PPR Challenge #2 House of Cornish The Last Straw

For this challenge the designers went to a movie theater, and then they were offered supplies from a climbing shop, an electrician, a carnival, and a candy shop.  They were supposed to make something movie related, in teams, in 1 day. How frightening.

I set to work and I was SO pleased with my textile. I whooped and hollered and made lots of pieces of textile. “Oh I have a winner,” I thought smugly. But then, in the 11th hour, there was a panic and tears. (Well, not really, but there was teeth gnashing.)

The only thing I can say for my look is that I like it more than the winning look this week. (!!)

(Amanda’s winning look. Teenager door way fringe hanging over muslin.)

And here I give you “The Last Straw”

This clever textile was made by taking a straw, and cutting it into tiny pieces. The more consistent in length, the better the results. Then I arranged them carefully, all standing up and next to each other, packed in like they were on a Japanese Subway at rush hour.

Oh so carefully, so as not to disrupt their “standing up” positions, I put a piece of parchment paper over the top, and then ran a hot iron gently over the paper. The tops of the straw cuts melted and fused together. Then I let them cool, and started on the next one. The concept is clever. The execution… I ran out of time. I don’t like how much muslin is showing, but really, the pieces of straw stuff did not move as much as I thought it would. I got better at shaping them. When the plastic was molten hot, I could grab the paper and quickly bend and hold the pieces to make them have some of the contours of Barbie’s body.

But in the end that was still not enough. And Tim Gunn came and called us to the runway.

Who knows, I could win this whole thing, or I could go home. Or maybe I was on a strong team, and I dragged them down and got admonished by Heidi on the runway. I have no idea. All I know is if effort counts for anything, then I have won already. The absurdity of ironing small moving cut bits of straw was not lost on me. Ahhh, that is why they call it a hobby.