Thoughts on the second episode of Project Runway from last night – I love that they gave them a pregnancy garment challenge! Even though I have never been pregnant, my problem with maternity wear is that it always looks too babydoll-ish. Just because a woman is pregnant does not mean that she does not want to look or feel sexy. I feel that a lot of maternity wear out there takes the sex appeal away from a woman. That being said, while the winning design was beautifully designed and made by Shirin, it was too girlish in my opinion:

The design that I would prefer to wear is the jersey gown designed by Althea. She did a great job of highlighting the pregnant form while also making the body appear slimmer. The fabric color was beautiful and I also LOVED the way she accentuated the lower back (very slimming). My only recommendation was that she ad a bit more fabric to the bust. While most women want to show off the breasts they never had during their pregnancy, there is a such thing as too much.  What did you guys think about the designs?

On another note, I took a day off from working on the pencil skirt because of the zipper dilemma. I’m pretty sure that because of the thickness of the folds in the fabric, a machine stitch is pretty much out of the question. My fear is that it will appear sloppy and that just won’t work on a tailored skirt. I am going to try a blind hand-stitch and see how it goes. I like the idea of not being able to see the zipper seam on the outside of the garment. Details to follow…

I finally get to place the decorative waistband, which is something I have been looking forward to very much. There isn’t a how-to guide for something like this; it just takes some strategic placing and a lot of creativity. To do this, I placed the skirt onto the dress form inside out so the band could be properly pinned to the garment.

After making a few adjustments to the waistband and then trying the garment on, I stay-stitched the band into place. I don’t believe that this was an absolutely necessary step but I didn’t want it to slip out of place (better safe than sorry!).

Normally, I would opt for a machine stitch but the fabric overlapped a few times in the ruffle, which made it extremely thick. My fear was that I would break the machine needle. So, I decided on a simple hand stitch. I am very pleased with how it turned out:

Once the band was stitched into place and the pins were removed, I started to work on finishing the inside of the band. The fabric (as you can see) frays terribly. So, I wanted to use a finishing stitch on the machine to prevent further fraying. Big mistake! My initial fear about using a machine stitch was correct. I broke the needle. Stupidity or a right of passage? I’ll go with a right of passage. I decided to give it a rest for the night after the needle deal breaker…

Tonight, episode 2 of the new season of Project Runway. Can’t wait!!

It’s been quite the productive day. I went ahead with the dart placement on the pencil skirt. The darts, in my opinion, were falling too low. So, I decided to take in the side seams a bit to lessen the fabric in the midsections. I’m much much happier with where the darts fall now. Time to sew!

After sewing the side seams and darts into place, I went ahead and cut away some of the excess fabric and did a finishing stitch on the side seams. The fabric that I am using is linen and it frays terribly! Usually, I would wait until the garment was complete to finish the seams but I felt this was necessary step so the fabric wouldn’t fray too much.

At this point, I tried the skirt on. The fit is spectacular! You’ll never have a better fitting garment than one that is tailor made to your measurements. The only thing that I would like to change is the darts. They need to come down just a few more stitches for a smoother look.

I was able to get started on the waistbands today as well (hence the productivity ☺). After attaching the standard waistband pieces together, I pinned them to the skirt only to find that the seams on the band did not match up with the seams on the skirt. I reattached the band pieces together taking them in enough to match the skirt seams. After stay-stitching it in place, I attached the decorative waistband pieces. I’m really excited about this part because, up until now, this has been a simple skirt making process. Now, I get to add an extra dose of creativity!

On another note, I did some serious sketching last night. After the season premiere of Project Runway topped off with a dose of the Rachael Zoe Project, I was feeling inspired. I’m obsessed (like most of you are) with the red carpet. Gowns are my favorite things in the world to design. My dream would be to see my dresses on Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and especially Anne Hathaway – the old Hollywood glamor girls of today. Once I start to work on these dresses, I will post the sketches.