Passion For Fashion, The Story

I'm fading fast! Actually, I've been a bit of a zombie all day today. I think the weekend took a lot out of me :) So, by now you have probably read the post I did on my eventful start to the weekend. I told my husband that he has been elevated to saint status for driving five hours just to bring me my clothes. He's always been my knight in shining armor, always rushing in to save the day. I'm lucky! I had hoped to post a little of my progress as I went along, but I was just too exhausted to even think once I got back to my room. So, a little catch up is in order.

The contest actually starts on Thursday night when we choose our models. I was so happy and lucky to once again have Gabrielle as my model. I thought for sure when I drew number eleven that I had lost her. Once we had the models chosen, we had a little bit of time to take measurements and then say good-bye to them until they would return on Saturday at three in the afternoon.

The good thing about picking a number eleven was that I was the second to choose my poster on Friday morning. At first I was going to pick the Grateful Dead poster, not because I like the group, but because I liked the poster. There was a big skull and roses, I love anything that reminds me of The Day of the Dead, but just before I chose that poster, I looked over and saw Kiss. Boom! that was it!

So what to create. Initially, I was going to create a dress. If you look at the second guy on the left, there's and arrow pointing down. I wanted to do a real asymmetrical dress and recreate the arrow down the side of the dress. As I started to drape, I began to think that maybe I should go in a different direction. So I threw the muslin to the side and started working on a jacket. The pictures that I have aren't all that good, but you can at least get an idea of what the outfit looked like. The jacket looks as though the fur is longer on one side than the other. It isn't, it's just the way she is standing.  

 It's difficult to see, but the back is longer than the front and it is also quite full in the back.

You can see the back a little better in the picture below. There are studs at the waistline and I did leg-o-mutton sleeves to keep all the attention up around the face.

 Underneath I did a bra top and a pair of skin tight pants in a snakeskin print.

We were supposed to create a look inspired by the artist in the poster for an up and coming artist. So the tricky part was "inspired by," not a recreation of the original artist. Below you can see the fur that I used and get a better idea of the print in the pants and the bra top.

I found the chains at one of the vendors booth and I even found the star. If you look at the poster,two of the guys have stars painted on their faces. I told the judges that the star represented the star that my client was destined to become. In the picture below you can also see how the back of the jacket cascades down.

All in all I was happy with what I created. That was not the story the entire time though. On Friday night I began to have a melt down. You would not have known it, but our mentor sure did. I started beating myself up for not carrying through on my original idea. I had talked myself into thinking that I had created just the worst thing. I was a mess. The next morning I was still shook up, but by then I had decided that it was what it was, so just get it finished. Actually, I was pretty much finished on Friday night. I had enough to keep me busy on Saturday, but I didn't have to panic about getting it finished. I did begin to calm down when people would come by and say, "I need that jacket in my wardrobe NOW!" The problem though is that you never know how the judges will interpret the challenge. In the end, I won third place. If I'm honest, I REALLY wanted to win, but I did my best and that is all that I can do.

The best part about the weekend were all the lovely people who came by to say hello. What a treat that was for me. Thank you for all of your encouraging words. A few weeks back, Rochelle of http://smokingneedlesknitting.blogspot.com/ had said that she might come to the expo. When she walked up to my table I immediately knew who she was. What a delight it was to meet her in real life :) She was wearing an incredible bracelet, rhinestone scissors. What person who sews wouldn't want a rhinestone scissor bracelet?!! I was joking with her about how easy it might be to get it off her wrist when she took it off, gave it to me and said, "here, I want you to have this." I wore that bracelet all day yesterday. It is my trophy. I couldn't have been given anything that would have meant more to me. Thank you so much Rochelle!!! I'll post pictures of it later this week. I'm going to the opening of the opera season on Saturday night and I plan to wear the bracelet and I will take pictures!
I also need to thank Chris, a lovely, lovely woman. On Friday morning she brought me a bag of Cliff bars. I lived on those Cliff bars for two days. Thank you for keeping me alive Chris! And last, but not least, I am so very happy that I had the chance to spend the weekend with Kristine of http://www.kbdesigns74.blogspot.com/ She is the loveliest lady, kind, giving and so very generous. Here she is with her incredible creation.

So all in all, it was a great time.
Before I close, I need to thank so many of you for all the encouragement that you sent my way. It meant so much more than you'll ever know.
So on to the next adventure. I will be flying to Denver next Monday for the taping of the Sew It All program. Exciting!!!!!