The ninth season of Lifetime’s Project Runway kicked off with a challenge to the designers to create a look using their pajamas (or whatever they slept in) and one sheet from their bed. They were also given some trims and dyes they could use to alter their fabrics. Working at 1:6 scale, I could have just used cotton fabric and painted or dyed it. I certainly wasn’t going to use my recently-purchased Eileen West nightgowns–I’m not that dedicated to the show. I remembered that I’d cut off the bodice of an old nightgown and stored it with my fabrics, but I couldn’t find it when I went looking. However, I did find one of my mother’s pale green nightgowns that I’d stored in my fabric bins a couple of years ago.
If you recall, Lindsey modeled Tim’s shorts for me last year when I used them for Season 8’s first challenge. She was here for Craft Night anyway and agreed to be my model again. Thanks, Lindsey, for being a good sport.
In examining the bodice of the gown, I knew the look I wanted to create: something that would marry a modified 1920s silhouette with the pastels of a Southern belle. The model I chose, Gail, is named for a girl I knew in South Carolina in elementary school who could easily have grown up to play Scarlett O’Hara, she was so gorgeous. With all that in mind, here’s how Gail’s dress turned out:
Form fitting with no waist, gathered just above the knee, then flaring out to the hemline.
I added the beading to help transition from Gail’s vivid lip color to her muted dress color.
It was a bold move to leave a lace panel all the way down the back of the dress. Is it a nude illusion because of lining? I’ll keep you guessing.
Detail of the embroidery on the dress.
A last look at the silhouette.
I hope you enjoyed my season debut. See you next time on the runway!
I WAS going to say that cutting off a little of the length would make it less Aunt PittyPat, but then I saw the lacing up the side – my word! All that skin ! Not Aunt PittyPat at all! I like the embroidery and the beading! So glad Runway is back!
Thank you. And I’m glad you’re glad, but ugh. If anything about my dress made you think of this:
instead of this:
I have failed.
I didn’t mean the literal Aunt Pitty Pat, I meant the metaphoric Aunt Pitty Pat… you know all girly with the lace and embroidery and beading. The lacing up the side negates all of that! There is no Pitty Pat.
Thank heavens. Otherwise I might just as well have thrown a cape over it and been done for the season.
you were supposed to make me a cape when I saved chick lit … i was a super hero that day, and capeless. How embarrassing.
Considering your anti-cape stance of the past, you’ll have to search far and wide for a designer who won’t say:
LOL
Great start to the new season, Becky, & much better than some of the efforts on the show.
Thank you, Gary. =)
where is the “like” button?
You just pushed it without realizing it. 😉 Thanks!
Love that lace up the side! How sexy! If had the body I’d totally wanna rock that look
Thank you. I don’t understand why we aren’t all built like Barbies. Something wrong with the universe.
Lovely embroidery and love the beading detail.
Thanks so much!
Did you ever see the movie “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day,” with Frances McDormand and Amy Adams? I think Amy Adams’s character – Delsyia Lafosse – would have loved wear a gown like this.
I haven’t seen it. I’ll have to check it out.