Parameters of the challenge: 3 minutes to gather all the fabric you can carry; a few minutes to edit down to 5 pieces; 12+ hours to construct a garment that expresses your design point of view.
I finally understand how difficult it is to express yourself as a designer with one garment! Not only that, but having to do so using fabric you may not have chosen had you been given more time for thought and planning. Here are some before photos of the dresses/fabrics I chose as raw materials.
Cindi helped me with the fabric selection portion on Friday. (Although I'm following Project Runway's rules, I will still use recycled fabrics rather than new, because that's what I do.) We went
to Value Village on Capitol Hill and she gave me 3 minutes to gather. I headed to the fancy dress section with a cocktail garment in mind; I
then edited down to 4 pieces (and eventually only used 3 of the 4). I
spent 6 hours on Sunday creating my glam.spoon cocktail dress and have 2 versions to show you (although the garment doesn't fit Clarisse that well).


Inspired by the fabrics themselves, I had ideas swirling in my head even before I got home with my materials. Cindi mentioned the fabric combination was very Parisian, which was right up my alley. I used the long strapless gown as the base of my garment, and had a really fun, creative time embellishing the top with bits of fabric from all three dresses... but when it came to the skirt, the fabric didn't cooperate. I loved the gray pinstriped acetate, but it was so stiff I didn't like the end result of the skirt (above left). So I cut it off and used the bottom of dress number 3 to add a softer line with depth of texture and a sleeker silhouette (above right). After all that work, I'm even contemplating dyeing the whole thing gray! I still haven't spent more than 7 hours on the challenge, but you gotta quit sometime!
As far as expressing my point of view, this dress does incorporate several of my trademarks: reused fabrics, raw edges, multiple textures, soft pink color palette. I'm pretty happy with it overall, but the minute I finish one garment, I have new ideas for the next, so there is no way to pinpoint the quintessential item. I guess that's a good thing, otherwise I'd be "done" with designing, right?
I welcome your comments... there are more process photos on my Flickr site.