4.0 gpa, thank you, thank you.

School's over, thank God. I learned a lot, but it was a busy semester for me and very stressful between 3 classes, full-time job and my business.

For each design class, I had to design a garment. Here are the final results:

Flat Pattern class
Yellow and white striped seersucker shirt dress


Draping class
Peach brocade 50s inspired cocktail dress
(sorry, camera phone pic. The zipper promptly broke and I have not replaced it yet.)

They stole my design

I was going to do this for my draping class final.

(The Associated Press)

This is a perfect example of ...

... disaster.
This, friends, is phase I of my design class project. It will hopefully someday be a really cute shirtdress made of white and yellow striped seersucker. It will have a flared skirt and gathered cap sleeves. It will have a white cable-knit belt that I am working on right now. In my head, it is sooooooo cute.
Well, I drafted the patterns and did test #1 in muslin. I have no idea what happened to the skirt, but it's a good 4-6 inches too small. Back to the drawing board, on this one. And that is what muslin is for.


Here is the top half, so far. It's coming along nicely, though it may be hard to tell. It fits pretty well -- much better on me, actually. It's missing the collar and the button stand, which runs along the center, so that will make the two sides actually meet. I've stuck one sleeve on, and it looks nice. It will be shortened to be a cap sleeve and will have elastic at the bottom -- here it looks a bit Amish.

Now, if I could just lose 50 pounds, the skirt may not need alterations after all.

Fashion time machine

Remember the days when everybody dressed nicely all the time? When jeans would never be seen at a wedding? Neither do I, because I was born in the '70s and grew up in N.M. Everytime I look at clothes from the 1970s, I want to cry because it's not fair that I came from that time. For 10 entire years, nobody looked good.
But in the 1950s, and early-'60s, people always looked good. At least it seems that way, since I wasn't there to witness it. I liked that women always wore high heels and dresses, although I don't believe they really wore them while vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms like on TV.
For my draping and flat pattern classes I have to think of a project to design. "Dreamgirls" really inspired me to do something modest, ladylike and elegant. I want to update it by not having an overly full skirt. I'm thinking a combination of these things (bad scans):


Yes, I hate to admit that I'm finding inspiration in a Payless Shoe Source ad. I'm going for the pleated skirt and the fitted bodice with a v-back and modest front.

How many "clothes" do strippers need?

As an aspiring patternmaker, I recently posted a Craig's List request seeking patternmakers in the Albuquerque area who would act as a mentor in exchange for help.

I received one reply, so far, from a lady designing a line of stripper wear. It sounds like a great opportunity, except for the fact that I really don't want to design clothes for hos.

I told my friend David that I don't even know how to envision ho clothes and that they'd end up fully covered in turtlenecks and long pants. He said that was OK, to start from there and then start adding Velcro so they could rip the sleeves and legs off, and so forth till they are nekkid.

Well, as long as I don't have to model it.

Actually, I think I'll just pass altogether. I don't really see the point of clothes if you are still naked when you are wearing them.

www.so.damn.busy.com

In college, I got headaches a lot. I guess it was because I was overwhelmed. I'm a very organized person and having things hanging over my head got to me. No matter how much you try, you can never catch up on homework.

After college, I started working as a copy editor. This has been the job for me because I don't have to bring work home with me. When I leave at the end of the day, the work is done until I come back next time. I pretty much stopped getting migraines.

So, going back in time, I never really had hobbies. I wanted hobbies, but nothing piqued my interest enough for me to stick with it. Until I discovered sewing a few years ago. I love sewing so much that it's all I want to do. I sometimes sew until I'm exhausted and then I go to bed and have Burger Chef Syndrome all night.

Burger Chef Syndrome (n): When you do something repetitively and then try to go to bed and can't sleep because you keep dreaming about it. You toss and turn and have nightmares all night about ____. (Fill in the blank with such things as playing Super Mario Brothers, working at Burger Chef [my husband made up this term after developing syndrome at said job], sewing.)

So back to my story, I found this hobby, and it led me to to seek out fashion design. I basically wanted to learn to make my own clothes from my own designs. But maybe I want to change careers someday. More on that later. I now take fashion design at Santa Fe Community College.

I'm making some clothes and selling them at www.burstofhappiness.etsy.com. I'm also doing some freelance editing/writing work.

My point is that my to do list now looks like this for each week:
1. work 40 hours at main job
2. work on freelance job
3. go to school (9 hours)
4. do homework
5. work on my patterns, sew them
6. work out
7. clean my house
8. spend time with my husband. This really should be first on the list. He's the most important thing in my life.

I haven't been this busy in years! I kind of liked the peacefulness my life had before, but it's getting exciting now. I guess I'll just stock up on Excedrin and see where life takes me!