Zipper Triumph

So I'm back again with another story. Since the last time I blogged I had gone to the fabric store and bought, to my distraught, the wrong zipper size. It took a couple of days before I got the right one by chance while shopping at Walmart. The black zipper I found was the only one the size I needed for my garment. So I bought the zipper along with a small hand sewing machine I couldn't possibly live without and went on my way. So fast-tracking to this afternoon since my last garment fiasco I was very reluctant to start again. The last garment I finished, or didn't, was a disaster. The seams of this garment were off, the zipper was inserted backwards (as you may recall from my previous blog), and the seams on the sides had tiny holes in them as I cut the notches a bit too large.
This time around I decided I had to think about what I did wrong the last time and just mind those little details this time around such as matching the bodice's and skirt's darts and seams when sewing the garment together. The zipper was for me the part I was totally dreading. I have seen the video on inserting an invisible zip like 20 times and I still could not bring myself around to trying it again. Finally towards the end of the afternoon I finally realized I had ran out of excuses not to give it a whirl so I got off my ass and start working on that infamous zip. To my surprise by the time I was done the zipper turned out nearly perfect. I could not believe my achievement. The dress is, as we speak, in the dress form only pending the shoulder seams, the finishing for neckline and arm holes and the hem, which I plan to do by hand and practice my invisible hem. The skirt may turnout a bit short since I have to fold the fabric twice but who cares. I have about one hour left before bed and I plan to spend it watching "Deadly Women" in Netflix. Pleasant dreams whoever you are out there.

Zippers and Fabrics

So it's been a couple of days since my last blog. I have been kinda busy and a bit depressed over this crazy gas prices. Anyway, to get right to it, I went to the fabric store because I needed to buy another invisible zip for the dress I was working on.
As long as i was there I had an opportunity to check several beautiful fabrics with amazing prints. I'm talking Project Runway worthy prints here. I spend nearly an hour there checking things out. I was excited I got the zip I needed for the dress. To my surprise, when I got home I realized I bought the wrong size. I think I might have confused centimeters with inches and the zip was way to short for the dress.
Anyway, I guess I will eventually use this zip so it was not a total loss. It's just planing the trip back to the fabric store is so difficult is not even funny. I have also been working in my sketches and turned them in in hopes I can really profit from them one day. The only thing keeping me from trade marking my designs is my citizenship which is in the process but not quite finish yet. In simple terms you cannot trademark or copyright anything unless you are a citizen. Who knew huh??!!??!!
So I'm ready to start a new unit in my fashion design and dress making program called "Decorative features" or something to that effect anyway. So more reading and video watching for me for the next couple of weeks. Well it's late and I have an early start tomorrow. Will keep you posted whoever you are.

Broken needles

So I did not have a chance to blog yesterday. However, I did work on my dress as I was planning to. Did hit a couple of snags along the way of course. To begin with it was kind of hard matching the seams on the bodice and skirt. The video lesson tells me not to worry too much of the length in both pieces is a little different and to just match the seams together and stitch away. The process is call easing and by the time you are finish stitching both parts together it should be fine. This was mostly true I gotta say.

Back tracking a little bit the main issue today was trying to adjust the stitch size. I pushed a wrong button somewhere and the needle ended in the wrong place. Long story short the needle broke on the first stitch. Oddly enough I did not get discouraged at that moment. I replaced the needle, which I had never done before, and that was that. I just kept on going.

So after the bodice and skirt where sewn together I had to iron the garment. The fabric chose is a mix of cotton and polyester which is really simple to iron. No need for damp cloth, or special temperature or anything like that. The fabric is cheap enough so I was not fussing. I have still a long way to go. I bought my mother's ticket to come visit tonight. I always do but this time I need her here to help me with my sewing skills. She has been sawing her own dresses (a lot of the anyway) ever since I was little so she is a well of knowledge I plan to take full advantage off. Last time she was here I asked her to construct one of my designs. The woman drew a paper pattern based on a size 10 just like that.  This is the kind of thing I am really interested in learning how to do. P.S. the freaking ticket was not cheap.

I did not have a chance tonight to surf the net and submit any applications today. I was just too tired. After work I went out with my BF Micky Tom for ice cream which was a lot of fun. By the time I got home I was way to tired to do anything. I still felt I owe you all a posting today so here I am. Glued to my laptop and blogging away. This is it for tonight. The next step is to insert an invisible zip which, as I sure mentioned before, I absolutely dread. I'm off to bed now.

