Week 3: Done!

It was fated that a two-day/two-garment episode would fall on a weekend I had to go do big, longer than expected errands in the city.  Between that and a forty-minute nap that mysteriously ended up lasting three hours, most of my work time for one day was wasted.  Ugh.

Then I had my first sewing failure (which I only took this crappy snap of before tearing it apart).  Plus there was the partial failure of the high-end look.  But, as a friend pointed out, it couldn’t be worse than the Auf for this episode, right?  I don’t know.  Chase, who designed this piece, is happy with it.  Me, not so much. It’s not super high end.  However, I’ve never been one to do high-end well.

I was very, very tired when I took these, sorry if they’re lacking my normal sparkle.

(click through images to go to the Flickr and see other angles)

The low-end look is nothing like my sketches.  After the failure I was very “arrgh” and dived into my jersey stash—because really?  Stretch knit is hella mass market.

Problems, “high-end”:

1. The fit of the vest thing is weird.  Kind of expected and part of Chase’s design, but still.
2. Though I love the texture myself, does it look purposeful? Secret: it was not. But then I liked it.
3. Overall it probably would have been better over something more closely shaped, as the vesty thing doesn’t do so great a job reigning in the dress.
4. The dress was last minute.  If I actually had two days to work on it, the under-piece of this look would not be such trash.  After the failure of the low-end piece I had to devote a chunk of time to re-doing it that I would have otherwise spent crafting something better to go under.
5. I really hate the underdress.

Problems, “low-end”:

1. The bolero vest thing is pretty dorky.  I think it references, in a mass-market way, the high-end vesty thing?  But does it do it closely enough?
2. The vest thing should be lined. In my defence, several of the actual contestant’s jackety things are not lined.
3. Is the underdress too simple? I really like it. Does the mock turtleneck do an okay job referencing the collar thing on the high-end piece?

Well, I’m not that happy with things, overall.  I’d so totally put myself in the bottom two.  But, based on my not totally sucking the previous two weeks, I would not be eliminated.

Total time—9:51
Time left—10:09

Previews for the next episode make it look like one of those “designing for ‘real women’” challenges.  Tear-jerking twist: ladies who’ve survived heart health problems!  Which is rad. Though I’m a good inch or two larger than standard runway on most measurements (and nearly a foot shorter, natch), I am not a real-person shape.  However, I have, I think, a lady who might qualify on a technicality. This will be interesting, as I can’t just fit things on her willy-nilly like I do on myself.