The Big Show (My Year in Review–Finale)

Let's skip to Saturday, April 26, the week before the fashion show. By now I was totally operating in panic mode. I met the last of my models that afternoon; fortunately her dress needed only a very small alteration–but it still needed its lining and zipper put in too. Aaaaaah! I worked all day Saturday starting at about 6:00 a.m.–doing alterations and zippers, cutting out linings and putting them together–and stayed up working until about 3:00 a.m.

Back pain.

At the beginning of the sewing project I was cleaning my sewing room in between every dress I made. During this last week that tidiness flew right out the window. (And I took these pictures the day after the show. Believe me, I was not playing with the camera that week!)

 
On Sunday morning I got up around 8:00 (I slept in!), got ready and went to church in the afternoon, and almost fell asleep in church. I was either going to sleep or cry through church, so I went home after sacrament meeting–theoretically to take a nap,  but I actually spent a little time on the computer working on Portfolio stuff before I crashed.

I slept for about an hour or so, then got up and made dinner for the family. I think I made dinner that day.  Hmmmm . . .  Well if I did, it was the last time I cooked dinner that week. I don't usually work on Sundays–not even schoolwork–but that night I was so antsy about my projects that I broke my rule and worked in my personal sweat shop from about 7:30 or so until after midnight. (When I found myself just staring into space for very long periods of time I decided I'd be better off getting some sleep.)

Back and shoulder pain.

Fabrics, dress-bags, pattern pieces, boning, scraps, pins . . . you name it . . . everywhere!

Monday went the same as Saturday; got up around 5:30 a.m. and sewed until around 1:30 a.m.  Tuesday the same, except I stayed up past 3:30 a.m. because my photo shoot was on Wednesday. I got Rio's dress almost finished, and Lindsey's dress finished; I finished hemming the red dress, finished Erika's dress, and started on the red silky tank-top for the photo shoot. So after rolling into bed at about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, I got up at 6:30 (and I was one unhappy girl!) so I could get all my stuff together, drive our carpool to school, and get to Cathy's house for the photo shoot.  Fortunately the photo shoot was tons of fun and I actually felt awake and pleasant.  But the drive home–stopping to pick up two carpools along the way–was a little scary. I was riding with my windows down, arm out the window, trying to keep up a conversation with Michael . . . whatever I could to stay awake.

At home I unpacked my stuff, gave Bruce a review of the photo shoot and then went back to my room full of straw, where I missed a dance concert that Lindsey was in that night, and I stayed up until after 1:00 a.m. again.

Constant, non-stop back, neck and shoulder pain. I was living on ibuprofen.

I have a major clean-up job ahead!

Thursday, up at 5:00 a.m.  I sent out a desperate plea on facebook for anyone who could help me to please come help hem dresses and tack down linings. Only my very good friend Scerinda was able to come; she stayed with me from about 10:00 p.m. until midnight.  And my lovely sister Melanie came and took things to her house where she stayed up all night hemming and tacking down linings.  I was so tired I wanted to cry, and Bruce told me I should go to bed, but I knew that if I did I wouldn't finish everything.  So I stayed up. I was working a little slower than usual, but I was getting things done.  I kept thinking that if I could just finish this one more thing (I don't remember what the thing was now) then I could go get a little sleep. At 6:00 a.m. Friday the one thing still wasn't done. At 6:30 I was sitting at the sewing machine winding a bobbin and I fell asleep and was dreaming while my foot was still on the pedal and the bobbin was spinning. I think I woke up when the bobbin stopped.  At that point I knew I had to get at least a little sleep; I figured if I slept for an hour it wouldn't put me much more behind than I was already.

So at 7:00 a.m. I went to bed and feel right asleep (nothing like severe sleep deprivation to cure insomnia!).  And I startled awake at 8:00 a.m.  I was disoriented and afraid I'd slept until after noon or something terrible like that, but my clock said something like 8:06. Whew.

Severe back, shoulder and neck pain, and a headache too.

A make-shift pincushion. After the show Bruce refused to sit in this chair until he'd cleaned it off himself.

