Positve Reinforcement a la Creative Fashion Design

So last night, I had my third Fashion Design class. I am obviously trying to still manage the stress of trying to be "competitive" and "creative", being back in school, wondering if I am good enough and all those insecurities that I have, that really, no one but me can understand. The drive in to Boston after work on Tuesdays has just begun to be irritating because contrary to what I believed to be true, traffic goes both ways at rush hour. Also, sitting in work clothes for another 6 hours is uncool. Do see where I am going here? I can certainly pick out the negative in any situation.

Last night's class, we were going to do a few different things. On the docket was learning to use the school's sewing machines (home and industrial sewing), a worksheet on color blocking and also having individual consultations with our teacher about our non-textile projects (what we planned to use, our design, possible difficulties). I was not the first to go up to talk to teach about our plans. What I was hearing with the first few people were negative negatives... "That material will be hard to work with", "This is boring", "I am expecting more from you in this class", "I don't like this design"... I don't know if it's because Tuesday is my teacher's "long" day or if she was just plain cranky, but she was not hiding her feelings at all. I was pretty much freaking out that I just signed up for a class that I wasn't good enough for.



So then it was my turn. I had put together the materials that I had bought at Dollar Tree (for only $26 dollars, people) which included tea bags, coffee filters, cabinet liners (in this light pink/beige/pistachio color) and this eucalyptus that had been spray painted gold. I glued a sample of each to a piece of sketch paper and then proceeded to design a dress using those materials on the same piece of paper. Here is a shot of what I showed her.

She looked at it, let me explain what I was planning on doing, then looked me in the eyes and told me she loved it. She loved the materials, thought they would work well and thought the design was fantastic. It was really opposite of what she had told the first 6 or 7 people, so I really trusted that she meant it. She did make mention of my sketch having "Lois Griffin" hair, which amused the class but only gave me one constructive remark and that was to think about adding a little color. I am not going to lie, I was pretty, pretty, pretty stoked at the feedback. She did give a couple other people some really positive remarks but I am pretty sure I was one of her top 3, second only to a girl who had already started cross hooking streamer and the lone man in our class who worked his design out in CAD.


And just like that, with a little positive reinforcement, the traffic, uncomfortable work clothes* and insecurities sort of flew out the window. I needed some self confidence in the form of support from someone else, whose creative opinions matter to me. That little push was the fuel I needed to get this fashion train chugga chugga choo-chooing along!

* I have decided that I will pack a bag every Tuesday with Yoga pants and sneaks... I don't care, comfort is key.