Artistic Inspiration Challenge

Ok, these challenges are really silly.  Why can't they just give them a lot of money and a good amount of time to make a beautiful red carpet gown.  I wish the challenges would try to be less creative and get back to fashion.  I haven't been blown away yet by any of the designers, but I am waiting.

So, Project Runway used to be my show that I would watch while my husband was not at home both for the reason that it annoyed him and for the reason that it annoyed me to have him make fun of Tim Gunn's little catch phrases.  But, for some reason I can't pinpoint, he started watching it with me this season.  Maybe it was a curiosity on his part to see what this show was all about and to see what I would hypothetically be getting myself into?

Anyway, he is enjoying it - mostly for the remarks of the judges (Michael Kors specifically) that have been cracking him up.  He was also excited to see that Kenneth Cole is a straight male designer.  And I mention this not to knock the gay male designers, but to point out that straight men can be creative and fashionable too.

And I mention this bit about my husband because it was his idea that directed my design this week.  After watching this episode, which the designers were to create a haute couture garment inspired by a piece of artwork (the artwork was created by the designer and an art student), I asked how I was going to create my own design.  Where was I going to get an original piece of artwork?  To this question, my husband pointed out that I should use one of his paintings.

So I did.

Here is one of his paintings.  All of his work is done on large canvases made by him and is based on the Golden Ratio.

And here is my design.  Normally I do "shopping" at mood fabrics.com to try to truly mimic the challenge. But I have a babysitter today and I want to get some sewing done before my "time is up."  But know that the dress would consist of stretch velvet as the basics of the dress (with black mesh at the top and down the back) and different colored pastel chiffon would be the flowing detail.

And, I am not married to the black mesh on top, but thought it might look good strapless too.  But there it is.  The green velvet horizontal stripe would actually hold some of the chiffon in as well.  And there would be a chiffon train in the back.

Nina Challenge

I finally had time to sketch my ideas this morning after working all weekend.  Work is going to be a definite hindrance to this project, but it is suppling finances.  In fact, my French curve ruler set arrived on Saturday.  Hooray!

I also started to piece my black skirt together.

But, back to the show.  This week's challenge was to create a look for Nina.  The budget was $200.  I do have to say that I did like Kimberley's winning design.  However, there were a lot of designs that weren't so great.

So, I have brought two designs to the table as the designers were given a chance to sit down with Nina and get her thoughts.  My first design idea is separates.  The top would have this fabulous tweed between an almost white fake leather.  The pants would be a satin charcoal/platinum fabric.

This is a close up of the tweed fabrics:

And the satin pants:

My second design idea would be to make a simple mod long sleeved white dress, but paint a cool design on it with acrylic fabric paint:

Well, I have to work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday this week and I will be beginning to create four flower girl dresses for a bride in New York, so I will be plenty busy.  But I still hope to get the skirt done this week and I want to get some more application questions done, too.  Until then!