What I've been up to...

So since coming back from Thanksgiving break, it’s been quite the whirlwind.  The thing that dominated the most amount of my time was the jeans I made.  Based on my own measurements and specifications, I started from scratch on paper to finished garment in under three weeks.  My how much I’ve learned!

The only think I want to highlight is that the pockets are lined with, or more accurately, ARE lambskin. The rest of the pant should speak for itself.

I have a picture of them on me on two other people's camera's so the images are out there and I'll post them when I get them so you can see the fit.  These are kind of crumby:

Also, in my Construction class, we finished our dress pants and shirts.  Here's mine with my teacher Benedito Alabrandi.  He's very grandfatherly (he's 75), has been sewing since age 11, kind of reminds me of Clint Eastwood and has the raspiest, thickest Italian accent I've ever heard.  And he always smells like cinnamon raisin bagels.

He uses these HUGE tailor's scissors which are about the size of my forearm which is even funnier considering how small he is.  He told us how once a guy came in with a gun to rob his tailor shop and said "gimme the money" and Alabrandi pulled the scissors he was carrying around behind his back and put them in the guy's face and said "I'll give you the money!" and the guy ran out.  Badass.

He and the chair of our program, Professor Blackman, asked everyone to step out for five minutes while they graded and evaluated our pants and shirts.  I saw Professor Blackman stop at mine look it up and down, flip up the collar and shake his head "yes" and move on :)

Finally, we presented our final shirts we did before Thanksgiving to all of our classmates this morning.  My presentation was short, clear and went great.

Professor Blackman even gave everyone a cupcake after they spoke and were evaluated.  In some ways, it was a mood lightener because after you wee finished, he would critique how well you spoke and presented YOURSELF.  So to some people, he would tell them all these things they did wrong and then finish with, "OK, have a cupcake."

But after it was all said and done, I got chosen to be featured among five others in the Menswear display case in the hallway out of the 40 or so people in the program!  I was pretty happy that more people will get to see it and it'll be up for the next year.  A photographer took our pictures but here's one that a friend took of me before I attached the cuffs:

Finally, here is my Illustration final drawing.  I like it and I've realized I really like a lot of black and grey with flashes of color.