I dragged my tired, unshowered, dirtily-clad, unbrushed-teeth self back to the sewing room and got back to work. Melanie showed up and gave me the work she'd finished and then she had to go to work.  I recruited Michael and Lindsey to tack down linings and work on hems; Melanie came back a couple hours later to help some more.  You have to understand that two of these dresses have hems that are about 28 feet in circumference (which also means they had linings with about 20-foot circumferences)–and several other dresses had hems that were not much smaller–and I wanted to hem them all by hand so they'd look fabulous. Sadly, I did resort to machine-hemming some of them (and they don't look as nice. :-(  (Now that the pressure is off, I might redo some of them.)

And on top of all this craziness I still had one dress that was completely unfinished. I hadn't been able to get the shoulder-drape pattern to work, I didn't have time to re-call my model and work on it with her, and this dress was just sitting in the disaster that used to be a nice sewing room waiting for me to do something with it. I ended up just making a hem and a lining (I still had to cut out that lining at 11:30 that day) and calling it good enough.  So I was supposed to be at the venue for the show by 2:00 p.m., but I was just getting into the shower at 1:45.

This is where we had the show. I don't know why I can never remember the name of this place.

Lindsey and I left the house after 2:00, picked Bruce up from work, and headed up to the fashion show. I hemmed my jacket on the way there. When we got there I grabbed my sewing kit and a skirt, found a quiet corner and started basting a super-cheap, eight-year-old-beginning-sewer hem on the lining.

There I am, sewing in my corner. That's Heidi, the production class instructor. And below her is the awful hem I was making. Seriously, this is a bad, bad hem!

Once Lindsey and I were settled in, and the dresses were all inside and hung on a rack, Bruce came to tell me he was leaving to get the other kids for the show. Then I had a meltdown. I didn't want him to leave me alone; I felt stupid even being there; who was I fooling anyway–I'm not a designer!; my dresses weren't finished and I was doing a cheap, jury-rigged job to show them; I did not want him to go. But of course I knew he had to, and Lindsey was there (until they called her in for makeup). So he went and I sat working in my corner.

Lindsey gets her hair done

I felt better when Cherylene showed up with her sewing machine so she  could keep working too.

Cherylene at her sewing machine, finishing her last look.

And I felt much better when I had things done enough that they at least looked good on the outside.  By then it was about 5:30 or so. I changed into the nicer clothes I'd brought for the show, put makeup on, and felt like a tired old cow. But I got to chat with Lindsey and my Collections friends and my models a little bit, and I felt more relaxed.

models, designers and crew in the "green room"

Lindsey with Cherylene's final model Indie Skies. He is 7'5" when he has his heels on.

the audience awaits

Bruce and the kids showed up a little after 6:00; around 6:15 to 6:30 I got to go help my models dress and arrange the lineup for my show.

It's almost time . . .

Heidi gives my lovely models some last-minute instructions.

I only had one last worry. After all my models walked, I was supposed to go out on the stage with them and . . . what? Take a bow? I was afraid I'd look like a clumsy duck bowing, and I didn't want to. In fact, I didn't really want to make an appearance at all. Anyway, I asked someone what I should do and she said, "Just wave like the Queen of England." So I did. Well, it was more of a Miss America wave.

Starting with this one, here are the dresses in the order they appeared on the runway.

When I posted this picture on facebook a friend of mine commented that  I looked so confident and in my element. I'm glad I looked that way,  because I didn't feel it at all!

After we all took our bows, I went backstage to help undress some of my models, made sure my dresses were all hung up, and I got to watch the rest of the show. Yay!  My friends had some really great designs. At intermission I had a couple of people (not just my mom!) tell me that they loved my line. After intermission I had a really hard time staying awake for the rest of the show–I saw it, but it didn't really register. Until Cherylene's circus showed up. I don't think anyone could have slept through that! :-)

I met Mojdeh (the head of the fashion department) and a lot of my instructors after the show, who all said my line was really beautiful and it looked as if I'd "found myself." So it was really nice, I felt pretty successful, I caught a little of a second (third? fourth? ten-thousandth?) wind, and headed for home feeling pretty good after all.

