Barbie/Project Runway Finale "Fashion Week"

This is it...63 pieces of clothing or accessories and the challenge is OVER for me! Last week, the finalists were asked to come up with a 10 piece collection to show at Fashion Week. Tim Gunn visited each designer at his/her home to discuss the collection and the inspirations they had in designing these "looks."

As for my inspiration, it was a no-brainer. Of course, I HAD to design a wedding dress for Barbie and outfits for the entire wedding party. My dream as a young girl was to have a wedding dress for Barbie, but alas, all she ever wore was her striped black and white bathing suit. Plus, if I recall correctly, the wedding dress at that time cost a whopping $5.00. This amount was insurmountable for me, and no one else shared my enthusiasm for procuring an outfit for a

missile-breasted girl like Barbie in my household!

(Speaking of those two missiles, I am well aware of the issues surrounding her body image for young girls. I chose to treat her like a favorite toy, and leave her measurements out of the equation --- seriously, how could I ever have completed this Project Runway challenge with a doll such as Cabbage Patch or Polly Pocket?)

So here she is in her wedding finery. She did follow the traditional ritual of

Something Old,

Something New,

Something Borrowed,

Something Blue.

The old is the wedding dress fabric itself taken from a yellowed fabric lining remnant saved by a relative from her wedding in the 1950s.

The new is the dress itself.

The borrowed is the "tiara" piece on the veil which is part of a set of clip-on earrings that once belonged to my grandmother.

The blue is hidden away under her gown: panties. A true lady would never reveal these in a public place such as this blog.

Here's a close-up of the veil. The netting is from a remnant piece which was used to make Anne's wedding veil five years ago. This fit into my self-imposed rule of only using "stash" I had on hand here at home, clothing items found in thrift stores or anything from Dollar Tree.

Barbie's bouquet also fit into my rule. I found a small bundle of these ivory flowers at a thrift store for twenty five cents. When pulled apart, the flowers were enough in number to adorn the entire wedding party!

You might also notice the silver ribbon used to wrap all the flower stems was leftover from Anne and Jed's wedding invitations.

Next up: Ken. Malibu Vintage Ken. I had to buy him because I do not like the current Ken available in the stores - his hair looks like a very bad furry toupee to me. Underneath that jacket, a gray pleated cummerbund encircles Ken's waist. You might wish to note here that Ken is the sole male in this wedding party. That's fine by me: a tuxedo is a pain to sew when the fabric is so slippery. The bowtie in gray was fussy to sew as well.

And now we come to the other femme fatale in this wedding party: The Mother. Ken's mother or Barbie's Mother is up to you; she's a force to reckon with. I bought this Barbie at Tuesday Morning for a good price - she is a "Collector's Edition" from 1969. I love her dimensional eyelashes, her bobbed hair and her painted fingernails!

Her dress was made from a thrift store top, bangles included on the hem of the top. The silver shoes were spray painted.

For Mother, I made a wristlet corsage. Check out her manicured nails.

Bridesmaid #1 is Blonde Barbie.

Bridesmaid #2 is Midge. Still very much pregnant, and yes, this dress is from a previous challenge. I chopped up a gray silk shirt of mine for this, and with the remaining remnants, the rest of the bridal party outfits were constructed.

And now we get to Skipper. I apologize for the fuzziness of this photo. You can't very well tell that her hair has a blue streak in it. Again, modern times apparently mean that she has to have streaked hair to entice the buyer. That's me, and I apologize for the commercial succumbing I

fell into - I just had to have Skipper represented in this wedding party.

Of all the dresses that I sewed in this challenge, this is my favorite dress.

Little Chelsea is next in the wedding party line-up. She wears an ecru, dropped-waist dress accented with a silver-and-pearl embellishment. For this look, I took lace yardage and basted it flat to an interfacing lining, then gathered the lace to make the ruffle flounce at the bottom of the dress.

Finally, we get to "Little Cupcake" who is the tiniest member of the wedding party.

She wears a circular dress with flat lace yardage gathered in a circular pattern. She looks like she's edible, doesn't she?

She does double duty as the Ring Bearer. Check out her little pillow with the two lovebirds and ribbons tied around the rings.

Finally, the Wedding Party gathers to have a group-shot picture taken.

And with this photograph, the Project Runway contest is over for me. If you count the "looks" for this last challenge, you will note there are 8 looks, not 10 as requested. I just felt I was done. Done done. Barbie-d out I guess. It happens. Life happens.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog about the challenge I took on several weeks ago.

If you feel so inclined, I would enjoy hearing from you about which challenge you liked the best. Thanks for sticking with me and your words of encouragement along the way!