Ohh the horror!

I am on the lam...After finding a rotten misguided cat defiled my Nina Garcia outfit (about 2 hours from completion) and I chucked it out the door to the garbage.  (The garment, not the cat.) I have surrendered.  Fate does not want me to complete it.  After surmounting the ever increasing needy-ness of my family last week, the sustained Hades like temperatures of 116 Fahrenheit, and a general lazy feeling I was almost done!  Then over night, foiled by a cat.  Damn cat....

One or two of you complained that you didn't see my Nina garment any where.  That is why you haven't seen it.  If I feel like it, I may pick it up and start over.  It was a brilliant idea. I had planned to make a two piece suit/dress  The top was sleeveless with an asymmetrical neck line.  The fun part was I was using three different fabrics to create panels that created some interest and traveled into a peplum at the waist.   I used the three fabrics on a tailored pencil skirt having the panels meet up to match the placement on the peplum.  Here is a picture of my sketch, and the top about half done.

Front Sketch

Front Bodice BCP (before cat pee)

Sketch of Back

Back Bodice BCP

So, I feel like I was on to another brilliant submission.  Like I said I may pick it up and start over again. or maybe not.

On the bright side my friend Sandy completed her out fit and sent me her right up.  Her she is:


Seriously?!  Nina Garcia?!  No colors?  No patterns?  No cowls?  Fitted?  Wear to Work & Industry event?  My model threw her hands in the air & said "I'm out"!  So, I was in it alone this week.  


I really wanted to work with leather, but my budget did not allow it.  So pleather it is!  I found some black pleather on JoAnn's clearance table. (I was hoping for maybe a dark blue, green, or purple - so I would have a little color on the runway.  But, alas, JoAnn's is not Mood.)  Then I found an oversized plaid on the clearance table.  I bought all of the plaid & a couple yards of the pleather & went home to see what "Nina Inspriration" would hit me.


I decided a dress / jacket combo for work & then she could take the jacket off for the after hours event.  I chose very wisely from my accessory wall (just as Tim advised me to do!).  Here's what I have this week:

  

Team challenges = DRAMA!!!

First off I have a recap of last weeks episode but just simply have to put it aside as this weeks team challenge is just much more fun to dish about.  However for those of you who watched last week, I just have to say Bryce's dress was the most hideously constructed ill fitting, nasty looking sack of a dress.  His saving grace was color and simplicity.  Julie's "droat" was ugly in the most UGLY kind of way.  I am not sure how she thought Nina would ever were orange and grey, seriously was she on a Colorado, rocky mountain HIGH!   Kimberly deserved the win.  The garment looked great on Nina.  Cecelia deserved to go just for stupidity's sake and she wanted to go.  She was done.

Julie's Droat

 

                                               Bryce                                  Cecelia

                                                           Kimberly's winner!

Which brings up to this weeks challenge...

Cut to morning after Cecelia's wishing to go home.  She is still wanting to be home, and is depressing.  The boxes of running shoes and shirts is a sign of some kind of physical event.  Thankfully, Cecelia asks to leave.  Why didn't she do that last night?!  Really, I would have loved to see Julie run.  I have a feeling she would have mowed over Josh and elbowed him out of the way to get to the finish.  I loved Josh's comment, “ I am gonna wail on them and leave them in my dust.”  And he does!  Who says gay men can't run.


I knew we were in for juice back stabbing, insult throwing, work room banter when Tim announced team challenge and teams of three.  Any one knows three is a BAD group number.  However, it certainly made for some excellent reality TV, no?  Even before it starts Bert is whining… "Another team project?   Wa wa!  I don’t want to work with any of them.  There designs suck.  I am great.  They suck and I am not going to work with them."  Well he sort of said that...

Victor says "I wanna win!"  Hmmm, he is determined and I think ready to get his game on.  Bryce and Anthony round out the team leaders and the picking begins.  Bert is the last man picked, and rightly so.  he is a spoiled grumpy old man, and he lives up to this description.

Teams are:  1 - Anthony, Laura, and Bert....any group with Bert is going to be drama filled.

