MussoLOLen is Always Right! |

Whenever I get struck by an idea, I become fixated by it until the idea becomes reality – or until a better idea comes along to distract me from the previous idea. Last weekend, I had the idea to enroll in fashion school and today, I did just that. Ever since I started my ukay-ukay blog, I’ve been reading up a lot about fashion, trends, and have been paying more to the clothes I wear. And when I stayed in Saturday night, nursing a bad migraine, it occurred to me that dabbling in fashion design might not be such a bad idea. Sewing is a skill that I can always use as a hobby or as a way to augment my income if (IF!) I become part of the department’s junior faculty. Never mind that I have absolutely no eye for design whatsoever, or that I damn near sewed my finger onto the fabric the last time I was in front of a sewing machine. I am fairly confident about my taste in style, and I am capable of doing whatever I put my mind into – until I get distracted by something else.

Today, I dropped by the Fashion Institute of the Philippines at San Miguel and Shaw and signed up for the basic sewing course for ladies’ wear. What I like about this class, apart from the fact that seems designed for sewing noobs like myself, is that I can set my own schedule and drop by the Institute whenever I feel like it, as long as I complete the six projects within six months.

My first mistake was showing up in a loud red dress and patent leather booties. Thinking that everyone else in a fashun institute would be dressed in more fashunable clothes, I figured I would just kind of blend in the background in my thrift store dress. Unfortunately, the students at the Institute were wearing more muted colors and classic cuts, and my polka dots stuck like a diseased sore thumb (I did, however, get two compliments on my dress, so yay). But there was also a practical reason why I regretted my outfit of choice. A sewing machine is apparently run by a pedal called a treadle (if I remember correctly), and a treadle is incredibly difficult to control when your heel is two inches off the floor.

Because I have to provide myself with my own materials and fabric, I didn’t get to do any actual sewing today. What I did, however, were these needle exercises so I could get used to handling the machine and making neat stitches. The objective was simple: trace the lines on a sheet of paper with my needle, but like many simple things in life, doing it is a lot harder than it looks.

My first attempt made me feel like a fashion school reject but John, the instructor, was incredibly nice and patient. Very much unlike my last sewing instructors, the Home Economics teachers at high school who decided I would die a spinster because no man will ever want to marry a woman who can’t sew. Okay, I exaggerate, but I did always get the lowest grades in Home Economics, mostly because I refused to turn in my projects. My angry teenage self’s reaction to society’s attempt to feminize and domesticate me? Probably.

The exercises got harder and harder, and pretty soon I had to contend with this:

But after two hours of needle exercises, I kind of got the hang of using a sewing machine. It’ll probably feel a lot different when I’m actually sewing fabric for real, but it shouldn’t take me too long to get used to that.

I honestly don’t know where my brief stint at Fashion Institute will take me, if my dreams of mastering churning out dress after dress will indeed come true, or fizzle out like so many dreams I have of myself. Right now, there are so many things I want to do with my life, but because I insist on doing everything all at the same time, I end up spreading myself thin, distracted, confused, and unable to focus on mastering just one thing. Kristel tells me that this sort of distracted behavior is very typical of impatient Arians, but I don’t want to blame this on my zodaic sign. So this is me attempting to organize my life. Tonight and tomorrow, I work on a paper proposal and finish it before class on Thursday. Thursday, I’ve got class until 7. Friday and Saturday, I go back to fashun skoolz and master the sewing machine.