Sewing in Circles (13 page)

Friday after school, Zoey packed up all of her merchandise, and Dad and Marcus drove her to the gift fair location to set up her booth. Allie was already there, having driven straight from school, and her booth was mostly set up.

“Wow, it looks great, Allie!” Zoey said as she passed, carrying a box of accessories.

“Thanks,” Allie said. “Good luck setting up yours.”

“Where do I get all my display materials?” Zoey asked.

“Whatever you ordered should be in the booth,” Allie said.

Then Allie spotted Marcus, who was helping Mr. Webber bring in more of Zoey's boxes of merchandise on a hand truck. Zoey saw Allie quickly turn away to rearrange some handbags that were on hooks attached to the side of the tent.

Awkward,
Zoey thought.
Will it ever get less weird between Allie and Marcus? Maybe they need a No Weirdness Pact of their own!
But she didn't have time to worry. There was too much to get done setting up her booth.

But when Zoey looked in her booth, there wasn't much there in the way of hooks and display shelves. Everything she ordered definitely wasn't there.

“What am I going to do?” Zoey asked Dad and Marcus, her voice rising in panic.

“The first thing you're going to do is not freak out,” Dad said. “And then we'll go over and ask the organizers what happened to the rest of your order.”

At the organizers' table, Dad nudged Zoey to do the talking.

“I don't seem to have all of my display order,” Zoey said. “And it's a real problem, especially because I didn't get a clothing rack, so I'm not sure how I'm going to display my garments properly.”

“I know. We had a problem with the delivery,” Mrs. Perry said. “The display company didn't deliver our order in full, so we've had to cut back on what we're giving people based on what they ordered. I'm really sorry for the inconvenience.”

Zoey realized that she should have ordered more display items like Allie told her. Trying to save money on display materials now meant she was going to be extra short.

“What am I supposed to do?” Zoey asked.

“You might try asking around to see if any of the other vendors have stuff they're not using,” said Mrs. Perry. “Sometimes they order more than they need, just in case.”

“I'll go back and help Marcus unpack the boxes while you go talk to the vendors,” Dad said.

Zoey felt embarrassed having to ask people she didn't
know if they had spare display materials. She decided to ask Allie first, because she was her friend. But when she explained the situation, Allie said, “That's why I said to order extra.”

“I will next time!” Zoey promised. “But can you help me out now?”

Allie looked around her booth.

“I
suppose
I can combine these key chains and change purses on to the large display shelf,” Allie said. “Then you can have the small shelf. And I have one small hanging rod to spare. But I can't really spare anything else.”

Zoey felt mad, even though she knew it wasn't Allie's fault that she was short on materials. If anything, it was her own. But Allie didn't have to be mean about it. That wasn't like her; at least not like the girl Zoey had become friends with.

“Well, thanks for that,” Zoey said. “I'm going to ask other vendors to see if I can scrounge up anything else.”

After a begging tour of the booths, Zoey had managed to come away with an odd assortment of display things but was still way short of what
she needed. She came back to the booth, and with Marcus and Dad's help, tried to arrange what she had so it looked good.

“The booth still looks half empty, and I don't have anything else to display my stuff with,” Zoey complained. “What am I going to do?”

“How about if Dad and I go to the hardware store and see what we can pick up there?” Marcus suggested.

“Isn't that going to be expensive?” Zoey asked. She was beginning to wish she'd never signed up for the gift fair.

“Don't worry,” Dad said. “I'll cover it. Or maybe we can ask the organizers to reimburse us, since they didn't get everything you needed and they still charged you. But really, honey, I'm happy to buy it.”

Zoey stayed and laid out the bracelets neatly in the wooden trays she'd made in industrial arts and tried to decorate the booth as best she could.

While Dad and Marcus were gone, Mrs. Perry came around to see how Zoey was doing.

“Not so good,” Zoey said. “But my dad and
brother have gone to the hardware store to find some racks and shelves.”

“Oh dear. . . . These booths are made such that the shelves and display racks fit in a very specific way,” Mrs. Perry warned. “I'm not sure if other racks and shelves will work with it.”

“Should I call Dad and tell him to forget about it?” Zoey asked, worried.

“I don't know,” Mrs. Perry said. “They might work. Give them a try. In the meantime, I'll see if I can call around to get you some more things locally—and also see if I can convince the other vendors to share a bit more.”

“Thank you,” Zoey said.

“It's the least I can do,” Mrs. Perry said.

Dad and Marcus returned forty-five minutes later with hooks, racks, clothing rods, and shelves.

“This should do the trick,” Dad said. “We'll have the rest of this set up in no time.”

At least that's what they thought . . . until they tried to hang the first shelf.

“These hooks won't fit,” Marcus said.

Dad examined the small shelf that Allie had let Zoey borrow.

“It looks like there's a special fitting on the end of this that matches the wall of the booth,” he said. “I didn't see anything like this at the hardware store.”

