Solo This is Women

[Rosela]

Timestamp: 90th of Autumn, 514AV

Rosela felt utterly out of control of her time.

It was the penultimate day of the season and she still felt like she had so much work to do. Granted, the shop was filled and she didn’t need more designs, but it had been her plan to add more and it hadn’t happened yet. It was overwhelming the amount of work that was needed.

She’d set aside that day for designing and the next for sewing. Timing herself the day before had worked wonderfully. Being unable to let her mind wander had resulted in compacting most of a day’s work into the few bells before lunch. The sewing coming the next day, she wasn’t worried about; she’d spent so many seasons perfecting that aspect of her trade that it seemed physically impossible that she improve any further. Moving a needle through cloth could only go so fast, but conveying an idea onto paper could always be improved upon.

Her planned improvements to her workflow were twofold: limit daydreaming between designs by timing herself and decrease the number of lines needed to convey a design. The latter was easy after the fact - she could always look at a design and see which lines she hadn’t needed – but could she design from the start with such economy? She’d find out.

The pin and tin basin were already next to the candle, and without waiting for any more time to waste away, she lit the candle and pushed in the pin half a thumb’s width from the top.

[Rosela]

First up for women were the same as men the day before – shirts. No matter the season, they were already needed and varied the most with the weather. Deciding to start with a bang, she settled on three designs in this pin-time.

Her base female figures were an easy place to cut down lines, and she quickly sketched three minimalist female torsos. A pair of curvy lines for the sides, a pair of bent lines for the undersides of each arm, and an oval for the head. The rest, the theorized, would be filled in by the design anyway.

Focusing on the first torso, she began drawing before the idea had even fully formed. Cowl necks would be very in this year, she decided, and drew the bulbous shape around the neck first. The design itself would be in red, but she intended something simple that could come in a variety of colors. Drawing along the edges of the silhouette, she colored in the shirt and added a slanting arc low on the hips. A light line was drawn slightly above the bottom, indicating a wide hem. To balance out the cowl, she added large cuffs at the wrists. A quick glance-over told her it felt complete and she immediately dove into the next design.

A quick glance at the candle made her feel better about her time. The day before had been a true trial, scrambling to force herself into her own time constraints. Today would go better, she prayed. A fur vest popped into her head here and she ran with it after a moment’s thought. Grabbing her brown pencil, she added a vest with fluttering lines to indicate its furriness, attempting to spend as little time on the intentionally-sloppy lines as possible. When she came to the center, she dropped the neckline low to secure it with two black buttons at the belly. A third button was added on top after some consideration – she didn’t want it to be so casual it was insecure. The vest would be the highlight of the top, so the shirt under it needed to be subdued in nature. Black matched everything, especially the varieties of fur she had, so she began coloring in a black turtleneck underneath. A wide band of black was added at the neck, but she abstained from adding cuffs, opting for a slimmer look through the arms. As she was coloring in the black, she glanced at the candle, pin now leaning precariously in the wax, and cursed herself for taking too much time. A few swipes of color with the pencil was all that was needed to indicate color, and she quickly moved on.

As she feared she would, she hesitated here. Forcing herself to focus, she took puzzle pieces of designs and mentally clipped them together. Something off the shoulder maybe – this prompted a swipe of the pencil across where the shoulders would be on her minimalist model. If the shoulders were exposed, they’d need some manner of covering – this resulted in a flutter of black lines over each shoulder, a black fur stole. A couple quick lines at center gave it a black ribbon bow, and she added three horizontal bands across the hips – embroidery along the bottom hem. After a brief consideration of color, she decided to leave the shirt white, and made a note along the side to keep it in wool for warmth.

As she finished the word, a tinkling noise concluded that drawing session. The pin was stuck to the inside of the basin with a small bit of wax it had pulled out with it. Feeling triumphant, Rosela sat back and stretched, twirling her black pencil between two fingers.

[Rosela]

After a couple sessions of shirts, she felt her log was full enough of them. Next up would be dresses and pants, the former being an area that was always more neglected than she liked in winter. It took her first winter of dresses languishing on the shelves to acknowledge that the women of Riverfall didn’t share her dislike of pants and happily donned them for the cold season. Still, there was the occasional dress-wearer, and Rosela made sure they were fashionable and warm.

Shifting forward to reset the pin, she tossed back and forth the idea of doing two or three designs in this pin-time. She felt confident she could get two done, given her success with three shirts, but these designs would be full-body, not just torso. With a sigh that nearly blew out the candle, she settled on three and pushed the pin in. She wasn’t doing this to get comfortable; she was doing it to force herself to get faster.