Sweet dreams!!!

stitching darts

So today is Sunday and i was a bit lazy up until after lunch and a rather long nap. I was totally ready to goof off all afternoon when I found myself feeling guilty about wasting a whole day. So sometime after 3PM  I finished all darts in all four pieces of the dress. For those of you with experience with a sewing machine I have to say I admire the way you all can manager to sew a whole garment without the thread coming off the needle. This was my biggest setback today.
After about 45 minutes I was able to saw 8 darts all together. This is the accomplishment for today.  Next I have to iron all the pieces and sew all parts together, that is all parts in the bodice and all parts in the skirt. I really dread having to sew the bodice to the skirt. The last time I tried I forgot to match all top and bottom seams with each other. It was very noticeable and to top it all off I attached the invisible zip backwards. Who would have thought the teeth on an invisible zip go inside.
Plans for tonight. Watching the Fifth Element for the 20th time. This time however is a blu ray in my new blu ray player. Pretty sharp image I must say. On a different note, I spent sometime searching the web for interesting jobs. I have a profile in several websites including entertainment giants like NBCUniversal, Disney, and Warner Bros. I did manage to submit one application for a position in Universal City. I'm at a point now I have to hold on to any ray of hope as tiny as it might be. I really need to get out of my current job. It just does not pay enough. Plus I have been at this place for the past 5  1/2 years. Activia strawberry and cereal yogurt for dinner as I am not hungry and feel I'm getting fat.

The Gabriel-Entertainment-Fashion Journey

I guess I am not sure how to start a blog. The only person I know of writing a successful blog was Julie Powell. I guess one can only try. I am a hispanic immigrant who has lived in this country for the past 10 years. After many years of paperwork and expensive attorney's fees I have managed to fulfilled my life-long dream of becoming a permanent resident in this country. The funny thing about it is that once I was done with this I ran out of excuses as to why I should put off school. So here I am 6 year later with to degrees (one in entertainment) and at 36 years of age I am still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I have successfully held down a job and have a somewhat dysfunctional love live. I will not talk about relationships here as I do not want to hurt anyone I care about.

Have you ever thought what you would do that day you finish school and have a diploma on your hand? You always dream about graduation day and the celebration that comes along with it. But what about the next day? what about the moment you realized that you still have to find that dream/6 digit paying/almost too ludicrous to think about job and all you have is negative wealth on the account of all those student loans you had to take out in order to graduate. I know I was there and still are for that matter.

Being in California I decided I wanted to do something that would really make me happy. If you allow me to rewind for a second after I got my generic Bachelors in Business Degree I decided to pursue a Masters on Entertainment. I mean after all, I live near Hollywood right? Well that feeling I described above still was there after the second graduation and it was twice as bad. However, I felt empowered and proud I was finally done. Or was I? After doing a lot of search and talking to friends who were willing to listen I decided I needed someone around who had some career counseling ideas. Someone helped me realized that if I wanted to be happy and successful I had to do something I enjoy doing. After grilling me for over 2 hours and causing me to missed a great movie I was planning to watch with my roommates he made me realized I should pursue a career in fashion or costuming.

Long story short, I decided that in order to break into this specific field I needed more than my ability to sketch great looking outfits. I needed the skills to also construct them. So I was again faced with the challenge of starting school again but this time it felt more like a hobby. This time I was smart enough to do research and find a school that would give me all I need for a one-time payment under $700 and be done with it. So today, and this is the the journey really begins, I have the school material, a few yards of fabric, and a dress form. I think I have it in blood, this fashion thing, since my mom is very skillful at constructing clothes and different crafts.

Anyway, if you are going to keep on reading this. I will document progress on my fashion design achievements as I go. I can tell you today I was able to lay out some fabric, cut out the pattern pieces and sew some darts. There is a lot of reading which I am not very fond of doing but the explanations are necessary. On a final note for the night, I found YouTube very useful to see examples on different sewing techniques and stuff. I was particularly keen of the "how to make a dress" and "make your own clothes" videos from Angela Kane. Brittish designer who has a plethora of designs. The current dress I was talking about was her classic Pinafore dress and to put it in her own words it is a perfect first project. Will post again soon. Soymilk before bed tonight.