                  2 - Viktor, Oliver, and returning form the being "Out,"  Mormon Highs "Most Likely to be

                        Gay (but will never come out of closet because of religion)" Josh C.  He is a cute bald 

                        guy, but he the most gay acting straight man I have ever watched.  But hey, a nice guy

                        and probably a great team mate.  

                  3 - Joshua, Anya and Becky...Sparks are just waiting to fly, as Joshua has a mouth that lacks

                       an edit function and he is just rude and spiteful sometimes.

                  4 - Bryce, Kimberly, and Danielle.  Thought they might be least drama filled group, and I 

                       was right.

I forgot to mention Oliver's crash and burn.  First he crashes on the track.  Ouch! then as he is getting looked at, Oliver passes out!!  I love how Tim and Heidi are like, “Oh, my…Did he just  pass out?  That can’t be good”  drolls Tim.  “They are dropping like flies!”  Says Heidi.  Funny.  Waiting for Tim to say, “Well, he’ll have to make it work.”

The groups get to work designing before heading off to mood.  The teams are suppose to design 3 cohesive looks to go with Heidi's New Balance shoes.  I think they were given the denim and suede from the shoes to use and then purchase other fabrics to mix with it.  I had to laugh as they seem to all be forgetting it's about the shoes, and designing outfits to be worn with the shoes.  Really Bert, ruffle tiers with tennis shoes?  What is Josh saying? Leggings are so over?  OMG!!  Not sure what planet he is on. But where I sit, leggings are still "current."  By the end of the time to design, Bert's got his uncooperative wall up and it stays the whole episode.  Becky is getting pushed aside by Joshua and Anya, and she is beginning to wonder what she is in for with the other two designers.

When Tim says they only had from 3:30 PM to 11 PM to design and sew, my jaw dropped.  Impossible, but sets the workroom for lots of emotion and drama.  When Tim says “I am such a nag.”  It sounds cute, but according to my children, I am not a cute sounding nag.  Maybe if I wore a suit and tie... 

Heidi comes in to critique and I am wanting to scream...“Think of your designs with sneakers.”  Hello people!!  What is the mater with all of you?  SNEAKERS!!  I have never seen a bunch of misguided people in my life.  This is sports wear, not evening wear.  Think gym, think lounging, hanging out at home, going from gym to errand running. Not the club, the cover of Vogue, not the office.  Jeez people, put the brain in gear.  Heidi is perplexed and waves her magic wand and grants them 5 more hours of working time. Work time ends at 4AM.  Now we all know midnight is the bewitching hour and soon witches will come out.

Becky quickly learns that Joshua will throw her under the bus and is trying to be more involved than just a seamstress for the two others.  When she offers to make a shirt, Joshua's ugly mouth goes to work.  Basically telling her she designs dowdy garments and will never be designing anything for the challenge.  Joshua is the meanest person ever!!!  I am ready to hit that man.  There is no way to back pedal out of “Your dresses are dowdy.” “ Your aesthetic is 40 to death.”  Really Becky you have to let that “man” be hung on his own hubris.  Hopefully, some loose piece of fabric will be grabbed and wrapped around his head and stuffed in that mean spewing mouth.  No fav of mine.  Thank god he apologized.  He’s right, when he says time to move on and sew.

Meanwhile Anthony and Laura are trying to work with Bert.  Bert, is just a cranky old man.   Especially as he comments, "My garment is going to be clean, modern, and fresh.  Not looking like it’s from the Midwest.”  What the? (I amd a card carrying Midwestern chick!)  However I had to laugh when he and Joshua minced words over a sewing machine and Bert says "Drop dead, Joshua!" and Joshua replies, “Bert you are closer to death than me.” 

Runway was interesting.  No clear team winner, but Viktor's team had the most attractive and cohesive garments.  Viktor's jacket/dress combo is awesome!  T-shirt and pant looks good, but Oliver just wouldn't change his farmer skirt.  Leaves me to ask, why don't the designers listen to critiques!  Heidi said she didnt' like skirt then and she still didn't like it later.  Good work Team Viktor!

Team Joshua also did well.  Joshua did try to put Becky under the bus as they liked her garment least.  However, she did speak up and let them know he didn't let her design much.  I think Becky deserved an award for lasting through Joshua.  He did try to own up to his faults and keeping the team on track.

