On Wednesday night, more than 2.8 million viewers -- and probably half of Escondido -- tuned in to watch fashion designer and hometown favorite Ricky Lizalde, 35, narrowly escape elimination on the season premiere of the Bravo hit reality show "Project Runway."

The 12th of 14 children raised by Eloisa and Raul Lizalde of Escondido, the new celebrity competed against 14 other young and talented designers in the Emmy-nominated show's fourth season. The contestants are vying for the opportunity to present their designs at New York Fashion Week and $100,000 in cash with which to start their own fashion line.

Cousins from all over the country called Eloisa Lizalde on Wednesday night to ask whether the lingerie designer named Lizalde was really related to them. And third-oldest sibling Lupe Calzada, 49, of Escondido, who originally thought she would host a party just for her sisters to watch the premiere, saw the guest list quickly mushroom to include brothers, nieces and nephews, neighbors and friends on Wednesday night.

A couple of the brothers-in-law were enlisted to babysit so their wives could come to their sister's premiere party. Early in the evening, two extra-large pizzas were ordered and devoured with plenty of iced tea, sodas and snacks on the side. And Calzada neatly arranged rows of folding chairs between the sofa and the pair of Little Tike push and ride cars for Calzada's twin foster children in the room with the widescreen television.

"We're well-known already around here because we are a big family," said fourth-born Jorge Lizalde, who is a foreign-car mechanic. "But now, even more people know us. I even had someone in New Hampshire ask me if Ricky was my brother. In New Hampshire, can you believe it?"

Among the 30 or 40 people at Calzada's home Wednesday night was Raul, the family patriarch affectionately known as Apa to his family. Soft-spoken and retiring, Raul said in Spanish, with the help of his youngest daughter Veronica, that he was extremely proud of his son Ricky and his already considerable accomplishments in the world of fashion.

While anxious to know how Ricky would perform on the show, the Lizaldes gathered at the Calzada family home were unanimously confident in his talent.

At a very early age, Ricky showed his artistic flair and aptitude for sewing, said Olivia Rodriguez, the second-oldest sibling. "In elementary school, he would make teddy bears, with the fur and the stuffing and all of that." He also constructed beautiful, elaborate pinatas, recalled many members of the family. Soon, while still in elementary school, he had graduated to dresses and more complicated articles of clothing.

Ricky has made wedding dresses for almost every woman in the family, including for his sisters Heli Hondo and Maggie Palacio, and Ricky's nephew's wife, Lilly Lizalde. "Mine was the first wedding dress he made," said Palacio, who owns and operates Gold Coast hair salon in Escondido. "He freaked out when I asked him to make it, but I told him it was just like another Halloween costume."

The result was a dress with an elegant hand-beaded bodice, off-the-shoulder sleeves and a veil.

Danny Lizalde, Ricky's nephew, who grew up in the family home alongside many of the younger Lizalde siblings, said he plans to keep many of Ricky's original Halloween costumes for posterity.

"He made a teenage mutant Ninja turtle with the padding on the back for the shell. He has done dinosaurs. And he made my daughter's Alice in Wonderland costume last year," he said. "He'll be the next Versace or Armani. I just know it. He has the personality and the talent, and he's real hardworking, too."

Hardworking is one of the family's most prominent traits, said Heli Hondo, adding that seven of the 14 children have earned college degrees and all have graduated from high school. She also acknowledged that growing up in a large family has helped her manage and deal with co-workers in her insurance business.

Indeed, Calzada said that Ricky told her when he came out to Escondido in October for a family visit that the show organizers warned him that working (and living) with the other contestants is an important element in the competition. "When he applied for the show, they asked him, 'Do you think you can live with all the other people?' and he said, 'Look, I lived with 13 other kids,'" said Calzado.

Like their mother, who is also an expert seamstress, Olivia Rodriguez hastened to mention that Ricky never uses dress patterns or measuring tape, and few pins. "Mom always went around and measured like this," she said, extending her thumb and forefinger into an L shape and inching it along as her mother did.

Eloise, the family matriarch, made all of the Lizalde children's clothes. She worked as a seamstress in the Garment District in Los Angeles, and later putting frills on children's underwear at Dorsey's in San Marcos. "She'd go to the store and look at the little girls' dresses with all the ruffles and bows and then go home and make them the same," said Calzado.

Following in his talented mother's footsteps by pursuing a career in fashion, Ricky moved to New York City 10 years ago with only $1,000 in his pocket.

"He moved to be a dancer on Broadway," said Palacio, adding that after a couple of years there, he started making corsets for the dancers which in turn led him into the field of lingerie design. From there, the sisters said, he went on to become an assistant designer for the Valentino label, before working at Oscar de la Renta and Vera Wang.

He now has his own lingerie label, Lizalde, which he launched in 2004 and is carried by Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and other specialty shops throughout California.

"I remember him pulling me aside and telling me that he had to go to New York to fulfill his dream," said Hondo. "This is his life and his passion. Ricky always sewed. He's just creative that way."

Billed as the best crop of contestants, Lizalde's competition in the show's fourth season is stiff. In fact, Lizalde was judged in the bottom three on Wednesday for a baby-doll dress design that, while well-made, was criticized as being too safe.

"We all said, we have to listen and we're going to be quiet so we can pay attention," said Calzado of the gathering around the TV screen on Wednesday night. "And the minute Ricky's face came up when he was being interviewed, everybody started screaming. The neighbors probably could hear us all the way down the street. It was so exciting."

Calzado added that the family decided to telephone their celebrity brother in New York about halfway through the premiere, though the network was unable to put the North County Times in touch with the fashion newcomer for this article.

"We were so tense because we don't know what happens. I think we probably woke him up, but he said, 'Just keep watching,' that's all. Just keep watching."

Contact staff writer Ruth Marvin Webster at (760) 740-3527 or rwebster@nctimes.com.