The Pianoforte Line is Coming Together

It seems like all I do any more is make seams. I certainly never write on my blog!  So I'm going to break form for a minute and write about my spiffy projects.

The fashion show, Raw Couture, is coming up on May 3, at 7:00 p.m. (location and ticket prices to be announced). Naturally I'd love all my friends to come and make up a huge cheering section for me.  So here are some sneak-peeks (not trailers, and not spoilers) into what I've been making.

You may remember that I chose Pianoforte as the theme for my designs. You may think that this is because I love the piano—which I do—but you'd be wrong. I chose that theme because time was passing swiftly and I had to come up with a theme and ten designs.  So I chose a dress I'd already designed for my first illustration class and let that dress choose my theme.

This is the dress—
which I really did design with the insides
of a grand piano in mind.

Of course that would never do; I had to tell my teacher and class that this was my inspiration:

Once I had decided to let that dress be my basis, more piano-themed dresses came to mind.  Here are a few rough sketches:

This one started out as a gown with a black and white pleated skirt and a ruched bodice (strong and soft). It's gone through a bit of change since September.

Oh my! Isn't she lovely?

And this is a short variation of the gown with
the black & white pleats. 

OK. Those are really rough sketches.

I spent all last semester trying to finalize the dresses, draft the patterns and sew and fit the mock-ups. This semester I'm working on the real thing.

Oooh! Look at me in my new sewing room!

And here's a couple really sneaky, sneak-peeks:

The insides of a bodice. Don't you just want to see how the outside looks?

Is this a skirt?  No. It is a sleeve! 

The marks I traced kept disappearing, so I had to hand-baste the lines in before I could pleat them.

And here they are, about 25 to 30 hours later, all pleated (but still not finished).

If you paid me for the hours I put into those sleeves you might also want to take out a sleeve-insurance policy. 

So there you have it, the very sneakiest of sneak peeks! Right now I've got most of two dresses done, and part of a third. While I worked I listened to my eight-hour music playlist about five times, "watched" all of my Jane Austen movies, plus The Young Victoria —about eighteen hours of movies, and developed a love for Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto (after listening to it about four times). I think a Lord of the Rings marathon is next on the list.

And now, fun as this is, I must get back to work.

Frustration!

I can't ever seem to explain myself. And this time it has cost me hours and hours, and about $30 too.

I just "get" things kind of intuitively. A lot of things anyway. I could watch my kids' karate class and know how it felt to do the moves they were practicing; I could see and feel myself doing it. I knew I could do it myself.
I understand what my very nice but very wordy Public Speaking teacher is explaining almost before he finishes (which makes it really hard to sit through three hours of class). I can see it. I get it.
And when I have an idea I can see it and I can understand it, and I know it's right and makes perfect sense. But I can't transmit it from my brain to my mouth. I try and try and try again and again to say it in a way that people will understand, but they (even Bruce!) just don't get it, and I don't know how else to tell them.

Anyway, because of my (apparently) transmitting gibberish and so getting back incorrect information, I now have to tear apart and re-do the dress that I've already spent an entire week on.

Did any of this make any sense at all?

What college students want

A couple years ago I got online and gave my name and email address to some scholarship-search websites. And they have been sooooo helpful! Look at the kinds of emails they send me almost every day:

This is exactly what I've been looking for! I am soooo happy that I get these fabulous emails. Who wants a scholarship when I can get this? (Stupids!)

I will be changing my email address when I'm done with school.

Well, what this college student really wants now is to tell you all about her schedule for her last, absolutely last, and Final Semester!

This semester I am taking Portfolio, where I will be making (of all things) a fancy portfolio of all my work in the fashion institute. Well, this isn't exactly true. I will be making a fancy portfolio of a bunch of new illustrations (and probably some recycled ones too).

I am also taking Public Speaking. This is in exchange for the Comm 1010 class that I withdrew from last semester. It is a seven-week class, instead of the full semester, which is why I took it. The downside is that I have to speak publicly (at least in front of my class) five times. I get really nervous, but hopefully I won't be too tongue-tied. My first speech is tomorrow. (By the way, my Public Speaking teacher talks A Lot.)

And I am taking the second Collections class. This semester I am sewing my collection (you remember—the Pianoforte line), doing fittings with the models, and actually showing my dresses in the fashion show—Raw Couture. Of course I'd love a big fan section, so you are all invited. :-)  It will be May 3 at 7:00 p.m.  The venue is still to be announced—as are the ticket prices. It seems like in the past tickets have been about $25 each, but if you know a SLCC student (besides me) they can get you two tickets at a discount.

And then, on May 8, I graduate!! One degree in Fashion with a Design emphasis, and another degree in Fashion with a Technical Apparel emphasis. Yaaaayyyy!!

That's what this college student really wants.