Team Bryce did well too, but they had some issues with Danielle's look.  Bryce got props for team management and his dress.  Michael Kors was in love with it.  Poor Danielle got ripped for her weird pop of green and top fabrication.  They are not happy with her work.

Team Anthony did not do well.  The judges liked Bert's dress of the three, but over all not impressed with their team.  Laura and Anthony really get eaten alive.  But they chew up and spit out poor Anthony's garment.  Michael Kors mentions it is too big and has a camel toe in the crotch. Bert snickers, “It has a camel butt too.”   Bert is just too happy that the other too are getting reamed.  I hate his contrite behavior. Please grow up Bert.

When the teams are brought back Heidi says she gets to change the rules and Victor's outfit and Anya's dress win.  Leaving Anthony and Danielle on the chopping block.  Poor blubber Anthony, is just crumbling and Danielle is stoic as she get offed.  Stop crying Anthony, you’re in!!!  Heidi tells him if her opinion was only one, he’d be out.  Yikes!  Sniff Sniff.  Bye Bye Danielle.

Since a team project is out of the question for me (who'd be my team? The cats? Kids?) and even with my super woman knee replacement I would have been last across the finish line.  So, I am not doing this challenge. If I had been a team captain I'd have chosen Bert and Anthony just for the fun of having to make them work together.  Now that would have been DRAMA!!  Bwahahahahahah

 

   

The Long and Short of It

It took me awhile to get this challenge going.  A whopper of a summer cold took root in my head.  Nothing worse than a SUMMER cold.  Here in Arizona, the suffocating heat (daily highs of 108, not unheard of now) leaves you unable to snuggle up in your fuzzy blankie, slurp soup and hot tea, or even soak in a hot tub to "cook" it out of you.  Nope none of that, instead you are left sweating in your shorts and tank, walking around with a box of tissues, and debating if your sweat is from a fever or you just need to crank down the AC.  But enough of the whining, I'm better now and the only casualty is the lack of tissues in the house.

Wow!  Weird and interesting challenge last week.  Make a "couture" looking garment for stilt walkers.  Something we all aspire to be able to do.  Not.  I hope next week's challenge is more wearable, and relatable to something someone might actually wear.  This is the long...but what is the short?

Fallene and Bert.  One is short in height, the other short in temperament.  Bert, I have decided is  the classic whiny grumpy old man.  (Notice I didn't add gay, that would be rude.  Gay or not this is the whiniest man I think I have ever heard!) I had such high hopes for him being some great guru of fashion, sage advice on life, but no.  This designer had fallen incredibly short of my pedestal placing.  Not that Viktor (really, ViKtor? ) was much better, but I give him props for realizing his whiny-ness and rude uncooperative behavior.  Good turn around after Tim's visit Viktor.  All I can say is the two are a pair, and maybe just maybe they don't have a pair.  Divas with hubris!

Now to Fallene and Bryce.  Awesome start with the tutu, but massively down hill after that.  First off if Bryce had been thinking he would have given skirt development to Fallene, and taken on the more "complicated" top.  Again, team challenges can work or not.  I felt bad for Fallene, who fell so short in basic construction and fabric knowledge.  It makes one wonder how she got there.  I hope by now has taken a couple of patterning and draping classes.  I was sad to see her go, she was cute and a nice personality to have around.  I love that she openly owned up to falling short and took responsibility.  She showed some strength in character.  But, I am trying to forget the whimpering mess of a cry-fest at the runway show.  Chicks, we cry... and this is worth crying over.

As, for the top three outfits they were great.  And Laura and Anthony Ryan won hands down.  What a fabulous couture look!  Anthony has to remember to keep a few secrets.  Don't tell the judges you used hot glue gun on the shoulder pads.  That's a secret I'd take to my grave.  I like Daniel and Cecillia's  pants (FAB!) and blouse (a little dowdy for me but incredibly difficult draping and sewing involved) and like the judges, impressed at the difficult fabric and draping challenges they took on.  Technicians for sure.  Kudos!  Becky and Kimberly's look was nice too, but I don't think worthy of all of Nina's gushing.  I HATED the bedazzled pants bottoms.  Made the whole pant look silly.  Rest of it was nice.

