Coffee and Skittles

Monday October 5th

Computer class is not a highlight of my day so I don't usually talk about it, but I am getting better now and I'm learning a lot.  I hope I can retain some of the info because the class still moves really quickly and I forget steps along the way because of the speed. We have been working on creating a mood board out of different non-fashion pictures and using special effects to change the look and colors.  Then we will make computer-generated fabric designs and swatches and work towards filling in a fashion sketch to show pre-selected outfits in the fabrics we created.  It's a cool process even though it drives me crazy every step of the way.  Photoshop is amazing now.  I remember the old school version that pretty much colors in shapes and has the spray paint function.  Now I could replace someone in a photograph and have it look realistic.  I could take a photo and turn it into a computer generated work of art.  Well, I shouldn't say that I could do it, but some people can!

I got to play with my fabulous orange check wool to create a creative dolman sleeve draping project.  I had something in mind: a jacket with a hood and short dolman sleeves, closing in front across the body with a little wave at the top.  As I worked on playing with the fabric, I had a bunch of the excess gathered at the neck to get it out of the way.  Prof Renzulli came over and gushed about it and had the class come over so he could talk about how sometimes you get something really great but you have to step back from it to make sure the proportions work and tone it down a bit.  But basically he loved what I accidentally had going, so I kept in that direction!

 

Working on the mess that started it all

Playing with the rest of the material to see what shape looked best. 

I was afraid it was too picnic-tablecloth-like so I didn't want to overwhelm the eye.

It's hard to work with this much heavy fabric.  The pins don't hold up that much weight easily.  The fabric to the side is because eventually I will drape the back and then pin the front to the back in the rough shape of the dolman sleeve that I want.

It was really enjoyable getting to play with the material and practice using my design eye.  And as for the evolution of my design... I'll show you the final product soon!

After class I went straight to work because the Basics Project was due tomorrow.  I had a lot to finish.  I treated myself to some Chinese delivery so I wouldn't have to take a break to cook or walk anywhere.  It ended up being a good choice because I worked straight through and ended up pulling my first all-nighter of the year.  I am a night person, but I hate to do that because I am also prone to migraines when I'm stressed and lacking sleep.  I stayed awake on 4 cups of coffee and 2 bags of Skittles.  It was like crack!!  I don't usually drink anything with caffeine so that combo was golden.

Spread out on the floor with all my magazine clippings, rendered figures and mood board.

Side note: I had a friend ask what rendering is.  I should probably explain my terms better!  Rendering is drawing and coloring fashion illustrations in, but more than just coloring, it's trying to represent a particular fabric by showing texture, pattern, drape, etc. as well as realistically showing how the fabric wraps around the body.  I'm learning how to render wool patterns like houndstooth, pinstripe, herringbone and checks in class now.  Fur is coming soon - yay!

Okay, so back to the all-nighter.  It was crazy.  I worked solid through the night.  When it got late enough that I needed to let poor Katey (roommate) sleep in peace, I moved to the kitchen table.  And when it came time to use the toxic spray adhesive around 3 in the morning, I wasn't about to go outside so I went out into the hall of my dorm floor hoping that I wouldn't somehow cause the smoke alarms to be triggered. 

Besides the decisions on mood board elements and layout, I had to line each figure with a clean sheet of paper, cut it out carefully around the edges (same for all the flats).  Then I had to apply everything to the board and use a special double sided adhesive page to attach the swatches so they won't fray.  Every step took a lot of time to turn out a clean, nice final product. 

I finished at 7 AM and went to bed for an hour before waking up for class.  Whew. 

Being behind on my blog has benefits... I won't make you wait to see my final product this time.  I have it back, graded and pictures taken.  Here is my "Basics" Project.  Now that name makes me laugh! 

 

Mood board - shows target customer, theme, colors, and overall mood

Swatches and flats.  The flats show design details like topstitching that sometimes don't show up on the posed girls.  They are used to communicate with the manufacturer how the garment should be made.

This was a fun flat.  It's a striped knit with "dangling chads" of fabric that will sway when you move. 