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store to pick up something for a very late dinner (we were at the store at 11:30). It was a good thing I had a shopping cart to lean on for most of the trip; when I tried to walk on my own I was staggering like a drunk.  We got home, the kids started cooking dinner, I went into my room to change into my pajamas and somehow ended up face-planted on the bed with my feet hanging off the side. I was mostly asleep instantly. Around 12:20 I woke up enough to grab a few bites to eat and sit staring at a banana smoothie in my hand for a few minutes. Then back to bed and sleep, glorious sleep.

So the fashion show was fun after all. And, I have to confess, I might even want to do something like that again. Later.

But for now I owe thank-yous to everyone who helped me so much: to Rio, who organized my photo-shoot, Sophie who did the makeup, and Alex who was my photographer; to all of my beautiful models who made the clothes look so great; to my great instructors in school these past four years–I really learned a lot; to Eugene who stepped back and let us work but was always there to help when we needed him; to my friends in the Collections class who helped us all keep going when we didn't want to; to Cherylene who kept saying that we started this together and we'd finish together (and we did!); to Melanie and Scerinda who offered lots of moral support and even helped me sew; to all my kids who put up with Mom going to school for four years and were essentially motherless for most of the month of April; and especially to Bruce who encourages me in everything I do and doesn't complain about how crazy I can get.

You are all awesome! Thank You!!

My Year in Review — Part 2

The Collections class (all of us designers)  met with the Production class (the class who planned the actual show—promotional stuff, booked the venue, etc.) on January 24 to show them our illustrations, explain our themes and lines, and talk about styling (how we wanted to do hair, makeup, etc.) At that time the teacher, Heidi, asked if we could each have at least three looks finished by February 14 so they could use them in a photo shoot for promoting the show. So just as the semester was starting I was in a panic to try to complete three of my dresses. This was going on at the same time as my Public Speaking class. That was a fun class, but I was taking an accelerated version which meant that I had two major assignments due each week of the class—an outline for a speech and then the speech itself. I also took my Portfolio class this last semester; it was a good class but we had tons of homework. So in-between researching, writing, rehearsing and giving speeches, and building my portfolio, I worked into the wee, small hours of every night this semester.

This is the introduction page to my portfolio (only the real thing doesn't have a white border). This represents many hours and days of work at the computer.

There was some drama in the Collections class about getting those three outfits finished by Feb. 14, and about having them sort of on display before the show, and about who did or didn't want pictures done... Eventually the production crew decided to not use any of our pieces for the photo shoot, so I was sort of off the hook for that rushed sewing job (although I got close to finishing). Instead of using any of our pieces, the production crew went to a Persian rug shop in town and took some really cool pictures using clothes from the collections of past graduates. Then they Photoshopped them into something really ghoulish; I didn't care for the promotional postcards.

I sewed through February and through March, staying up until midnight or later every night, waking up between 5 and 6 a.m. every morning (gotta love my fantastic body clock!), and still with the nagging worry over whether I'd get models to fit the dresses or whether I'd have to do ten million alterations. I decided to not quite finish the dresses—I got them all put together but didn't line them, put in zippers, or hem them. That way the alterations would be part of fitting instead of my having to tear apart a completely finished piece to make it fit.

one dress in production

On March 28 Productions had a model-casting—models were invited to come and audition for the production crew and for the designers so that they could choose models. Not a lot of people showed up for the casting calls, but those who did show up were told they would be notified within the week if they were chosen to be in the show. Yay! I'd be getting models in a week! Or so I thought.

Lindsey was going to model a dress for me. This is her bodice being draped.

It took about two-and-a-half weeks before I got my model list, and then it was about three more days before I met with my first model. So I was starting the alterations and finish-work on April 14, with just shy of three weeks to get all the work done. Besides the sewing I was still doing illustration and computer work for Portfolio, and I had to make an ad-board to display at the show on May 2.

This is my adboard (look familiar?). Now it's going to hang in my sewing room or in the hall right outside the sewing room.