For pics of all garments go here: http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/project-runway/season-9/rate-the-runway/episode-3#id=1

How about this "designer?"  First I have to say I am trying to be very cost conscious and am so lucky I have two fabulous discount fabric stores in town.  SAS Fabrics is the place I go for fabrics in bulk.  Most everything is $5 or less a yard and it is like notion nirvana.  They have a lot of crap too, stuff you wouldn't but your dear old granny in, but treasures abound here.  Treasures like the beautiful navy stretch satin and cream and gold cheetah print fabric I used for this challenge.

In thinking "couture" and stilts, I wanted to do a dramatic Elizabethan type collar that flowed into a sheath dress that flowed into long flowing cape like bottom.  I lined the skirt bottom in the collar fabric and then created very full "leggings" in the collar/under lining fabric.  I wanted to bring some more movement and interest to the front and created some curving seams and  embellished the front with some gold cording.  I like it!  I think it's tons better than Fallene and Bryce's dress, better than Anya and Oliver's mess (what a disappointment there) and might have done better than Becky and Kimberly's.  Better than the red dress of Laura and Anthony Ryan, not sure.

Here are my design...

Now I also have my friend Sandy's submission...


My frugal side came through & we used fabric that I had in my storage bins & tried to design an outfit that could not only be attractive on an extremely long-legged model, but also be worn by a 14 year old girl. I started with wide legged pants, but decided that stilt walking was dangerous enough & I wasn't going to be the designer that had their model end up in the hospital because of trying to walk in my flowing design!  So, we went with leggings but I flared them at the bottom & changed the ribbing direction to be horizontal at the bottom in an attempt to break up the extremely long legs.  I used only one color but a lot of texture to create interest & keep the eye from simply noticing the REALLY LONG LEGS.


photoshoot, I think that we may have a hit on youtube!  


And now...  we watch the rest of week 3 to see what everyone else did!


Her Pic:

Sandy's Week 2 Project

Here is my buddie's submission for week two.  She had a birthday this weekend so had a little delay in getting started.  None the less, I think she did great, especially since she spent so little money.  Yea!


Project Runway week #2  
We started on monday & I gave myself a $25 budget of pet supplies.  I bought 4 cat play cubes & a leash.  Total spending $24!  I ended up not using the leash or one of the cubes - so once I return them, I'm at $12 for a dress that can never be worn.  The cat play cubes are made of a non-woven meltable & rip-able material that is similar to non-fusable interfacing.  Even with the iron set at the lowest temp, I had a few meltings. 


So - once I ripped the cubes apart, I had a lot of brown binding, several wire circles (that when twisted into shape, caused the play cube to "pop up"), & small piles of red, green, and purple "material".  I chose a small backless dress before we even went to the store because I really didn't want to spend very much for this non-wearable project.


With soccer practices in full force, finding 8 hours to sew was probably the biggest challenge.  I created a striped pattern that helped make the ugly colors actually work together.  I used the brown binding as an accent & sewed strips together to create extra fabric!  I even used one of the wire circles at the hem!

When ripping apart the cubes, we found the following warning label:
Do not allow children to play with or near this item.  This is not a toy for children.  If product becomes damaged, please discard immediately.  This product is designed for a specific and intended use.  Do not use this product for anything other than it's indended use.  For pet use only.

I'm thinking of sending a picture of the finished dress with the warning label to the manufacturer!

Her Pictures:
Sandy's starting items.



Her after:
r:

Petland Capers...

I love to be creative, and given the chance to use the "usual in "unusual" ways is like crack for me.  When the unconventional challenge of the season was announced, I was reved up like a cat chasing a laser pointer.

I thought it was kind of cheating, when Tim gave everyone the heads up and told them the judges don't like to see the designers use fabric items to make the garments.  However, Bert is just an old dog who doesn't want to learn any new tricks and grumbles away about how he won't make "ugly" clothes, and ignores Tim's advice and starts humming an immunity song.  Hmmmmm.