“Thanks for trying, guys. But Mrs. Perry said it might not work,” Zoey wailed. “And she was right. Now what do we do?”

“I guess maybe we could try affixing the clothes with duct tape,” Dad suggested. “Maybe it would look cool in a gritty way?”

“What?” Zoey exclaimed. “No way! That would look awful!” She didn't mean to snap at her dad, but the idea of taping clothes up with duct tape made her cringe.

“Yeah, I'm seconding Zoey on vetoing that duct tape idea,” Marcus agreed. “It would look really unprofessional.”

“Well, any other ideas?” Dad asked. “ 'Cause I've got nothing.”

“I know! Let's call Aunt Lulu,” Marcus suggested. “She's done lots of trade shows. I bet she'll know how to improvise.”

“Good thinking!” Zoey said. She pushed the speed dial for her aunt.

“Hey, Zo!” Aunt Lulu said. “How's the booth looking?”

“It's a bit of a disaster at the moment,” Zoey said. She explained about the delivery shortage and the problem with hanging the shelves and the clothing rods on to the booth wall.

“They're supposed to have a special bracket in order to fit on to the booth,” Zoey explained. “And the ones from the hardware store don't.”

“I bet zip ties would work for the smaller shelves if they have predrilled holes in them for brackets or nails,” Aunt Lulu suggested. “And they're a lot more discreet than duct tape. Tell your dad I'm with you on that!”

“I know, right?” Zoey said. “Black zip ties are a great idea.”

“But those probably aren't strong enough to hold the clothing rods,” Aunt Lulu said. “Especially once you have them loaded up with clothes. I'm not sure what to do about those.”

“Well, thanks for the zip ties idea,” Zoey said.
“Hopefully, we'll figure out to do with the rods.”

“Oh! Or you also could use twine to make a clothesline cross the booth, and hang things from it with wooden clothespins,” Aunt Lulu suggested. “It's a simple solution that looks cute and rustic.”

When Zoey hung up, she explained to Dad and Marcus what Aunt Lulu said about the zip ties, clothespins, and the clothing rods.

“I can run back to the hardware store and pick up some zip ties,” Dad said. “And the wooden clothespins and twine. But the clothing rods are still a problem. Do you really need them?”

“Yes!” Zoey said. “The twine is a great idea, but clothes are heavy, so I can't hang too many pieces on each line. And if I have too many clotheslines in the booth, it's going to look messy instead of cute.”

“Wait! I think I've just had a brainstorm for what to do with those,” Marcus said. “Do we have any ladders at home?”

“Yeah,” Dad said. “I've got one or two old ones hanging around in the garage. They aren't in great shape, though.”

“That's okay,” Marcus said. “Just bring them when you come back with the zip ties.”

“What do you want ladders for?” Zoey asked.

“Wait and see,” Marcus said, which was annoyingly mysterious, but Zoey didn't mind as long as his idea worked!

When Dad came back from his errand, he asked Marcus for help. They returned carrying two old wooden ladders.

“I've been meaning to get rid of these ever since I bought the aluminum ladder, but luckily for you, they were still in the garage,” Dad said.

“They're perfect!” Marcus exclaimed.

“Perfect for what?” Zoey asked.

“Watch and learn,” Marcus said. He propped open the two ladders, then took one of the clothing rods and rested it across the ladders' steps.
“Ta-da!”
he said, picking up another one and resting it on a lower step. “Your clothing rack!”

“Wow! That's such a great idea!” Zoey exclaimed. “It looks . . . rustic, which will tie in perfectly with the twine clothesline and wooden pegs!”

She started hanging clothes on the rods while
Dad and Marcus strung up the twine and tied the clothing rods to the ladders to keep them stable.

“Good thinking on the ladders,” Dad told Marcus.

“Just being a good brother,” Marcus said, grinning.

When Zoey finished arranging all her stuff, it turned out she didn't even need the things she'd borrowed from Allie and the other vendors, so she went around and returned them. Between Marcus and Aunt Lulu, they'd solved her problem
and
created a cool, rustic look for her booth.

“Our make-do booth looks better than how I designed it!” Zoey said.

“Teamwork,” Dad said, putting his arms around Zoey and Marcus. “The Webber family makes a great team!”

Fashion Hardware

Aunt Lulu often uses the phrase “necessity is the mother of invention,” but it was never more true than this afternoon, when we were setting up my booth for the gift fair! I thought we wouldn't have enough display items to show off the things I've worked so hard to
make in a way that looks attractive and will make people want to buy them. But between Aunt Lulu, Dad, and especially Marcus, my day was saved! We rigged up twine and clothespins to hang up lines to display some items, and then Marcus had the brainstorm to use two old ladders as a base for the clothing rods, creating the perfect rustic-looking rack. All's well that ends well! And I got an idea for hardware-store inspired clothing made of nuts and bolts (fabric bolts, that is). It was a win-win!