Solo Own Two Feet

[Rosela]

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Timestamp: 87th of Fall, 514AV

Rosela slumped down in one of the makeup chairs, fanning herself with a dustcloth. After a hard morning of dragging furniture around and restocking shelves, her shop was finally beginning to come back together again. Her elbows and shoulders were killing her, unused to so much hard work. She didn’t like feeling so weak, but there were a hundred other things to worry about at the moment. First and foremost would be her cosmetics section.

Orabelle had apparently left Riverfall at some point during Rosela’s coma, leaving Red Diamond Fashions without a cosmetologist. Despite her big plans to learn the trade from her business partner, there had never seemed time, and now time was up altogether. She had a small inventory left that Orabelle had not sold, but there was so little left that the sale would be just enough to cover the expenses of the supplies – not nearly enough to gain a profit off of. A large part of her wanted to be producing her own line by Spring, but getting her skills up to sell-able quality would take a significant effort. Did she have it in her?

Afraid of the answer, lest she think too hard on it, she stood up with a heave and attempted to get back to work. The season change was nearly upon her and she still had an entire line to come up with, both for men and women. Her existing inventory would tide her over until then, but…

In a moment, the amount of work on her shoulders threatened to crush her. How did she ever survive under all this? Did she used to think she thrived under this kind of pressure? She remembered herself, as if in another life, scrawling away in her workroom, making grandiose plans and never once fearing the immense amount of work it would take to pull them off. What was she thinking?

Still, no point but to move forward, bearing the burden as long as she could or until it became easier. Unless she wanted to move in with Likhren, she needed her shop back at the turn of the season.
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[Rosela]

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Men’s shelves – check.

Women’s shelves – check.

Accessories table – check.

Intimates section – check.

Cosmetics - …half check.

The supplies had been even further dwindled than she thought, only the bare essentials were left. She put them out just the same, and filled the space instead with more clothing shelves. The hats and scarves would go nicely in their own section anyway.

Now that midday was approaching, she noticed people stopping by her window and peering in at her bustling around. It warmed her heart to see it and hoped it meant people would be excited about her opening. She hadn’t heard of any serious competition setting up since she’d been gone, so she prayed people would waiting to swarm in.

There was a sudden knock on the door, startling her, and for a moment, irrational hope that a loyal fan was so eager to get in that-

It was only a messenger boy though, wide gray eyes peering through the window, a piece of parchment in his hand. Opening the door for him, Rosela smiled. She’d sent a message to Hudon earlier, hoping for assurances that her desk clerk would be able to return. His reply was curt, but positive. Rosela sighed as she relocked the door after the young messenger left; she’d warned herself that Hudon was likely also victim to the odd personality changes that had occurred while she slept, but getting confirmation of it was disappointing.

All that was left was to get her winter inventory in order. She’d put out what she could onto the floor, but several designs and already-made items from last year were outdated. Fishing her bundle of designs from under the front desk, she retreated to the back to work on them.
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[Rosela]

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Her work space was dusty, but warm thanks to the fireplace. Through the flames, she could see the equally dusty philtering lab on the other side. It unfortunately would have to remain dusty for some time yet; catching up on her regular work would be time-consuming enough without attempting to carry on Orabelle’s work.

Settling in close to the fireplace, she began to sort her designs. First by season, then in winter, which needed work. So many needed work – had her tastes really been so…flamboyant?

Once they were sorted, she settled into her chair, balanced a drawing board between her thighs and bulging stomach, and started revising.

The first in the stack was a design for a men’s sweater with a line of feathers down the back. It made the drawn model look half-Glassbeak and Rosela took the erasing rubber to the line of feather tufts with gusto. The idea still had merit though, and after clearing the back, she drew her pencil down in long sweeping lines where the tufts had been. In their place, she drew longer feathers, flat against the back. A list of colors in Arumenic was made to the side – ‘Red-black, blue-black, green-blue, black-pink’ – with the additional note indicating the pairs were sweater and feather color pairs.

After a moment’s consideration, she quickly sketched out the rough triangle of a man’s torso from the back, and redrew in the feather-sweater she’d just edited in, but adding a triangle of feathers that ran the breadth of the shoulders and tapered down to the original line. She made a mental note to talk to Loads of Leather about acquiring feathers this size.

On a whim, she drew a pair of arcs under the shirt, connecting their edges to make a belt. With something as edgy as the feathers, the belt would have to make a statement as well, so she erased the bottom line and made it wider. A large oval made the belt buckle, but she left the innards as a simple pencil scribble. She’d see what she had in stock when the time came, perhaps something Glassbeak-related to pull the whole outfit together.

Flipping the design over to the ‘finished’ pile, she tilted the next one into the light.
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[Rosela]

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Several designs into the pile, Rosela stood and walked the room, stretching each of her arms in turn. At home, she still had a set of healing scrolls Kavala had given her, and if not for the long walk to get them, she’d have used one that day. She still had a lot of work to do and she couldn’t afford to stop now. After this batch, she promised herself, she’d get lunch.