Back to the challenge, the designers had $300 to spend at a pet supply store, 30 minutes to choose and buy items, and I am guessing about 12 hours to do the work.  My hubby is very supportive of me doing the challenges, but $300 on pet supplies!  He would have a fit.  So, I worked on keeping mine scaled down to $100.  I looked for items I might actually be able to manipulate into a "fabric" for sewing.  I decided to look for food bags that had good color.  We have two cats, and I thought if I got cat food I wouldn't feel too bad about spending the money. I also decided some dog rope chews could be taken apart and used in some way.  I also grabbed some doggy poo bags, and some puppy training pads.  Little did I know that Heidi would have strong feelings about pee pads.

Here's proof of the 30 minutes and my stash of supplies:

Ohhh I wanted to get these, but unlike Bert the Weenie, I refused to lower myself to taking the easy way out:

My supplies:

This challenge was hard for me to finish in one day.  My Queen of Domecity duties were in high demand and critter stuff had to wait.  Once I got to work I fiddled around with the bags and training pads.  I found I could take apart the trainer pads and get a nice gauzy material, which I made into a beautiful collar.  Then I started in on draping a top to go with the collar.  I used the trainer pads whole for the body of the shirt. and then wanted to do something more unconventional for the skirt.

The designers got to use muslin for under structure.  However, I wanted to see if I could "make" a sew-able fabric.  After thinking, wine always helps with this, and fiddling around a bit I decided on using the bags from the kitty food and the dismantled doggie toy to use for fabric.  I ripped things apart and started to "weave" my fabric.  I used it to make a simple pencil skirt.  I was able to sew darts in my fabric and waist pleats.

I then decided I needed something to bring the two pieces together.  A belt!  I was done in less than 10 hours.  Here's the result:

I think I would have moved on.  I didn't use fabric items.  I didn't just drop the training pads on some muslin.  I MADE fabric.  The outfit, while maybe not something you'd see on the rack at Nordies, could be worn and not be heckled.  Yea, successful again.

Now once I had finished, the prize is getting to watch the show.  :-)  I thought Julie should have won.  Her jacket/dress was interesting and something you could wear.  How did she get passed over?  I will be watching her and Laura.  Laura almost had a terrible "cone skirt" but thankful her good taste (common sense says ass hanging out from under skirt is not a good thing) stepped in and she went to work on a paper skirt and top woven from leashes.

Well, time to clean up my mess.  Until next time...

More Project Runway Please

Found another great Project Runway blog.  While I check out the Lifetime channel website for Project Runway info, I get so annoyed with all the ads.  Just give me my Project Runway!  Therefore, I have been looking for other sources for PR fixes (you can only visit the same dealer so many times), and found this blog:

http://bloggingprojectrunway.blogspot.com/

Love it!  Check it out for some great dishing on the show, and past shows too.  Bye for now, need to clean the sewing room for tomorrows "challenge."

Friends and Fun

Twenty seven years ago, as a resident advisor at Wigen Hall for the Universtity of Wisconsin-Stout, I met one of my best friends.  She was a freshman on my floor, and in my major.  That was about all we had in common...at first.  I am not sure what Sandy thought of me at first, I was a little to excited about being an RA.  Having grown up with only one sibling (a brother 6 years younger than me, who as awesome as he is now, was simply a typical annoying younger brother at the time) I was looking forward to having 28 younger sisters.  Well, as these things work out, my "Pollyanna" dreams didn't quite work out that way, but I did make a few great friends, but the Sandy was the one friend I have always felt was my "soul sister."

Besides having the same major, Sandy and I shared the same silly sense of humor, a wild craving for "goof-tivity" which at times bordered on delinquency (the minnow h'orderve incident which lead to the upside down minnow incident are two good examples), a love for all things fabric related, and just enjoyed each other.  She is to this day one of my best friends.  Living on two different side of the Mississippi, and going years without seeing each other has never weaken our love for one and other.  She is the sister I never had.

Having said that I had to call her up and tell her what I was doing, this blog, and see if she thought I was crazy or brilliant.  She liked it and said she planned on joining in next week.  Well, foiled afternoon plans inspired her and her daughter to do last weeks challenge.  Below is their creation.

The jammies:  (sorry pics are small not really sure why)

After:

Cute!

I welcome any other people's Project Runway samples.  Just post in the comment section.  Happy sewing!