The Last Bit

Once the painting was finished there wasn't a lot left to do. I put together some flooring right inside the living room doorway—it was pretty easy: cut, peel, and stick.

cutting the flooring

and putting it in place

This was in preparation for the new carpet that was coming on Monday (the 5th)! I know I said I would never have carpet again, but I also know you should never speak in absolutes.  ;-) Someone—another man from Brother Pond's ward—donated new carpet, and they carpeted the living room and stairs and the new addition—Brandon & Ryan's new room, my new sewing room!, and the . . . (What should we call that other space? The Wenzell Wing? Maybe the Pond Room?). I actually love the carpet. So maybe I didn't need to give up on carpet altogether, but just have some that was nice-looking. :-)

the carpet guys, working on the stairway

My poor old piano was banished to the cold front porch for six hours while the carpet was installed. It is looking in at my new sewing-room window saying, "Please let me back in! I am already terribly out-of-tune." :-(

Once the piano was back in the house I took it all apart—yep, even removed the keys—and cleaned it out. No more pet hair or cobwebs.  (Don't try this at home kids!) 

And then I favored my kids with "Linus and Lucy" (the Peanuts theme) because the piano sounds different and is way cool to watch when it's completely opened up. :-)

I was a little disappointed that Bruce and I never did tear out and re-do the fireplace before this unexpected construction project, but an amazing thing happened: With the new carpet color I found that the fireplace isn't nearly as obnoxious as I used to think it was. In fact, it looks pretty good. Yay!

So all of the construction was done on Monday, January 5. Well, not all. They did come back a few days later and replace the old garage window (in the boys' new room) with a good window. :-)

Tom, removing the old aluminum-framed, single-paned window.

Anyway, on the 6th the kids and Bruce all went back to school, but I still had time off and a house to put back together. So I took the couches and furniture back to the living room—after cleaning everything within an inch of its life—and made the room utterly beautiful.

Before —waaaayyy before, when we took out the old carpet.

And now.
Seriously, this off-kilter photo doesn't do it justice. 

That evening I instated a new law: The living room must be perfectly clean every night before bedtime. So far it's gone pretty well; no family criminals yet.

Throughout the week (of Jan. 5) Brandon and Ryan worked on moving their bedroom, and I worked on moving into my sewing room. Their room looks pretty good—and still clean! My room needs some work (shelves will do wonders, I know.) We're also still organizing the . . . other space. I'll post pictures of the finished rooms when they are decent.

This is the new sewing room—before I brought all of my stuff into it. With everything in it, it really does need some shelves!

And here I am, sorting through boxes and boxes and boxes 
of  fabrics and fur in the . . .
. . . anteroom?

And now Lindsey is working on moving in to her new bedroom (formerly Brandon and Ryan's room). It needed some major cleaning  and a paint job—which is still in the works. I want to paint her ugly, old dresser too, but I might have a mutiny—Bruce and Lindsey are anxious to get her moved into her new room.  We'll see.

This is what the boys left behind after they took everything they wanted from their old room. Yuck! (Yes, I made them clean it out.)

This is what the boys' new room looks like now, today. Pretty good—although there's a little stuff on the floor by the beds (which we will have to discuss).

Lindsey and her friend Michaela, painting her room.

Painting the bedroom door

So it's been an exciting holiday for our family. Really exciting. And it's still going on! So I'll post pictures of Lindsey's room too, when it's finished.

The Great Paint Adventure!

Gavin and the guys (that should be the name of a boy band) . . .

All the drywall was finished on a Wednesday night, then Gavin and the Guys left the painting to us.  So on Thursday morning we pulled out the rollers and started putting primer on the walls. The kids were still out of school for Christmas break, so we had lots of help. The only icky part was doing the storage area over the top of the closets.

This is me, painting the walls and ceiling eight feet off the ground, in a space that's about eighteen inches high. None of the kids wanted to go up there, and Bruce was busy with another task. Bear in mind that I am the girl who must stand at least fifteen feet away from a high balcony with a sturdy railing, and who cannot watch her kids looking over said balcony. Also remember that climbing up   to someplace is much easier than climbing down again.  And I had to come down blind. 

Just remember that.

So when I finished the painting, one of my boys held the ladder, and I'm wriggling backward on my belly, and I realize that the only way I'll reach that ladder is if my legs are completely hanging off of the shelf (so I'm bent at the hip), and I can't see where the ladder is at all. I can't sit up and look for it, because the space isn't tall enough—no, not even for me. So I told the kids they were just going to have to get their dad to help me down.

So Bruce comes in and says he's holding the ladder steady for me and I just need to scoot back and let my legs dangle off the edge. He says, "Most of your weight will still be on top."

And this is me: I can't . . . I can't! I'm scared! I can't see where I need to go! I can't ever  get down—I'll just have to stay here forever!  It's scary 'cause I can't see where to go!  etc. etc .etc.

Finally I did get brave enough to twist around and see where the ladder was and to swing my legs over and let Bruce help me down. (No, I am not typing this up on top of the storage area.)

That was probably the most exciting (you know, like edge-of-your-seat adventure!) part of the job. Seeing the painted walls was exciting, but not in the same way.

Kaylie painted the other storage area. She was OK with that because she could go down via the refrigerator. I was OK with it as long as it wasn't me and I didn't have to watch her climb up or down. I am very brave like that.

Everyone helped paint. Bruce did some finishing in the storage space . . .

. . . and I stayed right where I belong.

 On the ground.