And finally... the rendered figures!  I'm really proud of them because they make the portfolio I submitted to get into the school look like a kid's coloring book.  Progress!  I especially like the girl on the left in the denim jumpsuit.  She turned out hot.  And I still have little to no control over that - it's funny how the faces sort of land on the paper and the personality just comes out.

The dreaded pattern skirt.  I had to draw it twice on girls and once for the flats.  I can see why people might prefer Photoshop for ease in duplicating the hard stuff.  It can also save time because you can scan in the figures and print on a background instead of having to line them and cut out so carefully.

 Ah.  Hard work pays off.  My first A in the class and on a big project!

Holy Rendering Batman!

I'm still pretty slow at drawing figures and rendering fabric in marker and colored pencil is new to me.  I really wanted my Basics Project to look good so I spent most of the day Sunday working on the figures and the mood board.  Every single step took longer than I expected!  I had already done a lot in class, but there was so much to do for finishing work.

The assignment was to create a mini collection that would be compatible with stores like H&M, Gap, and Uniqlo for the 18-25 year old market.  We had to use a denim and a pattern and mix up cotton and knits.  I picked a green denim that was really cool and a striped green and off white knit, a blue knit and a floral cotton in green, blue, black and off white.  My colors were very coordinated which seemed a bit boring at first, but the stripe and floral combination was pretty fun.  And for that market, I don't think creative use of color is necessarily an important selling point.

I already had my ideas sketched and selected in class but there was so much work to draw four dressed figures showing how the looks would coordinate along with flats of all the garments (also had to be colored in) and swatches and a mood board completed the presentation.  At the end, I had to render the floral pattern on skirt with some fullness three times.  It took SO LONG!  Ugh.  And the crazy thing is, you don't have to show the entire pattern since they only see a small swatch of fabric.  I could have just repeated that smaller pattern more, but I just couldn't picture that as well as the way all the fabric would look.

Practicing the crazy skirt pattern

My desk covered in blue and green pencils, markers, fabric and drawings!

The mood board also took a long time.  We sort of did our project backwards this time - working from our designs before getting a mood board together proved to be quite difficult.  To search for pictures that show your customer and a similar color scheme after you've already created the whole look is difficult.  It would be easy to make color changes to a picture I like in Photoshop now that I understand it better, but I didn't have time to mess with that so I spent a lot of time finding blue and green looking pictures of background scenes online.

Finding a young looking smiling girl was pretty tough in my fashion magazines too.  The models don't smile!  Come on, you're getting paid to wear the most fabulous clothing, wouldn't it look better to have a coy sexy smile instead of a full on frown?!  I might just make my models smile on the runway because they ought to look happy to wear my clothes.

Happy Fabric

Required shopping trips to pick up fabric can be stressful due to digging through bolts, seeing scary prices, and general exhaustion.  However, that all melts away when I find something that strikes me.  I feel giddy and I get really pumped to see what will become of my selection.  I walked into the heart of the garment district with Angela to make a stop at Mood.  I split off in search of something at M&J Trimming - no luck.  That store is amazing, but I think the help isn't up to the standard of Mood experts.  Saw the Korean parade on my way.  Running into random events in the city is always so fun!

 Korean Business Leader's Council of New York float

Marching band with interesting uniforms

Young band with a row of boys playing what I assume is a conch!

I met back up with Angela and she was not happy after leaving Mood.  The high prices really turned her off.  We kept walking and found Textile Kingdom which might be a new favorite fabric store!  It has low prices like TrueMart without the weird hours and somewhat unhelpful help.  TrueMart serves its purpose being within a block of our school and it works for cheap small cuts of fabric needed for experimental assignment drapes but it doesn't always have quality fabric like Mood and I swear they don't always know what they are talking about - almost get the feel they would try to make the sale by lying about fiber content or something.