In the middle of all the sewing and print-making madness, a lot of my cohorts were talking about the photo-shoots they were doing. They arranged fabulous places, models, makeup artists, and photographers to get pictures of their designs. Way back when Productions decided to not shoot our pieces I had thought that I'd like to arrange a photo shoot for my things. Then when the sewing got hectic, hairy, and harassing I decided I wouldn't do one after all—or I'd do it after the show. But when we met in class to show our adboards my friends were all talking about how much fun their photo shoots were, and how great the pictures were, and I wanted to do one after all. So on a Friday (April 11) I contacted Hillary (a fellow-student who is also a model, knows people, and has some experience) and asked her to help me arrange a photo shoot. She told me to find a place to do the pics and she'd arrange everything else—for the following Tuesday (April 15)! I had errands to run for my family, and more zippers, thread, etc. to buy, so I wasted a day looking at local recital halls to try and find a place.

This was my best bet on the recital halls and I wasn't thrilled with it.

We decided to push the shoot to Tuesday, April 22 (one week later) so I'd have time to actually finish some dresses. On Wednesday, April 16  I met the lovely Rio Van Zant (a model) who said she would pose in some of the dresses for my intended photo shoot, but Hillary and I had lost contact somehow.  So Rio called Alex Weisman—a photographer friend of hers—to see if he could do the shoot and he said he would. But a couple days later I realized I had just way too much work to do, and wouldn't have enough done by the 22nd.

During the week of April 21 I met most of my models, had them try on dresses, and pinned in the alterations I'd have to make. Fortunately most of them fit really well and didn't require much work—except for the linings, zippers and hems that I'd put off doing.  And that would be a lot of work. :-/

OK. So when I was looking for photo-shoot places I'd put out a question on facebook: Does anyone know of someone who has a fabulous home with a grand piano in it?  It turns out that my cousin Wendy's neighbor Lori had one and was willing to let us shoot there, but she felt like her room was too small to do a photo-shoot. So she called her friend Cathy who also has a grand piano to see if we could do it at her house. On Friday, April 25 (one week before the show) Cathy called me and said I'd be welcome to go use her house; she even emailed me photos of her piano room (which is beautiful).

Much nicer, don't you think?

So I contacted Rio, she contacted Alex and a makeup artist, and the photo shoot was back on, scheduled for Wednesday April 30—two days before the show. And now I was really scrambling to get things done!

It was probably a really bad idea to take a day off from sewing and do that photo shoot, but it was a lot of fun (and a much-needed break). Cathy was really excited to have us at her house and see the dresses and help out in any way she could—she even made us some lunch! Sophie did a beautiful job on the makeup. (Michael would disagree because the makeup has to be so heavy for a shoot like this.) Rio modeled most of the dresses and she was amazing. Lindsey modeled her dress, and Alex did a great job helping Lindsey get good poses and looks, and was just all-around great.

watching Rio get her makeup done

Lindsey in the makeup chair

Lindsey in full makeup

There's Cathy, our hostess 

and Alex starts shooting

I was really impressed with the way Rio could get into a pose and stay put—I swear she was only balanced on her left cheek and it was only her tightened leg and tummy muscles keeping her up on that piano.

Lindsey fixes her hair

and her earrings

I really like this picture. :-)

Rio dramatically plays "Families Can Be Together Forever."

There's Rio doing another amazing balancing act.

Michael holds the light card

And this is the last dress that Rio modeled for me that day (you can almost see it in this photo).

So the photo shoot really was fun; in hindsight I am super glad we did it. Actually, I was glad then. (And it would be fun to do another one and shoot the rest of my dresses!) But it did add a lot of stress to the sewing that still needed to be done.

And that's enough for this post. When I get my pictures from Alex, I'll post them. And I'll tell about the final week before the show and the show itself on the next post. :-)

My Year in Review

I've tried to write this post a couple times now, but how do you sum up a year like the one I just had? Do I start at the beginning, or begin with the end and move backward?

I suppose I'll start by saying that the fashion show Facade —Shadows of Illusion was a big success. (Although I think my friend Cherylene stole the show with her Steampunk Circus collection!)

Cherylene's Steampunk Circus — you don't see the Strongman, the Lion-Tamer, or "Big Top" here, but it was all pretty amazing! Cherylene is an incredible costume-designer and a very talented seamstress.

