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In Episode 6 of Project Runway, designers went on a field trip to the Hershey's Store in Times Square and made their dresses with whatever they could find in the gift shop. We went to the slightly less touristy Target and made our dresses with whatever we could find in the candy aisle. And since we (unlike the Runway designers) are on a budget, we did not grab everything we could stuff into our suspenders. Here's what we came up with. . .

Wendi's design

I didn't have anything in particular in mind when we went shopping for materials - except that I was pretty sure I wanted to use a brand of candy that was iconic - something that immediately said, "Yay! Candy! Yum!" I liked a lot of the shiny bags that the loose candy came in, but I thought that material might be a little hard to work with. Then I saw the Tootsie Pops. I love the round, recognizable logo and I thought the scale would be right for Barbie. Plus I thought that waxed paper wrapper would work well for slightly gathered shaping. My challenge now was to think like Uli - the master of working with bold patterns.

I pieced together the wrappers, matching up the logos as best I could. I laid out the underdress so that the row of circular logos would run right down Barbie's center, and then I cut the overskirt so that those logos would be cut in half.

I was especially happy with the placement of the logo centered on her bust - and the paper wrappers behaved exactly like I hoped they would in the gathering at the neckline. The colors and the logos and the shape of the dress conveyed exactly the tone of lighthearted fun I was shooting for. And the Tootsie Pops have been tasty!

Alan's Design

I too didn't have a clear vision of what I wanted to create before we went to the candy aisle--either in terms of design or in materials. I did know I wanted color. I was tired of doing drab outfits and wanted something that would really pop. Luckily, candy comes in many bright, poppy colors. I settled on Starburst, with their brilliant yellow and red color combination, choosing to use the larger plastic bag as my fabric source, and not the the individual Starburst wrappers.

Originally I wanted to make this a short-short skirt, but then when I put the whole dress on Giada I loved the look of it so much I just "hemmed" the bottom and left it as is. I worked very hard to get the center of the top part of the Starburst logo to run right down the middle of the dress, and had to really get tricky with my second bag to get the bottom of the logo to split well, because that's not a straight seam in there, especially up around the waist.

My real inspiration here was that belt--taken of course from the factory-sealed end of the bag you usually tear off or tear open to get at the candies. (I'll forgo any other parallels to the ripping off of candy wrappers to get at the candy to the removing of Giada's belt . . .) The candy wrapper/belt piece was much longer than it needed to be, and my original intention was to snip off all the excess--but then I really liked the look of the belt sticking out to one side. I felt it gave it a hint of a bow, or perhaps of a fancy candy wrapper, so I left it--giving the end a little diagonal snip for fun.

Overall I have to say I'm extremely happy with how this came out. The plastic bag wasn't the easiest thing to work with or to sew, but the look, I hope, is both elegant and playful. And Starburst are popular enough to be iconic, I think. If not, the color alone carries it. Oh, and just so you don't eat this up too much, I put the Nutrition Facts on the back!

Vote for the tastiest Eye Candy design in our poll at the top left of the blog, and bon apetit!

In Episode 4 the Project Runway designers were given outdated fashions and broken into teams with the challenge to update their trends AND make them part of a cohesive collection. Our at-home approximation was for each of us to choose the trend we would have chosen and then work together as a team to create a collection. I chose poodle skirts and Alan chose the zoot suit. The teams were also asked to determine their own leaders, and we chose me (Wendi). Here's what we came up with.

Wendi's design:

I'm already a fan of circle skirts (see my entry for Project Barbie 01) so the choice of poodle skirt was an easy one. When Alan chose zoot suit I knew right away that I wanted to do a striped skirt. Since a poodle skirt is really a circle skirt I couldn't use a striped fabric. The stripes in the front and back would have been vertical, but they would have been horizontal on the sides which might have looked weird. Maybe not though - I might try that some day.

Anyway - since I couldn't use striped fabric I needed to create stripes radiating out from the center. I stitched narrow ribbon to the skirt to get that effect.