Textile Kingdom was a good mix of helpful salesmen and reasonable prices.  They made me laugh because every fabric we looked at, they would say, "This is beautiful wool, $8 a yard, I give to you for $7.  This is great crepe, $4 but I give to you for $3."  You get the idea. Anyway, I really got excited because I found this cream and deep orange checked wool that was so different from most fabrics I was considering for my dolman sleeve project.  Finding it really made me happy - like finding a personalized treasure!  Then I found a nice sueded-feeling rayon in a brick shade.  It reminded me of the color blocked silk shirt craze of the early nineties.  It was so soft and I left feeling better in general.  Fabric can do that.  Angela was super pumped with some great (cheap!) finds as well.

Back to school to work on my bodice and skirt for the dirndl skirt dress.  I finished what I needed to and jumped to pattern making homework.  Our assignment was to make a draft, pattern and muslin of a creative long sleeve.  I had a funky idea but I was pretty excited to give it a try.

 

 The sloper

Making the draft - added width at the bottom and a curve to make a nice bell look at the wrist

The pattern gets a little more complicated.  Have to add seam allowances, markings for where each piece matches, where to sew, etc.

The crazy looking sleeve in paper!  I wanted a a break where the elbow would bend and splits above and below on the front of the arm. 

Darts - Thrown not Sewn

How is it October?!  I worked hard Thursday night on my short puff sleeve variation for Pattern class.  It didn't go well.  My design ideas were not easily translated after only learning the basics in class.  I feel like the teacher puts a lot of pressure on us to be creative and design what we are envisioning, but she doesn't offer much direction after her lesson on the simple steps to manipulate a sleeve sloper into a bell, puff, shirt waist, leg-o-mutton, etc.  (Yes, leg-o-mutton is the technical term for one sleeve style, ha!  It usually refers to a leg of lamb, as in a hunk of meat.).

Learning puff sleeve variations

I had a design in mind that would have been a lantern sleeve on the bottom, and would have had pleats at the top that showed a peek through fabric when the sleeve puffed out.  I couldn't figure out how to accomplish that and it was getting late so I tried a basic lantern.  I had questions on that and got stuck, so finally I caved and made a boring petal sleeve.  Yes it looked fine, but it is so very girly and not me.  However, it worked perfectly for the style of our princess seam dress in Struct. Draping, so I was able to crossover and use it there.  Lesson learned: buy a pattern making reference book.  It wasn't required for class, but I obviously need it to fill in gaps in my notes!

My half pants got an A from Prof. Renzulli.  Yeah!  We started draping the princess seam dress but due to the missed Mondays, we are behind schedule so that project will be set aside to finish later.

Friday night!  Angela and I went out for sushi in the East Village.  We had a really great time and it was a mini celebration because she applied for the art concentration for second semester and she had just completed her application to hand in that day.  A glass of plum wine and good conversation about potential design ideas... it felt like life instead of school!

Angela dragged me to The Creperie after our meal (yeah right!!).  It's a hole in the wall tiny place that serves out of this world savory and sweet crepes.  I had the Nutella, banana, strawberry and whipped cream variety.  Whoa.

Half of the crepe packaged for leftovers.  Yes it was huge.

We thought about stopping somewhere to play pool, but didn't see any bars like that so we headed for home.  On the way to the station, surprise!  The perfect Irish type pub with a pool table and laid back patrons.  I told Angela she's like my lucky charm because we seem to run into so many great finds when we are out.

The pool table was tiny so we opted for darts instead.  We played one game and then got challenged by a couple of guys.  It was funny because we sort of made up rules since we weren't entirely sure on how to play Cricket.  The guys took a while to catch on but that's not why they lost.  We were superior dart throwers, hands down.  Angela's ability to nail the bullseye and my combination of luck and decent aim, meant we kicked butt.  No betting occurred so the guys joked that we really lost because we could have had a free shot out of the deal.  But, we didn't want to buy in case we lost (us being poor students and all).

