Design Challenge

Way back in July or so I was asked to participate in a Design Competition being held during the Education of the Textile Arts in California (ETAC) being sponsored by Peggy Sagers of Silhouettes Patterns. I agreed knowing I had plenty of time and went to work on the story board for my designs. Here is the scenario for this competition:

You are attending a high school reunion a little over three months from now. You are flying on a commercial airline to the reunion and only one carry-on bag allowed so all outfits must fit into the one carry-on bag. You will need three outfits and no one outfit can be repeated. These are the three events that you are going to attend.
First day - Friday night get-together/mixer.
Second day afternoon - “Memory Lane” photo shoot
(must dress in the clothing style of the year you graduated.)
Second evening - Big Outdoor Dance/Dinner

Rules I had to incorporate:
1. One item you make from the fabrics must be visibly worn at all three events.
2. One item must be reversible.
3. Some of all the fabrics must be used.
4. An additional $25 can be spent and will be reimbursed for anything purchased such as additional buttons, fabrics, etc.
5. All outfits must fit into the carry-on bag.
6. Patterns are free and unlimited from any one of the sponsors and ordered through the designer.
Those patterns ordered must be used in the challenge. No other patterns may be used.
7. No additional fabric from personal stash allowed. Any notions may be used from your personal stash. Only an additional $25 can be spent on anything you need. (see #4)

The patterns must be selected from either  LJ Designs - Lyla Messinger,  Barb's Originals, Barb Callahan, or Silhouette Patterns, Peggy Sagers. Working within this limited pattern selection was a minor challenge. I think I did pretty well picking out patterns that fit the scenerio and my body shape. I've never had much luck with Peggy's patterns, but most of my selections came from her pattern line. I picked two patterns from Lyla and none from Barb's patterns. I suppose I could have selected a purse pattern, but none of them appealed to me.

The fabric that was sent were some pretty horrible stuff. The first fabrics sent included a cotton/lycra border print, a white cotton pique, a dark orange stretch lace, and a black knit with a silver snake skin print. Later I was sent a blue/gray polyester gaberdine fabric and I had my choice of color of silk dupioni. I chose a dark red for my silk.

Oh, and did I mention? The ETAC Conference is this coming weekend. Instead of working on my garments for this event, I made a costume. Either I'm crazy, or else I LIKE working under pressure, probably a bit of both. Anyway you look at it, I'm a BIG procrastinator.

So far I've got the tank top, one skirt, the dress, and a vest cut out. Tonight and tomorrow I plan to get all these pieces sewn and the muslin for the jacket sew up and alterations done. I also need to finish the muslin for the second skirt. I'm really hoping that it won't need any alterations. Stay tuned as I'll be posting my progress every night on my blog. I really need all the encouragement and prayers I can get.