Project Runway Season 9, Episode 2: Pet Project

Greetings, Project Runway fans!  We're back with another episode of Season 9 and I think this season is shaping up to be a pretty good one.

I don't know about you, but when I think of Anja Ayoung-Chee,

I think of this....

But I digress....

This week's challenge was the unconventional materials challenge.   This season, it's a pet shop.

"I have to make dog collars into something you'd buy at Neiman-Marcus?"


Relax.  Our expectations aren't that high.

When I think of pet shops, I always think of this

And when I think of pets and sewing, I always think about how helpful my cats are.  Here's Lucy pushing away a pattern piece after I cut and pinned my fabric.

With every unconventional materials challenge, there always emerges a popular material.  In the Hershey's store challenge, it was the large banners in the store.  In the Saturn challenge, it was the seat belts.  At Petland Discounts.....

soaked the competition.  

They were dyed,

gathered,

and folded.

The other star of the show

comes in seven fashion colors.  I had no idea hamsters were so discriminating.

The designers were allowed to either use the found materials directly in the construction of the garment or to use muslin as an understructure and glue materials onto the garment.   Let's see how our designers did.

Joshua McKinley had the most interesting work table.  

He spent some quality time in the tropical fish aisle, but also found a few items in the dog toy aisle.

This was originally the back of the top.  The bottom was a skirt made from a dog bed.  And then, there were these...

Heidi thought Josh added curlers to the heel.  They are dog chew toys.  Both the over-the-top shoe and the added-on chew toys kept him from the win.  Still, for a designer who thinks "more is more," the final result was actually rather tasteful.

The top flowed and glistened.  The fuller skirt mimicked the flowing top without overpowering it.  The judges weren't crazy about the "I Dream of Jeannie" hair and the aforementioned chew-toy shoe decoration, but this got overall kudos.

Josh jettisoned the dog-pull toy from the back of the dress, probably for the better.

Bryce Black's dress featured both the wee-wee pads and the fashion color bedding.

Heidi Klum declared herself sick of the wee-wee pads and wanted to pee all over the dress.  Millions of viewers would tune in to see that, Heidi!

Michael Kors thought of this.

But I thought it looked more like this.

Then Heidi asked that fateful question that many a designer can't answer... "Who is she and where is she going?"  

Come on, Bryce!  You've seen the show before.  Always have a pat answer, even if it's something a puppy would put on a wee-wee pad.  

"Her name is Ella and she works at Petland and her boss makes her work a lot of overtime.  Anyway, she gets invited to this really hot party in the Hamptons.  Since she has no time to shop, she pulls a few things from aisle 5..."

Next....

"I'm about as far from arts and crafts as you can get.  I was born in Columbus, Ohio."

Olivier Green, the man who does not pronounce the second "i" in his first name with his weird accent, used a dog bed on top and animal bedding on the bottom.  He used two of the seven fashion colors to make an ombré effect.  

He said he kept rabbits when he was little, but they all died.  Perhaps he spent more time on their ombré bedding than he did feeding them.  

Olivier also thought it would be cute to glue bedding chips to his model's eyebrows.

It reminded Michael Kors of this...

Despite the bulky top, and Dr. Zhivago eyebrows, the colors and the length were tasteful.  

But the judges were torn...

Anthony Ryan Auld glued birdseed to a muslin dress.  

And the result was stunning...but short

and a tad stiff.

The judges thought it was chic.  

Michael Kors said she could go to a party in that dress.  Right.  

But the actual drama ended up on the cutting room floor.  Apparently the dress reminded Nina Garcia of something else.

This was the seed and feather dress from Alexander McQueen's Spring 2011 Collection.  Then again, isn't everything derivative of something?

So what's better?  Style or taste?  If Anthony Ryan's dress had been just a few inches longer, he would have won.  Instead, the win went to Olivier.

Two designers found themselves at the bottom of the pile this week.  They both had something in common.

Fallene Wells is a stylish gal.   She's an old-school tattoo kind of girl.  Too bad she didn't stick to her original design.

Note the contrast of the blue with the orange and detailing in the skirt.

None of that showed up in the final result.  