 

Bullseye

I enjoyed talking to one of the guys who gave me an outsiders perspective on FIT.  He thought it strange that there is a SUNY state school in Manhattan.  He also laughed when we mentioned how intense our program is.  He didn't believe us until we described more in detail the pace and how much information we cover.  When the conversation turned to our previous college degrees and then our age, he pulled the ol' side step to escape.  Guys are so funny like that - heaven forbid they have a great conversation with someone that's outside of their dating pool.  Thank goodness I'm not looking so I don't care about rejection from 24 year old boys in the bar.  :)

Wishful Thinking

Saturday was the last day to view the Isabel and Ruben Toledo exhibit in our school fashion museum.  I spent an hour sketching my favorite inspiration pieces.  It was relaxing and even more interesting after hearing them speak a few days earlier.  As a fashion design student here, I can't help but wish that my designs may someday be featured in the museum.

Yom Kippur meant another three day weekend.  I welcomed the extension of time and took advantage of the day by visiting a few shops.  I had quiche at Madeleine Patisserie on 23rd St.  The coffee shop is very French, from the chef and his family working in the kitchen, to the attitude of the help behind the counter!  The macarons are to die and everything is so fresh and delicious. 

www.madeleinepatisserie.com

I practiced sketching feet during my lazy breakfast.  My Life Drawing instructor suggested imitating the masters.  I used a book of human sketches and I was surprised at how much it already helped me in class on Wednesday.  I have a better feel for the shape of the foot and all the intricacies of tendons and toe joints.

My next stop was Mood to buy the fabrics I swatched for my Art project.  It is likely wishful thinking, but I would really like to make some of the pieces that I designed.  I think it would be a great way to round out my portfolio coming out of school.  I also hopped on the Subway to check out Pearl Paint on Canal Street.  The store is in a creaky old building with different departments on 8 floors (or more... I think that was the last one I climbed the stairs to reach!).  For the size of the store, I was not impressed with their selection.  I picked up a sheet of decorative paper for my art project, and used my 30% off coupon.  Not really worth the trip, but now I know that our Fashion Design Bookstore across from the store is unbeatable.  It's tiny, but they know exactly what we need for every class and they always have it on hand.

When I emerged from the subway on my way home, surprise!  Weather changes quickly here.  Note to self: always carry umbrella in purse.

 

Soggy after the trek from the subway station 

Pick my Battles

Thursday:
Fire drill!  As we filed out of the building, we saw vendors setting up outside our buildings.  Only at FIT can you shop during your fire drill!  I joked with a fur salesman that I figured he must have pulled the alarm to get shoppers outside - he got a good laugh out of that.

Back inside to grade the dart bodice.  Another A-.  I should be happy with that, but Prof. Seggio said I didn't change the darts that much and the assignment was creative dart manipulation.  Bummer.  I took it pretty hard which was stupid, but I keep thinking structured looks are my thing so I want to do really well in that class!  I hope she's just pushing me to stretch myself even more.

Front with tucks and a bust dart

The back with a cutout detail and style tape to indicate chains

My friend Anna had a really fun look and was definitely creative with her darts!

Then we started princess seam bodices.  We can do any variation but it was hard for me to decide what to do because then I REALLY felt pressure to be creative!  I wasn't inspired and I wanted to do quality work so I stalled and figured I could work it out over the weekend.

A couple of options for princess seams.  

Sleeves were the topic in Pattern Making.  We are learning to take a basic straight sleeve sloper and convert it into different puff sleeve patterns.  Our patterns aren't anything complicated yet, but I really enjoy the flat to three-dimensional process.

Joy, joy!  I was able to take an empty seat to see Isabel and Ruben Toledo speak at our school.  They are a husband and wife team - he the illustrator, she the seamstress.  They are best known for his illustrations for Nordstroms and her lemongrass coat that Michelle Obama wore on Inauguration Day.  She was very inspirational for me to hear after another long day/week.  Some of her ideas are so opposite from my current mindset, it was fantastic to open my mind to more creative ways to design.

 Ruben and Isabel Toledo in conversation with Valerie Steele from the FIT Museum.

I had lots of homework to finish before Friday.  I hand basted along the bias on my fabric for draping a cowl.  It took me longer than I expected to hand baste!  I was trying to be perfect again, and it was for something that really didn't matter.  I need to get better about picking my battles.  I also procrastinated my Art & Design homework.  I really enjoy drawing and rendering once I get started, but for some reason it's one of those things that I can't jump into easily.

