Making RUNWAY REMAKE

A fistful of organza flowers in my mitts, an open flame dangerously close to my coils, I  looked at my pink reflection in the mirror and maniacally breathed to Rob across the fabric bombed expanse of our Denver digs: I'M THROWING IN THE TOWEL.

He 98% believed me, which tells you how underwater I was. At that point, I'd been sewing for six weeks straight, and little else. That's not a complaint, let's be real, WHO NEEDS FOOD AND WATER AND BATHROOM BREAKS WHEN YOU'VE GOT SEWING. But, when you're slam sewing stuff intended to be paraded around in front of cameras, and you're Type A, the "this is sh*t" stage of the creative journey sometimes sets up shop and refuses to leave. And that's where this dress was hanging out at 11pm the night before the shoot.

And I do mean hanging out. On a hanger. ln a corner. I'd been giving it the hairy eyeball every night after Rob forced me to turn off my brain, eat a good meal and chill for a minute.

Lemme back up. Here's the skinny. In the midst of production for Re:Fashion 2, this extra challenge dropped in my lap. And I do like Extra. This chameleon dress (that has too many looks to reveal in this post) was created for the new Bluprint series, RUNWAY REMAKE. Hosted by Mondo Guerra, it goes hand and hand with Project Runway--an episode drops every week in conjunction with the main event on Bravo. I was slated for the premiere episode. The timeline was tight. Supatight! SPANX TIGHT! (That last bit, to my chagrin, literally.)

The premiere ep's challenge was "First Look." My dossier was to reinvent a past look for my present self, and my inspiration was a shot of me in my prom dress. Ah, prom! Basically the red carpet of high school. As I've said before, I was a shy teenager, but although I used wild clothing as daily armor to walk those hallowed halls, the thought of 400 eyes at prom was apparently too much. And this was me going to prom as a bewildered junior, so I well and truly squashed my naturally off-the-wall instincts and went full wallflower, with a demure fit and flare solid pale pink gown, adorned with a shy satin rose.

I am 24/7 bold now! My red carpet reinvention would have metallic bling! Couture organza flowers! Boning! Multiple capes! And I could totally get it done on top of Re:Fashion sewing! AGAIN WHO NEEDS SLEEP WHEN YOU HAVE SEWING! Prom pic at hand, I sketched an updated look, extending the neckline into a tiered cape surrounding a mini dress. And then, I worked up a mini version on my half-scale dress form with THREE capes to mimic the three pleats on the original neckline. BECAUSE MORE IS MORE.

So, the dress was pretty much designed before I started to sew. And that was what was biting me in the tuchus. How do I always forget it's hard for me to make something *as promised*? I like to have an idea in my head, and then I like to be able to BATTLE ROYALE myself. Smackdown sewing! Make mistakes! THEN FIX 'EM! I especially need that improvisation when there's a time crunch.

My first catastrophe was the underdress. I went with a self-drafted bodice and pencil skirt. So smart, going with an already fitted pattern! SUCH A TIME SAVER! I chose to underline and line the poly metallic organza, using a lofty, textured metallic jacquard for the visible underlining.

And then I decided to machine baste the layers together. And then when they weren't behaving (because I had skipped hand basting), I decided to steam blast those layers flat before assembling the dress. Both questionable choices worked in harmony to shrink my perfectly sized, supersensible pre-fitted pattern to about 2 sizes smaller than intended.

Enter seam ripper, teeny seam allowances, exposed zipper, and taped seams. (And, on the day of the shoot, Spanx. Which I think are the devil incarnate. But, when you've got a deadline and no minutes for remakes, you make your deals, yo.)

I gave myself a break by testing a flower or two. They were so quick and easy, I decided I'd knock out the rest in Denver. Because I had boning to get to.

I chucked some rigilene in along the neckline as well, within the seam allowance. Lately, I've been using rigilene here instead of twill tape. I love what it does to a neckline! You can see here how it keeps a square neck & deep V supported in a strapless romper I made.

I figured it would also add some stability for the caped contraption that was somehow going to extend from the dress bodice down to my waist. In theory, the whole cape-beast-thing would be one liftable unit. IN THEORY.

Y'all. WHAT THE WHAT IS THAT. This exo-skeleton contraption mocked me for seven days at home! The night before the flight, I still hadn't figured it out. I brought the structure, two flowers, the strapless wiggle dress, ten yards of organza, five suitcases of fashion, and a headful of stubborn with us to Denver.

After a fantastic and wonderfully technicolor week of Re:Fashion, the night before the Runway Remake shoot, literally at the eleventh hour, I decided it was either the ridiculously engineered exo-beast, or me. Were it not for Rob, who handed me a digestif and said you need to follow your instincts, babe, it probably woulda been me, in a blaze of stupendous cursing, because THERE IS NO CRYING IN SEWING.

I dismantled the overworked structure, and repurposed two of the taffeta covered lengths of boning for straps for the underdress. Six little filigreed hook and eye sets afforded me the solution to attach the newly freed cape tiers at three points along the dress: straps, underbust, and waist. It was SO much simpler! Sometimes simple is beautiful. However, my exhausted brain wasn't convinced at that point that what I'd made was anything approaching beauty, so to bed I went.

The next morning, Rob was my hype man. He got me coffeed up, packed up, and on my way. In the dressing room, I tried on the full look for the first time, and went to meet the (always fabulous) crew for the day. A man said "that is the best thing I have ever seen." To which I hollered back with the force of a thousand suns

OHMYGAAAH LISTEN NO REALLY?! ARE YOU SERIOUS THANK YOU SO MUCH I TOTALLY THOUGHT IT WAS A DUMPSTER FIRE LAST NIGHT I ALMOST CALLED YOU GUYS AND SAID IT'S NOT GONNA HAAAPPEN ROB HAD TO TALK ME DOWN

And that's how I met our DP Dave ;) 

Moments later, to my caffeinated delight, I realized my left turn at Cape Dismay meant I'd doubled the ways I could wear the beast! That's up next. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe Thursday. I've learned to give myself a little wiggle room, dontcha know ;)

AND NOW I GOTTA SUNDAY SEW SOMETHIN'. I've got mistakes to make! Hope you do, too!