And Josh Christensen had similar struggles this week.

The creepy puppy umbrella was the first problem.

But he also abandoned a more interesting design.  The result was this...

So looking past the creepy puppies....that Josh dyed purple for some reason...

the belt was kind of sloppy.  The skirt was just a plain black skirt....made from a dog bed.  In the end, what sunk Josh was that his materials were all fabric, there was no innovative use of unconventional materials, the design was kind of boring and Bert (who totally phoned it in this week) had immunity.

So, Josh C. has left the competition.

Next week, models on stilts and the first outdoor runway in Project Runway history.*

*Actually, the it's the second, if you count the two-part competition in Paris and New York.

Project Runway Season 9, Episode 1: Come As You Are

Welcome to a new season, Project Runway Fans!  I hope enough time has passed since Season 8 that you were able to finish your anger management sessions over Gretchen's win.  It's over.  Time to move on.  It's a new era of hope and change....

Breaking News: Speaker John Boehner fails to get 216 votes in the House of Representatives to pass debt ceiling bill.

Whoa...that does not look good.  Let's switch over to Lifetime where they have graced us with a full 2 and a half hours of Project Runway goodness.  The first hour introduced us to each of the designers as they auditioned before various panels of judges, mostly made up of past PR contestants.  It was a nice addition to the franchise and made it easier to follow along once the challenges began.

The true star of the show, however, was Seth Aaron Henderson.

He was a perfect panel judge for new contestants.  He had tried out for the show multiple times, each time with a different hair style.  He internalized the criticism and with a stronger, more refined portfolio, not only got in but won the whole shebang.  Some of them should have listened to his pearls of wisdom, which he so generously cast.

Lets move on to the second show, Come As You Are.

The show started off with each designer meeting with Nina, Heidi, Michael and Tim (!) to review their portfolio and collection.  Based on the judges' assessment, four designers would get picked to leave.

The challenge was a twist on Season 2, Epsiode 2, The Clothes Off Your Back, only this time, instead of using the street clothes they were wearing to design an outfit, they could only use the clothes they slept in...plus a sheet.

It's comforting to know that Times Square, NY is one of those places where you can walk down the street wrapped in a bed sheet and no one will notice since everyone is looking at this guy.

I was hoping the designers would have to strip and force the cameramen and producers to cover up the naughty bits with props like they did in Austin Powers.

Alas, they dressed them in medical scrubs.


Anthony Ryan Auld decided to raid the trimmings bin to supplement his limited fabric.  The result was something Tim called a "pubic patch."

Anya Ayoung-Chee, a self-taught, beauty pagent queen from Trinidad and Tobago realized she'd actually have to sew.  ON A COMMERICAL MACHINE.  I've never sewn on a commericial machine, myself.  Everyone seems so intimidated by them.

Bert Keeter worried that his cute, orange gingham boxers would be enough.  He had the sheets, but he had to make them exciting.  He designed for Blass, Halston and Scassi back in the late 70's and early 80's.  So he knows how to drape a bed sheet, people, only this one isn't satin and sprinkled with cocaine dust.

Fallene Wells wore a t-shirt to bed with a picture of a puking clown on it.  The clown is puking a rainbow into a toilet.  This can only mean that it's also flushed the pot of gold that was at the end of it.  Speaking of flushing money down a toilet....

Sorry...I digress...

We now learn that by day, Julie Tierney is Sporty Spice, but at night, she dresses like Baby Spice.  I know what she did.  She brought all of her ugly sleepwear just in case they repeated the first challenge from last year where contestants pulled something out of their suitcase and handed it over to another designer.

Laura Kathleen turns out to be an expert in dyeing, which I would take with a grain of salt.  Seriously, she pours salt into the dye to set it.  Blessedly, this year they gave the designers dye bins so they wouldn't have to use the toilet like two seasons ago.

Rafael Cox wore a three piece outfit to bed and is struggling to figure out how to design something for his model.  It looks something like this:

Tim asks him why he isn't using the leopard scarf that he has wrapped around his hair.  "Didn't you see Season 2, Episode 2 when Andre refuses to use his Kristen refuses to use her grandmother's Hermés  scarf as part of the garment?  The judges eviscerate him her!*  Don't let that be you!"