Friday:
We got to drape with real fabric today!  It was so nice to get away from the boring muslin and see bright colors around the room.  Prof. Renzulli gave us two hours to practice draping, and it took that long just to get an even cowl that I liked.  The silk I brought was harder to work with than I expected.  It's so wiggly!  I switched to my chocolate material.  I'm not sure on the fiber content, but it was so heavy I could hardly hold it up with regular pins!  For this simple assignment, our class produced some interesting variety.  I was impressed.

We worked more on our basics project in class Friday.  Prof. Bonner handed back some corrected and graded figures.  I got worse grades on my figures than my structured draping, yet it really didn't bother me.  Obviously I care more about the fabric manipulation than the drawing!  We have to decide this week if we want to try for the art specialization for second semester.  My decision to stick with the apparel specialization was solidified after seeing my art grades - ha!

I had to add this picture for my friend back home, Kandy.  We were margarita buddies.  With Kandy, I knew no better way of getting life back into focus than talking over a margarita or two.   Dallas BBQ on 23rd St supplied my end of week fix but it wasn't the same without Kandy!

Goodbye Free Time

I'm going to work backwards for this post...
It's Wednesday night, actually Thursday morning at 1 am and I just finished my creative bodice for tomorrow morning's class.  When I finished I was wondering why it took me 3.5 hours, but then I remembered that I didn't know how to drape anything four weeks ago!  :)  I am curious what kind of grade this will get because it's the first of our creative assignments versus following step by step instructions to learn the basic techniques.  So far I've been an A- student in Prof. Seggio's class.  Hopefully I can bump it up to an A for some lessons!

Tonight I got groceries - love that it's right around the corner, but hate that everything seems to cost twice as much here!  A can of black beans for $2.19?!  Come on!  I had to buy nearly expired spaghetti to pay a normal amount.

After groceries I went to a meeting about Fusion 2010 - the Fashion Show/Competition between Parsons and FIT students.  I am considering applying, however only 15 students are selected and an incredible amount of extra work follows.  I'm not sure if I am sure I want to do it, but there are fantastic opportunities that can follow.  Hmm.

Life Drawing in the afternoon was enjoyable like always.  We had the same model as last week and I really like her body shape and attitude/poses.  To begin, we did quick 1 minute sketches of her changing positions for around 30 minutes total.  It wore out my wrist!  It was a great way to quickly get an outline and a feel for body placement.  The rest of the class was normal 20 minute poses.  Mine look pretty good but I still need to work on hands and feet.  The teacher said those are the most difficult.

My three hour break on Wednesdays is quickly turning into work time.  So much for the laid back hump day.  I started draping my creative bodice front during the break.  I feel like I am going to have to start scheduling time for things like eating and personal hygiene!  I need to clip my friggin fingernails and I can't seem to get it done!

In the morning we had sewing.  My sewing samples seem to be coming together really well.  We're just doing simple seams, hems, and zippers, but you might be surprised at how difficult it can be to get a zipper inserted and stitch around it completely straight.  I hope the rest of the projects in that class go as well for me.

Tuesday

This morning I turned in my faced, button up, flare skirt dress with cuffed sleeve.  Everything we do like this is a variation of the basics we have learned for draping a bodice and skirt.  I like seeing how the different styles are done.  Another A- because my collar was a bit too high in back.  Not too shabby.

In the afternoon we learned how to show a full skirt in Fashion Art & Design.  Here is the start of my picture. 

 

I still want to make my girls a little thinner but this seems to be my natural proportions for drawing.  Maybe normal sized models will come back into style and I'll be right on track - ha!

 

In the evening I worked on homework in my room. 

My roommate Katey was freezing so she found a creative solution.

 

Katey's classmate Eunice was hanging out with us doing homework.