Settling in again, she looked over her next design – an expensive woman’s cloak. All wool, fur trimmed, with an embroidered design down the front. It wasn't terrible, but so horribly plain. Worse still, she’d made a note in the corner that she wanted one made for herself!

Starting with the most obvious problem, she erased the lines that made up the woman’s shapeless midsection and drew it in with some shape. Rather than the formless mass that most cloaks made of women, this one would be more of a coat. To enforce the shape of the hips, she’d need to add buttons, as no shape could be held while it flapped in the wind. The embroidered design that currently occupied the space the buttons would go in was another issue, and she erased it without regret. Her ability to make simple, nameless, swirling designs was low, and these showed it. Replacing the swirls with a neat row of tiny circles, she moved to the side to work out the embroidery.

She wanted to keep it somewhere on the cloak, since it was supposed to be the visual centerpiece, but the problem became where. Drawing a tiny hooded figure to the side, arms spread out, she contemplated the look. Horizontally across the bottom would be nice, but she tried to avoid putting too much decorative work primarily where one may commonly need to scrub clean. A coat often brushed through the dirt and snow, and while it was fine if decorative ends wore on with the rest of the coat, she didn’t want all the embroidery unravelling after a zealous cleaning.

She first started with a variation of her original idea – the single line of embroidery down the front. A long, trailing scribble was added to the side sketch, overlapping the line already indicating the buttons. She would have to work it around the buttons hand holes, but it would be worth it if it looked right. Pausing to tap the end of her pencil thoughtfully on her chin, she quickly sketched out another hooded figure, arms also out to the sides. She liked the single line, but it wasn’t quite there. On this second figure, she trailed her pencil down the right side of the figure, just off of where the heart would be. An asymmetrical design was visually interesting, and she added a swirl to the head of the swirls. It wasn’t quite there though and she couldn’t put her finger on why.

Sketching out a third robed figure, she drew in a belt on a whim. She normally didn’t like belts on full-length buttoned coats; they were just a pointless obstacle in getting it off. If it weren’t fully buttoned though?

With a swift drag of the eraser, the center button line of the robe was erased up to the belt and a long rectangle of fabric was drawn in. Instead of the full length of the body, the swirling design was drawn the length of the new fabric, from belt to feet. This would leave the bottom of the coat free to billow and would make the use of the belt more sensical. Frowning as she considered the practical applications, she made an additional note to the side that weights should be added to the bottom of the fabric to keep it from flapping about.

The design felt complete now, and she copied the details to the primary design at the center of the page, indicating with small ‘x’s the two side designs that were to be unused.

She flipped the page over to the completed pile with a sense of accomplishment and, as promised, she stood to treat herself to lunch.
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[Rosela]

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Setting her takeaway bag next to the fire, Rosela stretched and slipped once more back into the chair. As happened so often since waking, she couldn’t finish her food, no matter how hungry she was when she sat down. It was hard to tell if it was due to the child now taking up so much space inside her or because she’d spent so long on liquid food, but she kept reminding herself to bring it up with the Oathmaster.

The rest of her day was earmarked for deciding edits to existing clothing, already pulled out from when she’d stocked the shelves. There wasn’t too much that needed work, thankfully, but with her diminished winter inventory, every item not shelf-worthy was a loss.

The first item in the stack was a women’s winter shirt with a long mane of fur trim. She remembered making this one – long fur had been very in last year, but now it just looked wild. It would have to be trimmed back, but how short?

Pulling up her drawing board, she quickly sketched out a small basic female torso, adding the shirt on top of it. It was a sweater shirt, with overlapping arcs for the bottom hem and the explosion of fur taking place around the ruff. Combing through it absently with one hand, she lightly drew the outline of it on her paper. Slightly darker, she redrew the ruff in shorter, what would convert to hand's width on the real thing. It looked better, but still possibly too long.

Moving over on the paper, she redrew the torso and sweater, this time adding the ruff significantly smaller, just a couple inches wide. This would require trimming the ruff almost all the way down and would make it 'spikey' instead of soft. Fur so short that it created that particular look wasn't bad, but it was a very edgy look. Unsure of whether she wanted that look, she hovered between the two designs, absently shading in various bits.

It wasn't that she didn't typically go edgy with her women's designs - they sold very well, in fact - but she didn't feel this was the season for fierce fur. Fur in general, yes, but for warmth, not statement. Putting an X above the shortest of the two designs, she put a checkmark next to the other. Leaning over, she stretched the length of her body to barely nab a pin from the pincushion on her desk, and used it to pin the design to the shirt itself. She'd have Hudon do the alterations when he came in; there was simply too much planning and deciding what needed altered to finish it herself. Once a single item was altered, one had to go through and alter every size of that item as well, a time-consuming and thoroughly boring task.
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[Rosela]

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Several bells in, Rosela's back began to cramp up and the child within her began to stir. It was getting close to dinner time again and she pulled her leftover bread from lunch out of her bag to snack on. She felt mentally and physically drained from what was essentially her first full day's work since early summer. Part of her, a large part, wanted to give up, go home for a nap and leave the rest of the work for the next day. It was the small part of her that still clung to the old Rosela that demanded she finish what she came in to do. No one would do it for her.

