How "Project: Runway" got me excited about designing again.....

So, how does a Talented (or somewhat so) Designer who doesn't sew very well get her designs to the public? I've been wondering about this for a larger part of my life.

I have been designing clothing (on paper) and jewelry for most of my life. I love creating new designs, but I have yet to have my clothing designs actually turned into real clothing. (I do have a number of my jewelry designs created in "real life")

I've been designing since I was in my teens. I started off by tracing figures from comic books and designed clothing on them. I also learned how to knit (I learned how to crochet when I was about 10) and started knitting and crocheting doll clothes (like the ones I have on my Shop-it site) and I would sell them through a consignment store.

Years later, I had a full time job and I decided to go to Fashion school part time. The only problem was that I couldn't seem to learn either flat pattern design or draping fast enough to pass the class (I wished they gave a slower version of the class that gave 1/2 the credits for 2 halves of the class given over two semesters instead of one, but that didn't happen).

So I decided to try Jewelry designing. I took two classes in Jewelry Design -- one was how to draw (render) jewelry design. I learned both well enough to render and make jewelry.

A number of years later, when I got a Macintosh and one of the programs I bought for it was Microsoft Office and, when I upgraded my system, I discovered PowerPoint.

I developed a way to design (render) jewelry designs on PowerPoint. When I rendered designs the way I was taught in Fashion School, it took me a few days to render a design. With the computer, I created new designs in about 1/2 hour.

My next step was to trace fashion ads and add clothing to the figures. I liked the way things turned out with these ads tracings (I even used one of the drawings for a basis for a dress I wore to my brother's wedding, but I digress).

But I wasn't doing much designing at that point. But then my nieces got me hooked on Project Runway and I got interested in my old designs (and in making new ones). But I saw how those designers were able to take their sketches and create clothing from them. I wanted (and want) to do that.

In the interim, I also got interested in designing footwear (shoes, flip-flops, boots, etc.) but I have no idea how to turn my sketches into actual shoes (I did do some designs on flip-flops on CafePress but they don't express the true range of my designs. I have some pictures up on line at my Facebook of a couple of pairs of shoes I designed.)

So, the point of this lens is to put the word out there to anyone who might be able to create my designs -- If you're out there and you want to work with me, send me a comment with info on how to get in touch with you.

Since I've been watching Project: Runway, I started doing a few designs based on their challenges. But I mostly do it on my computer -- and I use some figures that I found on the net as my base. I'm still hoping to one day create and sell my designs...

In addition to our Cafe Press and Zazzle sites (see modules above), we also have a store on "Printfection" which includes cutting boards (good wedding or housewarming gifts), mugs and cups, tees, etc.

This cutting board is only one of the many items at our store:

Compugraphd Printfection site

(Click on the picture to go directly to this product's page)

I have created many of my jewelry designs and you can see them on my Facebook Page.

I just discovered Printpop -- check out my entire portfolio or click on the graphic to see just this product (called "Lined Star"). Check back periodically as new designs are uploaded.