I was able to use a stripe for my sleeveless top (inspired by a zoot suit vest). I really like the narrow stripes in the top paired with the slightly wider stripes in the skirt. And I was very happy with the colors. We went through a LOT of piles of fabric before we chose colors and I was happy to come up with something that used two colors neither of us have used yet. Plus, these are the colors of my favorite handbag - the one people always want to buy when I carry it - so I hope the judges like it. :-)

Alan's design:

First, there was no way I was going to volunteer to be team leader. What am I, crazy!? Team leaders get auf'd. Unfortunately though, I made the mistake of teaming with Wendi. What a bossy cow!

Okay, now that I'm through channeling Victorya and Ricky, let's look at my design:

I was excited to be updating a zoot suit, since that's a look I like. Not a look I wear, mind you--it's definitely outmoded. But I love the stripes and long coats associated with zoot suits. I had a very specific stripe in mind for this challenge, but after raiding our Mood closet I knew we didn't have what I wanted. On a trip to Asheville I actually stopped at a fabric store and went on a search for what I was looking for, but that proved as fruitless as going to a used bookstore looking for a particular book. I didn't even have a color in mind--just a certain size stripe with a clean look. I found nada.

That hurt from the start. I had a distinctive stripe I wanted to work with, and without that I "lost my vision," to quote a previous Project Runway contestant. Since my bossy cow of a team leader chose blue and brown, I went for a print I've been wanting to use since week one for the vest. You can see it better in the close-up. It might have made a nice dress, but here it's the brown that coordinates (I hope) with Wendi's outfit.

To use the blue but still have that "zoot suit feel," I added a sewn pinstripe to the material. (Yes, I sewed all those pinstripes.)

I gave the jacket a bit of a wider flair at the bottom too, partially to imitate the poodle skirt. The best teams on Project Runway incorporated all their looks into each piece, and I think Wendi and I did a decent job of that here. Whether the two outfits look like they're from the same closet or not? I don't know. I would have liked to use the same material somewhere, but neither of us was crazy about what the other had picked. (At least for these outfits.)

All right, keyboard judges. Now it's your turn to vote. Head to the polls pinned to the top of the page and tell us if our collection has cohesiveness, and which design reigns supreme!

Meet Steven! This past week on Project Runway, the contestants had to design a menswear look for Giants running back and Today Show correspondent Tiki Barber. That meant that to continue taking part in the Project Runway challenges with Jo's Barbies this week we would have to add a rooster to the hen house! Off Alan went to Target, and back he came . . . not with Ken, (who looked positively vapid,) but with his man-friend Steven! Steven's our stand-in for Tiki this week in our "Kenswear" challenge. (Get it?) And like last week's menswear episode of Project Runway, this would prove to be our toughest Project Barbie challenge yet!

Dressing Steven was totally unlike dressing Giada or Summer. First, we had to learn how to make a pair of men's pants. Here's a shot of Alan's pants in progress:


These are the pants you wear if you go to hell! The shirt was even harder, but Wendi worked out a pattern and was kind enough to share. Now let's head to the runway!

Here's Wendi to talk about her design:

The challenge was to make something that Tiki would wear on the Today Show, so it couldn't be TOO fashion forward. He seemed more willing to take chances with color than cut (though he had issues with Kevin's purple shirt) so that's where I cut loose.

Here we have a pretty basic pair of pants and shirt. But the pants are a very dark purple - almost black. The shirt is crisp white cotton.

I added a second bit of color with the tweedy green fabric - a definite menswear texture but in a less common color. I love scarves on men - I saw a lot of that when I lived in Europe. It's a great way to bring in a bit of color, but more casual than a tie.

And here's the last shot - you can see the detail of the shirt front, the mandarin-ish collar, and the texture in the scarf. Very stylish!

And now here's Alan to talk about his design:

First, I should stress that creating my designs after Wendi has already struggled through the pattern-making and calculations is a bit like following Tiger Woods on the fairway. All I have to do is sit and watch what she does and do my best to follow her. It should also be said that pretty much everything I create is a team project with Wendi. She's like my in-house Tim Gunn, always over my shoulder telling me how to accomplish what I dream up. I do all the work, but there's no way I could make any of this without Tim, er, Wendi, by my side.