But now, back to me:

So, it all started in August of 2013 when I went back to school for fall semester and my final year in school. (Yaaayyy!!) I had signed up for the Collections class knowing full-well that I'd be assigned a theme and required to make seven outfits (looks) to show in the student show, Raw Couture, at the end of the year. What a surprise to discover that this year we got to choose our own themes and we had to make ten looks!
Well back in August I figured I could easily sew ten outfits in nine months, but having the theme wide, wide open made things a little difficult—how, amongst all the thousands of cool things in the world, do you choose one inspiration for your line?

After three weeks of drawing different designs and researching ideas from flowers to stained glass, I decided to base my line on an old illustration of mine; the dress I've called my "piano dress." Once that was decided, the name of my line just popped right up: Pianoforte. (The original name of the piano; it means soft-strong. ) Now I just had to come up with ten designs. I got the first six or seven sketched out in about a week; the last ones took a little more thought. Here are the original designs that I quick-sketched and then colored on the computer:

The first six designs; piano-harps and keyboards. :-)

And the last four sketches.

Once I had my designs in mind I had to start making patterns. My goal (my very ambitious goal) was to have all the patterns drafted before we went on our fabric-buying trip to L.A. on October 19. That way I could measure patterns and know exactly how much fabric to buy. I didn't even get close. So I just bought yards and yards of anything I thought I could use. (I still have lots of black taffeta and satin left.)

I used my mathematical prowess ;-) to make these paper-dolls so I could decide just how full to make those black and white pleated skirts. I decided on the 3/8-circle.

When I got back from L.A. I got right back to making patterns and sewing muslin mock-ups so I could test the patterns for errors and for fit.The whole idea of fitting was a nightmare for me. I knew I could get the gowns to fit the dress-form; I knew I could get them to fit my models too. But I didn't have my models, and was guaranteed not to have them until the end of March. There was a good chance my muslins that fit the dressform perfectly would not translate into gowns that fit the models perfectly. That was a stressful thought. Nevertheless, I had eight patterns made and six muslins complete, and three more muslins close to finished before Christmas. (And by then I was sick to death of muslin!)

This is the very first muslin I made for my collection. The pins show where I need to adjust the pattern for fit. If you look carefully you can see lines that I penciled in to show where I wanted to piece together the different colors.

Here is the same pattern, remade in muslin and the remains of a blue sheet. On the top right the line of pins shows an adjustment I wanted to make on that line.

More muslins; more marking for color-blocking. I don't know if you can see it, but the top left dress is pinned on the front right seam (your right). That is where I intended to put the zipper. I was a little leery of putting a zipper on the princess seam because of all the curves I'd need to work around, but the idea was to put an exposed gold zipper (something else I'd never done before) on that seamline to mimic the look of a piano hinge.

The last dress I worked on before Christmas underwent major changes. I made the pattern and the muslin, but I couldn't figure out how to put in the darts for a fabulous fit without destroying the look of the dress. So it went from this:

the original drawing that started it all

to this

this was an immediate change—I wanted to go more formal/elegant, and I really like the fullness at the hem

to this.

I had this on the dress form so I could drape the straps, so you get to see an actual photo! . 

See? There's the strap, all draped and ready to pattern.

Now, this looks like I just kept working on like a steady little bee. But, you may recall, we had some major home construction over the Christmas break, so everything just sat in my school bags for nearly eight weeks before I could get back to it. There just wasn't any space—certainly no clean space—for sewing. By the time my house was my own again I had practically forgotten what all my pinnings and markings meant and had to take everything back to school, back to the dressforms, and figure out what I was doing all over again.

It wasn't until late January that I started sewing in earnest, and working like a steady little bee. (So those last pictures of the gold and white dress actually didn't get taken until late February.)

Ooooh! Red! Not muslin!

I've posted this picture before–either here or on facebook. If you paid attention you might have seen a sneak preview of my designs.

As I finished each dress I also did a final illustration of it. So here are my illustrations:

Aria

Allemande

Valse Brilliante

Prelude

Rondeau

Intermezzo

Polonaise

Sonata

Nocturne

Sarabande

OK. They were named completely after the fact—just now, to be honest. But all of the names are names—or forms, actually—of classical music. And that is all I am writing on this post because it's getting really long, and it's already a week later than I wanted it to be. So stay tuned to hear all about getting ready for the big show!