Sewing Contest and Fashion Show 2014

What an exciting year I had getting ready for the Spring 2014
Sewing Contest and Fashion Show with Alief ISD! 
In 2012, Sew Much Fabric created a community
service program, in conjunction with Elsik High School, to provide an avenue
for students in the Fashion program to have an outlet to create their own
designs and present their work in a developed competition.  Each year contestants are required to create
a garment for a model to wear and develop a portfolio explaining why they made
their design choices.  This is the
3^rd year I have had the privilege to produce and sponsor the contest
and show.  The theme of this year’s contest
was Dressing The First Lady of the United States–Michelle Obama.

The show has grown so much since 2012!  This year, two event planners were on board
to help create a beautiful setting for the show.  We also had a guest celebrity, new prize
sponsors and more student participation than ever before.  All of the following pictures were taken by
professional photographer, Jessica Paul of Over the River Photography.

The evening started with scrumptious desserts made by the
award winning students of the Culinary Arts department of Elsik High School.  While our guest enjoyed the desserts, they
were serenaded by the school’s orchestra.

The show opened with Elsik’s Fashion Design Instructor, Abby
Rey.  She wore a dress she designed by modifying
McCalls 6319.  She used the Silver Metallic Stretch Lace Knit and Grey Chiffon from Sew Much Fabric.  As you can tell, Abby was expecting and 1
week later her beautiful baby girl, Tabitha, was born!  Whew, that was close!!

Elisk’s High School Principle, Hilda Rodriquez, welcomed our
guests.

Our celebrity guest was former Houston Rocket basketball star
and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, Calvin Murphy.  He is currently the co-host for the Houston
Rockets pregame and post game shows.  I
want to thank Mr. Murphy for taking the time out of his very busy schedule to
attend the show.

(Partners in Education Specialist-Dee Jones, Calvin Murphy and School Principle-Hilda Rodriquez) 

We had an awesome panel of judges this year. They are experts
in the field of fashion and design and did an outstanding job of judging the
contest. Seated at the tables from left to right are Fashion Designer and Mac Make-up
Artist Rahill Raheem, Michelle Barnes, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the
Community Artists’ Collective (CAC) and Ann Ngo, Creative Director of Youtique Bridal & Formal.  Thank you judges
for a job well done!

(Rahill Raheem, Ann Ngo, Michelle Barnes, last year’s judge Eileen Johnson and me) 

The MC’s of the show, Mia Jones and Finest Smith, did an
excellent job keeping the crowd informed and entertained.

And speaking of entertainment, the Gentleman of Elsik (GOE)
Step Team and the ROTC department preformed routines that had the audience
cheering!

First year and advance students showcased over 60 garments that highlighted their sewing
skills with the latest in Spring and Summer fashions for 2014.  Pencil, Maxi, and skater’s skirts, dresses,
shirts and pants took center stage on the runway.

The last segment of the night was the sewing contest.  The advanced fashion design students were
challenged to design and construct an outfit for First Lady Michelle Obama to wear
to a speaking engagement. The students were judged on their research of the
First Lady’s fashion aesthetic (shown in their portfolio), garment
construction, interview with the judges and finally the fit of the garment on their
model.  Here are some of the students’ designs
for our First Lady, Michelle Obama.

The prizes for the winners were:

1^st Place—Cash prize of $250 from Sew Much Fabric, a Husqvarna Sewing Machine, 1 free sewing class and first year’s
machine maintenance from McDougal Sewing Center in Sugar Land

2^nd Place—a Gutermann Thread Tower with 80 spools
of thread sponsored by Rachel Steele and a basket of sewing notions sponsored
by Jeni Beckstead

3^rd Place- 4 Publications from Thread’s Magazine
and Thread’s instructional DVDs sponsored by Threads Magazine

And now, without further ado here are this year’s winners!

3^rd Place 

Designed by Valerie Martinez  

2^nd Place

 Designed by Tommy Lu 

And 1^st Place 

Designed by Thabway Paw 

The show was a huge success! 
The show raised almost $1700 for the fashion and design department and
now has a waiting list of students wanting to take the class!  I want to thank Alief ISD administration, faculty
and students for allowing me to work with their talented designers.  And a huge thanks to the event planners Linda
Herrington of Plan4You Events and Keisha Ervin of Keisha’s Kreations LLC for putting
together a beautiful stage to showcase the designs.  I also want to thank Angela Rae for all of the behind the scene work, creativity and support for the last 3 years. Angela, your expertise was invaluable!  And last but not least, to all of the Sew Much Fabric clients for your continued support.   I look forward to doing it all again in
2015!!