Rough Start

Monday morning - ugh.  I got a few things done before my 11:10 class but I was up late Sunday night so the combination lack of sleep and general feeling of dread for my computer design class meant I was off to a bad start.  Then I got a computer that was having problems.  It was one of those situations where the teacher comes over and fixes the issue, but as soon as she walks away - the problem is back.  I was trying to get through it anyway, but then partway through the lesson and the project I started, the computer just shut off.  I don't know whether I kicked a power cord or what.  It was enough to put me over the edge.  I moved to another computer and tried to calm down.  I already feel like I can't keep up in this class, so getting behind because of stupid technology issues was too much to handle!!  Instead of crying on my muslin like I expected at some point, I was wiping away tears in a darkened computer lab because I couldn't keep up.  I have worked on computers for 10 years in different jobs so part of my issue is feeling like this should come easier!  Photoshop is a really intense program with a lot of components though, so I need to let myself learn it over time.  My friends asked about my lunch plans not realizing I had been crying and I let them know I would be going back to my room to bawl for a bit, but I thanked them for the invitation anyway.  They were very sweet and helped calm me down, but my roommate Amanda got an earful too.  Good friends - good listeners!  I really wanted to have a glass of wine or three during lunch, but I figured I'd better not since I still had to drape a straight pair of pants in the afternoon.

Draping class was much better (love Prof. Renzulli anyway).  I was able to get back on track and back to my normal self, although I realized I really need more sleep to function mentally and emotionally right now!

Rosh Hashana

I still had to finish my homework for Computer Design so Christine and I met to work in the computer lab on Sunday.  But, we found out that it was closed for Rosh Hashana.  Thank goodness Christine had just purchased the software for her home computer.  She invited me to her apartment in the Upper West side to finish the assignment.

Her place was very nice - wood floors, kind of a long and narrow setup but plenty of room for the necessities.  Her sewing area was very organized - something I'm not used to!  It was really nice to spend the day with her and get to chat outside of school.  I found out her husband Andy and she had found a church they like and it happened to be the same one that someone back home recommended to me!  After we finished the homework, we grabbed a bite to eat and went to evening service together.

The church is called Redeemer and in the evening at this location (there are several), they have hymns and updated songs, all set to a live jazz band backdrop.  It was really enjoyable.  I hadn't made it there myself partly because I was busy, but also because I just wasn't confident about how to get there. I found out from this day trip with Christine that the subway trip there is super easy and stops right outside the church.  So, thanks to Rosh Hashana, I made it to church service!  I can definitely see more trips to the Upper West side in my future.

Fun Homework

Angela and I decided to have brunch at one of her favorite places and then head to the workroom.  On our way to the lower East Side to get to the restaurant, we stumbled upon this fantastic vintage fair/flea market.  It was like nothing I've ever seen in Iowa or Missouri where old Alf shirts are a treasure... this place had furs, dresses from the forties, fun hats, brooches, etc.  We had so much fun digging through boxes of belts and trying on interesting garments.

Angela liked this crazy material for draping a swing skirt

I got this wool camel blazer for $10!  I passed on the hat and snakeskin purse though.

This super friendly dog was out shopping as well.  I miss my dog, Storm!

Angela loved these crazy pants - we didn't even know which was the front/back at first!  The guy working the booth wouldn't lower his price from $20 though.  She was mad that he took less for my blazer than the Hammer pants.

Old photos.  Interesting to think that pictures from today may someday be sold like these.

We had so much fun shopping that we ended up staying for quite a while.  I got some great elbow high leather gloves that were priced right.  Next door there was even more to see upstairs.  Really old clothes and some amazing fur coats.  We finally made it to the lower East Side but still didn't make it to the Pink Pony to eat because we found a Young Artists Fair.  I enjoyed seeing the creations of people my age.  Some of my favorites were hats and fabulous belt creations made out of ties and zippers.

We managed to start brunch sometime around 3:00 pm! The Pink Pony had flavorful fresh food and the atmosphere was like an old coffee shop with modern touches.

Delicious strawberry pancakes that we shared

And my savory spinach and brie omelet with rosemary roasted potatoes

We stopped to do some homework by shopping through American Apparel for an inspiration piece.  On the way back to the subway, I cracked up when I saw a herd of runners in red dresses!