Okay, all that said, my design this week totally kicks Wendi's ass.

Here's Steven, wearing faux-suede black pants with a satiny silver shirt and matching tie.


I really struggled with my conflicting desires to bring color into this outfit and yet still keep it squarely in the realm of acceptable menswear. I debated a blue, a green, a purple--everything was too over the top. I finally settled for the silver. I've also seen a similar look on athletes-turned-broadcasters, with color on same color, and I loved the sheen. At the risk of Michael Kors telling me it's too "matchy-matchy," I went for it. And let me tell you, making a doll-sized collar and tie was a serious pain in the molded plastic ass!


Work it, Steven!


I had planned to do a matching black jacket, but like the contestants on Project Runway, I scrapped it due to time constraints. We don't exactly time ourselves on these outfits, because usually there's no chance we'll take as much time as the real designers. This time, because the shirt and tie were so complicated, I actually did run into time issues! After a day and a half I had to call it quits and hope that Nina would consider the tie a third piece. And yes, that tie is really tied on like a real tie!

So there you have it. Our Kenswear challenge is in the books. Now it's up to you to vote! Which designer will be in, and which one will be auf'd? Check out the poll pinned to the top of the blog and let us know what you think!

The polls have closed in the voting for the winner of the Week One Project Barbie challenge! We had 23 votes overall. Thanks to everyone who checked out our designs and took time to vote!

Each week, one designer will be "in," as Heidi Klum always says, and one designer will be "out." Which our daughter Jo always follows up with, "One of you will be in, and one of you will be the LOOOOOSER." So, who was "in" this week, and who was the "LOSER?"

By a single vote, Alan is the Week One Project Barbie winner! (See the archived poll, now relocated to the right-hand sidebar.) It was neck and neck all the way, but it was probably his final, shameless lobbying with the librarians at his school visit today that put Alan over the top before the polls closed. (Hey--I've been watching designers work the judges for three seasons now. I should know how to push through on mediocre skills by now!)

In all seriousness, we both had a blast doing the Week One challenge, and we're already looking forward to the Week Three challenge--menswear! I even made a late-night run to Target tonight to acquire a Ken doll. (Well, his name is Steven, actually. The Ken doll looked completely vapid and had bad hair so I picked his buddy instead.)

If you haven't had a chance, check out our combined efforts on the Week Two Sarah Jessica Parker/Bitten challenge. Since Week Two on the real Project Runway was a team challenge, and since we had Thanksgiving with family and then festivals all weekend, and I left for Birmingham Sunday morning, it made sense for us to team up on this one. I left Wendi a horribly challenging quilted vest to create, and she pulled it off--spectacularly!


So this week, since we only have one design, let's change the polling up a little bit. This week's vote--how does our design for SJP's Bitten line stack up to the actual winning design on the show?













Okay, admittedly, we couldn't translate the budget constraints of the show. What were going to do, spend fifteen cents on the outfit? But in keeping with the spirit of the competition we tried very hard to keep things simple, and we made sure it was a two piece outfit and that it matched the colors and feel of the Bitten line.

All that said, which one do you think was better? I'll pin the poll to the top of the blog for the next week, and we'll see who wins!

Project Barbie Links:

Project Barbie Introduction
Alan's Design, Week One
Wendi's Design, Week One
Alan & Wendi's Team Design, Week Two
All Project Barbie Posts

Alan already posted about how we interpreted the challenge this week - and showed off his very classy dress - so I'm going to jump right in to my outfit (so to speak).
Meet Summer. That's what it said on the box. I was inspired by her sporty magenta sunglasses to do something with magenta. An unexpected benefit was that Alan and I got to share the sewing machine without rethreading it over and over again. Summer is wearing a flirty short circle skirt with a nifty green halter top. The skirt was originally longer, but it looked a little Grease so I cut it above the knee for a more contemporary look. I'm especially proud of the halter. The top is threaded through a bit of memory wire (ring-sized) strung with magenta beads. You can just see it in the photo above.
And here's a photo from head to toe. I wish I had taken one photo without the sunglasses - this is perhaps a bit too matchy-matchy - but it's late and I'm going to bed. Jo is going to be VERY excited to see these tomorrow. She was really surprised to see Alan go to work in my sewing room. She's quite a sewing expert (see her quilt-in-progress here) and she kept offering to help him.