Ah...the judges....

Christina Ricci joins the judges panel this week and Heidi introduces her as "a movie star who wears a lot of fashion."  High praise from a fashion model who watches a lot of movies.  Ricci is here to promote her movie, Cowboys vs. Smurfs.

Considering that this was the first challenge, the runway show had a surprising number of pants.  Given the materials, it was not surprising that most looks were sportswear/casual.   I thought Viktor Luna's crisp, white dress with black details was the most polished.  But it was not very innovative.  Let's look at the ones the judges concentrated on the most.

I guess if you impress upon the judges that you only touched a sewing machine 4 months earlier, everything you do will look like a miracle.  Anja was the best dressed in bed the night before, wearing a gorgeous, silk kimono nightgown.  She used the silk for the top.  The pants, she said, were the first she ever made.  From the front, that's painfully obvious, particularly as the model walks.  The crotch is halfway to the knees.  What saved the look was the back. The top had a cute racer back and the pants perfectly fit the butt.  So the model gave a great lasting impression...so good, that Laura Kathleen whispered, "I want her!"  Model drama!

Yeah, right.... moving on...

Whatever happened to Anthony Ryan's pubic patch?  Well, it grew up, Jimmy, and began to experience important changes....

and eventually became a panel.

Speaking of panels, our panel of judges LOVED IT.  I'm thinking, perhaps, they snorted some of the coke dust off of Bert's Halston dress from 1978.   Or maybe it just walked down on yet another model Laura Kathleen needs to steal...if she ever wins a challenge.

So who won this challenge?

Bert Keeter and his cute, gingham boxers!  Now, had he not taken his gorgeous model and turned her into Lauren Hutton, circa 1978, you would have seen the details.  The gingham side had a sweet strap that contrasted with the wide, gathered bodice on the other side.  The fabric was dyed in two tones of grey, folded, layered and wrapped.  Michael Kors nailed him on his atrocious styling, but clearly this, among the others, was the most clever and fashionable.  There were others that were more polished and pretty, but this one was memorable.

Not memorable was Rafael's final product.

Kors focused on the "Flintstones disco pouch" that Rafael placed around the model's neck.  It was made out of the scarf that Tim suggested he use.  I'm not sure Andre's grandmother's Hermes could have saved this outfit.  And it's really a shame that he told the Garnier/L'Oreal team to "make the model look like Tonya Harding." The only thing missing from this look is a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon.  He's "auf."



Whoa.  Look how long this blog post is.  Too long, if you ask me.  And I'm really glad not every episode is 2 1/2 hours long.  I know someone else who is, too....

Until next week...

* Corrections courtesy of MoHub!

A tale of two sundresses

To get a taste of my sewing prowess (limited as it is...) I'm sharing two sundresses that I made from vintage patterns.

The first is a sundress from a 1940's pattern (Simplicity 1578, Size 36.)

These days, I fluctuate somewhere between 36 and 38 (you measure dress size from the bust size.)  I was able to sew this pattern without any alterations.  I did not make the little jacket and I omitted the pockets and the ties on the shoulders.  I used Hopscotch for Chloe's Closet for Moda Fabrics, a recreation of a 1930's fabric pattern.

Here's the result:

I made a simple belt with leftover fabric and cinched it with a vintage, bakelite belt buckle.

For the second sundress, I turned the clock back a decade earlier and used a pattern from the 1930's, Butterick 6932, 38 bust.

Styles from the 30's tend to have a thinner silhouette, so a 38 bust gave me the ease that I needed.  I significantly shortened the length of the skirt.  Flared, gored skirts are usually shortened from the middle, not the bottom, in order to retain their shape.

For this dress, I used a red, blue, olive and cream seersucker fabric.  The beauty of this fabric is that it the same on both sides, so it didn't matter which way I cut the pattern pieces!  Here's the result:

Front view with same fabric belt, tied off with a red, bakelite buckle.  The red bakelite buttons at the straps are decorative.

Back view.

Close up of the button detail.

Close up of the bakelite buckle.