As with the torsos, she did her best minimal impression of the female body, repeating her approach for the upper body, and only drawing out the outside of the legs and a small arc to indicate the crotch. Crotch… She hated that word. So indelicate, and certainly not the kind of word used for a woman’s parts. Her Common failed her in finding a replacement though…

Realizing her thoughts were straying, Rosela pushed through them and focused. The first design was to be a dress, similar to one she’d gotten for herself after leaving the healing center. She went with a bold red pencil and drew solid arcs over the wrists and between the legs. The cowl neck she was trying to make happen would have to be added, and she drew it in with as much economy as she could. The predecessor’s design had pockets in the front, a useful addition, but not every dress needed them. The midsection would need some detail of interest to fill it out. Despite bitterly not being able to wear belts herself, she liked them in general and added a bold line of black over the hips. It wasn’t quite enough though. Briefly, she considered making the belt a tie instead and having the ends trail long, but could only think of them flying up in an upward gust and hitting the wearer in the face. Instead, she added a second belt, askew and crossing the first one at an angle. It made the dress a little sassy, and gave the hips a flattering emphasis.

The design was declared done and she moved onto the next one. She wanted a jumpsuit here, something warm but flexible. She thought of Kavala out in her stables doing…stable stuff and tried to think of something that would withstand a hard day’s work. She outlined the minimal figure with a midnight blue pencil, leaving the sleeves and pants slightly loose. Wool was terrible to clean, so it’d have to be double-layered cotton, but that meant she could do more intricate bunching. Adding a series of small lines at the waist, she bunched it in and drew a tie at the center. A row of dark buttons ran from the neck to the waist, and she added a small lapel at the neck. Frowning, she erased the very retro lapel and tapped her pencil in thought. Something at the neck…fur was always welcome, and she took her plain gray pencil and drew a small stole in with fluttering strokes. It would be sewn onto the jumpsuit, so it didn’t go flapping about when pitching hay or whatever it was that one did in horse stalls. She briefly considered adding fur at the cuffs as well, but thought again of the dirt and decided against it. Stables were such dirty places-

The pin suddenly fell, startling her out of her thoughts. She’d completely gotten lost in the design, letting her mind wander and take her as it always did. Irritated at herself, she reset the pin and tried to put more discipline behind her thoughts.

[Rosela]

Rosela stood and paced around the room, four hands pushing into her back. Focusing so hard tended to make her forget her posture and now several parts of her were clenched up like fists. She attempted to twist her body back and forth, but her stomach refused to allow her much flexibility. Sighing, she paced another round around the room before plopping back in her chair. All the time she was attempting to save would be lost if she got lazy between sessions.

Next up were cloaks and wraps, though she intended to focus more on wraps. With the smaller population of women and the durability of cloaks, they didn’t tend to sell as much, but a fashionable wrap could always be tempting to the right customer. Resetting her pin, she firmly told herself she’d get four designs in this time if it killed her.

Four torsos were sketched quickly, using the same minimal technique and she zeroed in on the first, burgundy pencil already in hand. There were only a few basic layouts for wraps, but the determining factor was, as always, in the details. Going with a traditional wrap layout, she drew a sketchy pair of tilted rectangles across the shoulders, overlapping in the middle. A single line connected the pair behind the head and the basic layout was complete. She wanted something fluffy, but realized it couldn’t all be fluff or it’d look like an uncombed beast hanging about the shoulders. If only the edges were fluffy though, it would look more tamed while still keeping the feel of it for the wearer. Grabbing her black pencil, she quickly shaded in a block through the center of the rectangle, repeating it on the other side. The center areas would simply be trimmed back, revealing the undercoat, which was often a slightly different color, and leaving the edges long.

Switching immediately to the next design, she took the bright red pencil and immediately started drawing fur in around the shoulders, as she already had an idea for this one. It was simple and sweet, a perfect combination. The wrap was sketched in tight around the shoulders, but she left a small gap at the center. There, she took her black pencil and drew in a wide, black ribbon, connecting to an audacious bow at the center. The black seemed a little too bold though, and she quickly added small, black bows just in from where the ribbon would connect. They would be nestled in the short fur, and would provide a nice color balance.

Rosela didn’t dare look at the pin, lest she get discouraged. She was doing great so far, but she was really only halfway there.

[Rosela]

Rosela took a moment’s hesitation before moving to the next design. The remaining two wraps would be wool instead of fur, she decided, for a little variety. The first, she knew right off that she wanted something asymmetrical. That meant that it would be more for style than warmth, which released her from the constraints to have it fully cover the upper body.