Welcome to the first week of Project Barbie! As explained in an earlier post, Project Barbie is our attempt at participating in each week's new Project Runway Season Four challenge.

This week, the Project Runway contestants were given a variety of expensive fabrics, courtesy of Mood Fabrics in New York City, and told to design dress that represented them as designers. To translate that challenge here in the wilds of North Carolina, we decided to use fabrics from our very own "in-house Mood"--Wendi's fabric closet.

My first order of business then was selecting my fabric.

We've been watching Season Three on DVD while we wait on new episodes of Season Four, and I was inspired by Uli Herzner's fabulous use of prints, so I selected the material below for my first dress. My first dress ever, as I'd never done this before.

Since I'm a novice, we're also bending one of Project Runway's rules - thou shalt not use patterns. Since there's no $100,000 prize at the end of this and we didn't sign any contracts saying we wouldn't, Wendi graciously offered me the use of a Barbie pattern kit she'd bought a while back. I am learning all this for the first time, after all.

Being insane, of course, I decided I wouldn't just use one of the patterns straight up. Instead, I wanted to modify it some. Yes, I had a vision. Not a burning bush kind of vision, but a vision of what I hoped would be a dynamic and stylish runway dress for my model.

First I pressed the material:

Then cut out the parts of the pattern I wanted to use . . .

And then learned how to use a sewing machine. I have sewn one other thing in my life--a skirt I wore around campus in my undergraduate days at UT (it's a long story)--but that had been all straight lines. This dress had curved seams, darts, and inverse facing around the top. Nothing simple for me!

Next it was off to meet my model, Giada. That's not the name she had on the box, but Jo took one look at her and said she looked like a certain well-endowed, brunette Food Network celebrity chef we often watch, and the name stuck like melted Parmesan cheese to lasagna.

Giada is a joy to work with, but she's a bit curvier in the hips than her friend Barbie. As such, the pattern didn't really fit. In true Project Runway fashion, I had to make some last minute alterations and "make it work." Alas, if I continue to design for Giada (which I will unless Wendi wins her from me in a walk-off) I won't be able to use that marvelous pattern kit anymore. Giada just has a little bit more junk in the trunk, as the kids say today. This means I may have to make a dress form for her . . . at which point we will know that I am well and truly gone.

On to the runway! Here's the final result.

I'm very proud of this look, especially as it's my first dress ever. The print looks fabulous, and the dress fits well around the hips. My extra touch--small though it may be--was to make the facing at the top white and reverse it so that it folded over on the outside, creating a more finished look and framed Giada's beautiful face. The white flower barrette in her hair was taken from the Bluefly.com accessories wall, and brought things together nicely:

Boom.

Alan and I need a new project like we need holes in the head, but we're reeeeeally excited about Project Runway. I was thinking that it would be a lot of fun to play along at home, but Alan pointed out that we don't have the money or the time to make a full outfit every week - especially for some of the fancy event gowns that they make on the show. And so the idea for Project Barbie was born. Want to play?

Here are the rules.

1. Watch the show on Wednesday to find out what the challenge of the week is. The idea is to approximate (as closely as possible) what they do on the show. If they make an outfit out of food, you make an outfit out of food - for a Barbie doll. If they make something using the clothes on their backs, you make something - for a Barbie doll - out of whatever you were wearing when you tuned in.
   
   
2. There's no money limit. Seriously - how much are you going to spend to dress Barbie, even if you go deluxe?
   
   
3. No need to count the hours worked, but your project must be done, photographed and posted to your blog by the Sunday night following the airing of the episode. Send us (blockhead [at] wendigratz [dot] com) a static link to your posting by midnight EST Sunday night.
   
   
4. We'll post links to all entries on our blog by midnight Monday night. We'll also have a widget where everyone can vote on their favorites.
   
   
5. Voting closes an hour before showtime the next Wednesday night, when the whole thing starts all over again. The winner will be showered with acclaim and glory.