PPR Challenge 2 – Kat’s Design

Challenge 2: My Pet Project
Challenge: Use anything from a pet store to make your design. You can use a base fabric like muslin to build your outfit on.
Time: You have 13 hours to create your design.
Shopping for Project Project Runway materials Pet Project Supplies
I headed to the local PetSmart along with Jenny from A Mom and 2 Things. We had a lot of fun searching the whole store for materials for this challenge. I had an idea what I wanted before we went and pretty much stuck with that. Bonus, everything was on clearance. I bought an aquarium plant in pearlescent black and white, two brine shrimp nets and a Bobo doll.

My plan was to use the shrimp net as sort of a sheer lace top, the plants as the skirt and Bobo as a jacket. The netting was a joy to work with as it had a little stretch to it and was fine enough that it was still easy to sew. I turned it into a boatneck top with cap sleeves and an asymmetrical hem. The aquarium plant was cut into leaves and sorted by color. I had to clip the top of each leaf and then roll them to make it make them lay a little flatter.
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Then I ran into an issue, the leaves would not glue to each other. Super glue worked great to attach the first layer, not for leaf to leaf. The only thing that worked in the end was glue for styrofoam and even that wasn’t great. Still I managed to get three layers to stick, relief! At that point, Tim came in the work room and I showed him my plan for the coat. He took one look at it and said, “Do you really think it needs it? That pattern doesn’t really add to the whole look” I took his advice and decided less was more.
PPR Challenge 2 - My Pet Project
In the end, I thought my dress was really youthful and cute, as well as a little daring with the sheerness. I was proud that I used no base fabric in my design, though it might have made the skirt construction a little easier.
PPR Challenge 2 - My Pet Project
When it came to styling I decided to make my own jewelry from the aquarium plant. Finally, I chose a black bootie style heel from the Piperlime accessory wall. I went with black as it continued the way the dress got darker as you went down.

The judges seemed to be a little more impressed with my design this week. Nina was concerned about my use of a sheer fabric for the top. I defended my choice by saying that was the more daring look for the runway and a camisole could always be added if someone wanted. Heidi on the other hand loved the top and the whole fit of the dress. Michael liked the way I did used the colors of the leaves on the skirt. All and all, I’m pretty happy with this challenge’s design. Heaven knows it’s a heck of a lot better than the Bobo snuggie.

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13 years ago by in Challenges , Needlecraft , Project Project Runway , Sewing | You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
15 Comments to PPR Challenge 2 – Kat’s Design
    • Swellanor
    • I’m glad you went with “less is more”- that seemed to be the lesson of the day on the show! That, and “Listen to Tim.”

      I hope that on the runway you didn’t make a big deal out of how you were the only one not to use additional fabric- the camera would have cut to me rolling my eyes! But maybe I’m just jealous because I built my design on a muslin shell. . .

      • Kat
      • Swellanor – Of course I made a big deal out of it, especially when Nina said my top was too sheer. Back in the green room I asked you if you had a problem. Oh, we are good tv.

    • Beth Winegarner
    • I agree — very cute. I like the more subtle use of the leaves compared to, say, Becky’s look on the show last week — which I also loved, but it was a big much on the eyes.

    • Bonnie
    • This outfit is charming! I love the necklace! And you were not the only designer hoping the design would hold up through the runway portion. I’d love to see an outfit fall apart on the real runway. Oh, the mortification!

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