 

You go girls!

Antique shop lion

We made it back home right around 5:00 and headed out again to shop/research H&M and make a stop at Barnes and Noble.  I never made it to the workroom!

After a little bit of downtime and a mini nap, it was time to get ready for the evening.  Katherin's friend was having a birthday party and she invited us to go out.  It was a fun time dancing and meeting some of her former coworkers.  We even got cheesecake from the birthday boy, but there weren't any forks so we all looked ridiculous eating straight off the plates!

 

Katherin, Angela, me & Virginia

What a perfect Saturday spent exploring the city with a friend.  I can try to plan my days, but leaving room for adventures has been so rewarding.

TGIF!

TGIF!  It's been a long week.  Soft Silhouettes draping class was first this morning.  We started draping pants.  I've drafted a pants pattern based on measurements before, but never draped pants.  We get to use the funny looking full body mannequins so there are legs to work around.  Prof. Renzulli warned us about setting them up too high because they can fall over easily and they are very heavy.  Poor Angela barely touched hers during the lecture and it fell right over, taking out some stray T squares along the way.  I was afraid it was going to be a domino effect of mannequins but the loud crashing stopped with hers.  We all laughed - it was just an accident but the timing was funny after he had just mentioned the danger!  Angela was cracking me up that morning anyway saying that the bags under her eyes are going to be her new accessory for the fall.  What a week.

Setting up for denim rendering in Fashion Art & Design

In the afternoon we worked on indicating denim in our illustrations.  That was fun - learned a couple techniques including etching over a piece of crisp new denim to actually show some of the diagonal lines.  I'll have to post a picture of my denim ladies once I finish.

My Friday night was WILD.  I got groceries because we were out of toilet paper.  I picked up some yummy healthy Korean food for supper, then went to the workroom for a while with Angela, MaryAnn and Katherin.  I didn't last very long there because I was tired enough that I seemed to be making more mistakes than progress!  I headed home and tried to explain to all the young'ns on my floor that I was too tired to go out with them and I went to bed at a decent time.  It felt good.

Catching up

Even after the relaxing classes yesterday and a nice workout in the evening, I was feeling stressed.  It seems the teachers were right about predicting a meltdown about three weeks in.  Several of my classmates have admitted to breaking down at some point in the last week and I was borderline last night.  Homework wasn't stressing me out as much as overall pressure and feeling backed up on everything at home like laundry, groceries, paperwork and bills.  My desk is a mess so I feel like my life isn't in order!  Several classmates worked until very late last night in the workroom, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.  Now I'm behind them in homework, but I know I have plenty of time this weekend and I think I saved myself from crying all over my muslin.

This morning I felt better, but I certainly wasn't working at my normal pace.  Everyone was draping a swing skirt or circle skirt, and I was still working on my collar to complete the bodice from last class.  I'm still okay with my progress because I understand the lesson so I'll catch up this weekend.

I was able to take care of several things during my lunch hour so my desk started to get into better shape.  I grabbed a quick wrap from the cafe down the block and even had 5 minutes to spare to check out the tables promoting all the school clubs that I won't have time to join!  I picked up some freebies including much needed tote bags.

 This man and his poodle stopped in front of our school to pose for anyone with a camera.  I don't know anything else about him.  He was wonderful.

Pattern making in the afternoon was good.  The bodice I cut from her basic sloper wasn't fitting my dress form well at all and Prof. Underwood pointed out that the mannequin's neck was broken!  You wouldn't believe how beat up some of the forms are.  I am working with one that has a spiral drawn on her breast and most are marked up, some are missing pieces of fabric covering... It's just not in the budget to update them as often as they need.  But students are marking on them and shouldn't be, so I can understand why the school doesn't want to spend a lot there.  At the teacher's suggestion, I changed to a different model with her neck intact and didn't have to make as many adjustments to the bodice, but the whole process took up more time of course. 

Home to catch up on more paperwork and I feel so much better because I can see my desk!  Then I went to Zumba class which was a really good workout with Latin dance inspired moves.  Back home for homework and bed!