Right away, she added an arc from one side of the neck to the opposite shoulder, having it thrown casually to one side. Wanting to change up from predictable arcs, she made the bottoms of the wrap, now looking more like a poncho, right angles, setting one slightly to the left, and the one behind slightly to the right. Grabbing her dark brown pencil, she draw a pair of double lines around each edge: the bottoms and the collar. Briefly, she considered adding fringe to the edge, but decided it would look too cheap. A note was made to the side to keep it in superfine wool, so the quality of the fabric would be the main attraction, not the decoration.

She glanced at the pin unconsciously and saw it dangling precariously. Her chest constricted – she needed to get her last design out before it fell.

The last wrap would be more traditional in nature, and she started with tracing around the arms with a dark brown pencil and connecting them across the belly with a quick arc. It was only after she made the mark that she had the idea for buttons down the center, and she hurriedly erased a small section at the center, redrawing the lines to move upwards, connect, and end at the neck. Short strikes were added along the line, indicating a series of peg-style buttons there. As with the design prior, she didn’t want to clog up the streamline style with unnecessary details, so she decided a hem of a darker color would be all that was needed.

As she tried to get all the edges colored in with black, the pin finally dropped, calling an end to the session. Releasing the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, Rosela finished she hem and sat back. She’d done it, she’d accomplished her goal, extremely short-term though it was. If she could continue on that speed, she felt her ultimate goal of spending less time designing was within reach.

[Rosela]

After the pile of wrap designs was done, she moved onto accessories. Gloves were needed, as well as purses and belts. Women had more options for belts than sturdy leather, as only part of the supply needed to be heavy enough to withstand battle.

Resetting the pin, she set into her work.

Two boxy hands were drawn at the top of the page, with thinner, longer fingers than the men. She kept the lines loose and informal, resulting in abnormally long fingers, but at least it got the point across. Around the cuff of the first, she added jagged black lines in an abnormally large ruff. Out of habit, she started to shade it in, but managed to stop herself after a couple lines. Shading in wasn’t necessary, especially when it would be a single color. To add something of interest, she added a second ruff, smaller, on top of the first. She wondered if it would look good to have ruffs of different colors, but decided against it and pushed forward to the next design.

No fur for this one, she decided in a flash of spontaneity, and she quickly outlined the hand in brown. Something on the back of the hand – an opening? That wouldn’t do, not in the winter. Embroidery? An imprint? Another idea came and she quickly sketched a crossed pair of rectangles, belatedly adding rounded edges to the bottom. A simple addition, but it made it just stylish enough. Adding a tall cuff that split along the underside, she called the design done.

She glanced at the pin without meaning to and saw it ready to drop. Sucking in a breath between her teeth, she moved down and drew two sloppy rectangles, attempting to already picture them as purses. She’d done so well so far, it killed her to think she’d fail now. Quickly drawing over the rectangle in a brown pencil, she grabbed her red pencil with a spare hand and began drawing in the seams. After a second thought, she added a second line just outside the original seams, and a third on the other side, both lines thinner than the original. Should she add anything else? A bit of red embroidery would go quite well but-

The pin suddenly dropped, cutting off any thoughts of additions. Sighing so deeply she blew out the candle, she sat back in her chair with a huff. She failed. One more purse design and at least one belt, that’s all she wanted to fit in. How could she decrease her time? How could she possibly move any faster? Drawing wasn’t like sewing; she couldn’t draw with two hands at a time. Or could she? Shifting pencils, she held two in her top and middle right hands. She could match the movements of one hand to another, and draw with varying skill with most of her hands, but this was something completely different. She’d spend more time trying to keep some manner of quality than on the design itself.

So what could she do? She couldn’t start sacrificing the quality of her work simply to save some time. If she were ever to have enough time in the day to create her fashion empire though, she needed…more time. More time to learn all the things she wanted, more time still to create a workable inventory. How could she make it happen?

Was it even possible?

[Matthew]

Rosela

Experience Points:

• +4 Art (Fashion Design)
• +4 Drawing
• +1 Organization
• +1 Planning

Lores:

• Drawing: Bodies and Clothing
• Fashion Design: Sassy Clothing
• Organization: Optimizing Workflow

Additional Notes :

Another good thread. I've learned more about fashion design today than I ever thought I would.

If you have any questions or concerns relevant to your grade, don't be afraid to send me a private message so that we can work it all out! Please remember to mark your Grading Request as Graded.

A shout-out to Ollic Rimesage, who was kind enough to make this template for me.