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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
© 2005 – 2011 Kathy Lewinski & Susan Cornish
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. . .
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.
That is super cute! I like the little skirt.
Love it!
That skirt is darling. Love the look! Although the Bobo head would have been my favourite accessory still heheheh
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.
The color palette you used is sophisticated for using aquarium plants.
So cute! Very youthful and flirty. Love!
I love it!
This is really cute. And it looks like you and I were similarly inspired by those aquarium plants!
It looks great. I love the shoe you choose.
Super cute! I’d give this outfit top marks!
Super cute. I never would have guessed that the top was from the net… it looks expensive.
Simple and chic. And what a great necklace!
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!