Late last summer I discovered Preserve Minneapolis, a group dedicated to identifying and preserving the city's historic architecture. A big part of its mission also includes creating educational opportunities for the general public: A couple of months ago, I attended my first event with the organization: the regular Breakfast with a Preservationist event, held every other month at the Mill City Museum. (A Happy Hour with a Preservationist event is held in months that don't feature the breakfast discussion!)

In addition to these year-round events, Preserve Minneapolis also coordinates more than two dozen walking and biking tours around Minneapolis each summer. When I first read about the tours last summer, they were all sold out, so as soon as this year's schedule was available, I chose my first one: the "East Hennepin: Behind the Scenes" walking tour of Northeast Minneapolis.

An excerpt from the website's description of the tour:

"The bustling commercial district surrounding East Hennepin Avenue has hosted many names throughout the years, but everyone knows its unforgettable landmarks: Surdyk’s, Nye’s, Kramarczuk’s, Historic Main Street, and Our Lady of Lourdes Church. . . .  The last decade has brought dramatic change and the area around East Hennepin is now considered one of the trendiest and most exciting places in Minneapolis to eat, shop, and live. Fortunately, the area has managed to maintain its old-world flavor to this day. Join us for a “behind-the-scenes” history of the busy streets, unique businesses, and colorful people that have shaped this popular walking neighborhood."

The tour was set for a Sunday morning that happened to feature an ominous forecast. I drove over to Northeast in steady rain that turned into an on-and-off rain for the first part of our tour before the clouds cleared out by the conclusion. (Rain isn't a problem for the tours, but they are cancelled if there's lightning.) Lots of umbrellas in the early stages made for a spread-out group, especially since there were about 18 of us on the tour.

One of the tour's overarching themes was the neighborhood's layers: different cultural influences shaped by immigration waves, businesses and storefronts that ebb and flow and change. I was aware of the neighborhood's strong Eastern European heritage, but I didn't know that the neighborhood includes the city's oldest church, which was founded by French Canadian settlers and continues to connect to its deep French heritage.

That's Our Lady of Lourdes Church, its steps and doors with the fleur de lis symbol visible in this picture of our group (in the rain):

As we walked along the route, covering about 10 blocks, many of our stops included explanations of the layers of businesses and history that preceded a given space's current occupant. As promised in the tour description, the guides also talked to us about longstanding, well-known and well-loved Northeast institutions such as Surdyk's liquor store, Nye's Polonaise Room and Kramarczuk's Sausage Company. 



Across the street from modern condominiums, the interesting give and take between old and new continued: the tour ended in Chute Square at the Ard Godfrey House - per that website, the oldest surviving frame home in the Twin Cities. It's a space I've run by many times and always wondered about its history.



One of the tour's memorable highlights was our knowledgeable guides: two longtime Northeast residents that made the tour richer and stronger because of how much they love their neighborhood. The 75-minute tour was a great introduction to the area that also showed me how much more there is to learn about the neighborhood, its intricate history and its current era of development. It was only my first Preserve Minneapolis event - but if that was representative of the others, I'll be back for more.

Looking up at the catalpa

Golden-orange flowers

Spotted during yesterday's midday walk:

Sewing a dress

In my 101 in 1,001 list: #71 Sew a dress

This one's done!

When I started assembling my list of 101 goals in late 2011 (nearly three years ago now!), I included several sewing projects, and this has been a fun area of learning and growth for me in the past couple of years. I've made quilts and robes and have also gotten into embroidery more. But for some reason, sewing a dress seemed like a much bigger challenge.

Well, I guess I know why it seemed like a bigger challenge: it was, at least for awhile!

A few mishaps unfolded along the way. It all started simply enough: I bought a pattern (McCall's 6744) for a really simple dress that I guess you would call a faux-wrap style. It called for a knit fabric (the kind with a little stretch) and I didn't feel particularly confident about working with knits, so I wanted to start with cotton for this project. I found a pretty print - an ivory cotton fabric with a sort of lavender-gray chevron pattern - and brought it home.

Then I figured out that 1) I'd purchased the wrong size pattern and 2) the pretty chevron fabric was more sheer than I expected. I forged ahead and bought a swath of plain ivory cotton fabric with which I could line the dress later if needed, and then made the adjustments to modify the pattern to my estimated size (I learned along the way that each piece of the pattern is one inch wider or narrower as the size goes up or down). Then I really botched the fabric by making a freehand adjustment that resulted in sized-to-fit shoulders and a waist that wouldn't actually fit my ribcage. Oops! And the other complicating factor was that I was realizing just how tricky it would be to properly line up the chevron pattern in the finished product.

I was in over my head, but that whole process wasn't as arduous as it sounds - I messed it all up (and realized it) pretty quickly, so I still have big scraps of the chevon fabric that I can reuse later. Back to the fabric store I went, in search of a darker fabric with a smaller all-over print. I found a blue cotton fabric with a little (calico?) flower print that I figured would be much easier to manage.

Then I let it sit in my sewing basket for awhile, and all of a sudden this week, I wanted to try again. I started cutting out each piece of fabric for the pattern, a process that went much faster when I didn't have to worry about matching zigzags. I began assembling the bodice and threaded elastic through the shoulders to gather the fabric, and at that point, I cheered a little because I had gotten past the step that had thwarted me the first time. I sewed the skirt's pieces together and then had to pin the bodice and skirt together, which was a little trickier. Then I sewed that together with two seams about one-half inch apart and then threaded more elastic through that section for the waistband. (This step was not unlike what I remember from making pajama shorts in middle school.)

I think this all took about three hours from start to finish. Time was flying by as I got drawn into the project, and by the time I was nearly finished, it was late but I really wanted to complete the last couple of steps.

And here it is! This is my "I can't believe I did this!" face. I mostly like this picture because of the emphatic hand shadow.

And here's my new dress on the hanger:

Is it perfect? No. Absolutely not. Make no mistake: I learned so many lessons through trial and error, and I see things in this dress I'll do differently next time. But I liked being surprised by how proud I felt to finish the dress, be able to put it on, and realize I liked it enough to wear outside my home. I'm happy I put this goal on my list.

Sunday dinner outside