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.