PPR Challenge #5 – Kat’s Design

This week’s Project Runway challenge was to find a muse on the street and literally take the clothes off their back to create a new design. For the doll-sized challenge, there was an easy choice, use clothes from a human to turn into your design (lots of fabric) or the harder choice, use a doll outfit to turn into your design (much less fabric). I went with the second choice as it seemed closer to the challenge to me. I didn’t have any doll clothes I wanted to cut up, so a trip to Target was needed.

I picked up the Bratz’ shorts romper being modeled here by Mía. I was attracted to the pattern, but it didn’t give me a ton to work with. The back of the romper has a velcro closure, the zipper in the front is fake and none of the raw ends were finished. The collar at the neck was actually just a scarf. Plus my model is at least an inch bigger than a Brat. This outfit cost me $6.99 which left me $8.00 of our $15.00 limit left to spend. I knew I wanted color, so I picked up $.87 of yellow knit and the same of a black knit. I was well under budget. I was a little leery of the yellow, but in the end was so glad I went with it.

Here is my final look. I ended up turning the romper into a jacket. That took taking the shorts apart, removing the velcro and faux zipper, finishing the raw edges and sewing up the back. It felt a little bit like a cheat using the sleeves that were already there, but I loved the way it looked so much with it’s 3/4 length sleeves and nehru collar. The dress underneath is a simple colorblock dress with a high waist, boat neck collar, “v” back and short sleeves (see, I can do my own sleeves). Something about that collar and sleeves made me keep calling it “the Audrey dress” in my head. The dress is form fitting without being tight. It was a little tricky to get the top to fit right while attaching it to the skirt.

To me it’s a great little day to night outfit. I can see someone wearing it to work with the jacket and then removing the jacket and adding some statement jewelry for a dinner date in the evening. The pieces are flattering together and apart.

I kept my accessories to a neutral black, though it was tempting to go for a bright yellow shoe. In the end, I decided colorblocking works best if you don’t pull the eye all over the place.

So, what would the judges think? I hope they would like the style of my outfit and think it is well made (especially after last week’s unfinished dress). There might be some concern that 50% of my outfit wasn’t from the muse’s clothing, but really I used everything except for the scarf and the little piece of faux-zipper. I might not have been in the top three, but I think I’d definitely be safe, heck is Jerrel was safe with the “strange-girl-begging-for-change-on-Haight-Street” outfit then I HAVE to be.