Deciding with a sigh to listen to the little voice, she pulled up the next item in the stack, a large, folded woman's sleeved cloak. This one was pure white, and there was just something...off about it. Perhaps it was too plain, perhaps her brain hadn't made the transition yet to winter colors, but she knew there was something she needed to do to this cloak.

Standing up, she slung it over her mannequin and paced around it. The cloak itself was lovely white wool, a pricey investment, and was lined with white fur, of some origin she couldn't remember. A splash of color perhaps, or even a splash of black, to break up what would look like a walking snowbank. Grabbing her drawing board as she passed, she continued to circle the mannequin as she sketched a basic hooded figure, lined with light, jagged lines to indicate where the fur trim lay.

A belt? Too boring, and she didn’t want yet another form-fitting cloak when they weren’t terribly popular to begin with.

Embroidery? A possibility, but she’d prefer an option less time consuming.

Dangly bits? There lay possibility and the location of said bits could completely change the feel of the look.

Very lightly, reflecting her hesitation with the idea, she drew two strings down from either side of the hood and added little scribbled fur balls to the end. Holding it up next to the real thing, she frowned as she imagined them on the real thing. It would look…fun, she decided, young. Surprised she was going with her first idea, she darkened the lines to make it a permanent part of the design. To balance them out, she added another pair to the ends of each sleeve, and made a note in Common to the side that a trio should be added to under the hood in the back.

Taking another pin, she attached the design page to the cloak, folded it back up, and returned to the pile.
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[Rosela]

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The sun was setting on the short Autumn day, and Rosela had one last item in her pile – a red wool and black fur stole. It was half stole and half poncho, as it was too big to really be the former, but buttoned in the front, which negated the latter. Whatever it technically was, it had fallen victim to what was apparently a common problem with her work – it was just bold enough to look good, but needed something extra to really make it pop. The question was, as always, what to add.

Thoroughly worn out and valiantly fighting drooping eyelids, Rosela stood in front of the mannequin, staring at the expanse of red and black. She had multiple color variations of the stole, but the brightest of which, the red, was the one that felt lacking. It had the short, edgy fur trim that she felt did work with its style, but it made it difficult to add decorative elements to without looking tacked-on.

Too mature for dangly bits, too sleek for added colors, she felt her only option was embroidery. What design though?

She alternated tired hands holding the drawing board in front of her, trying to conjure up the various motifs she’d used in the past. Loosely, sloppily, she drew the stole in front of her, amounting to a series of rectangular blocks. It got the point across though and she immediately began a quick sketch of a rose to the side. It was equally sloppy, but once done, she held it up next to the stole and imagined it embroidered on the side. To be big enough to notice, it would end up just garish. To make it small though would make it practically invisible, useless for her purposes.

It did give her an idea though and she doodled the rose pattern onto the sketched stole, over the heart. It was a cute addition, where a boutonniere might go if it had a lapel. Eager to be finished, she nearly marked the design complete when she hesitated. Sure, it was cute, but…it was too cute. It was kitschy. She hated it, and herself for nearly allowing it to go onto her floor just because she was tired. The idea could work on some other outfit, but certainly not this one.

Putting the board down for a moment, she shook herself out, rolling her head on her neck. Just one more, she told herself.

”It must be nice to not have to sleep,” she whined to the shadows, who did not dignify her with a response. She felt them there though, behind boxes and under folds of fabric, watching her.

”Come on, back to work. One more.” Taking a deep breath, she tried to look at the stole with fresh eyes.

What didn’t she like about it? It was plain. It needed some decorative element. She couldn’t think of any elements to add though…

Getting frustrated with herself, she forced her thought process to start over. It was plain. It had too much unbroken space. What would break up space? Decorative elements…and seams. It had no seams. Could it really be that simple?

Picking up the board again, she erased the pseudo-boutonniere and drew a single line on each shoulder – a simple pair of darts. It would give the stole some shape, and it broke up the expanse of red that so bothered her. Feeling a wave of relief come over her as she felt the design were now truly finished, she made a note pointing out the simple change and pinned it to the stole.

Unable to focus for much longer, she didn’t bother folding up the stole, but instead set about putting out the fire and heading home.
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[Matthew]

Rosela

Experience Points:

• 5 Art (Fashion Design)
• 3 Drawing
• 2 Organization
• 1 Planning

Lores:

• Drawing: Effective Use of Coloring
• Drawing: Seamlessly Modifying Fashion Design Sketches
• Fashion Design: Creating Clothing to Accent the Body
• Fashion Design: Designing for Function and Ease
• Fashion Design: Designing a Cohesive Outfit
• Fashion Design: Understanding Trends in the Fashion World

Additional Notes :

At first I was worried, because it felt like I wasn't going to be able to award many points in Art Design since she was already an Expert and just doing basic sketches. I shouldn't have doubted you, because you really impressed me with your writing. You really did a good job of going much deeper into the Art Design process. Noting little details like making sure not to decorate areas that would get scrubbed during washing is genuinely something a skilled designer would do and a beginner designer would miss. There were other instances of this as well and it made it very enjoyable to read.

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.