So, Cidell of MissCeliesPants emails me about a competition going on at Artscape this year: The IKEA/Artscape "Sew Me What You Got" fashion competition "daring designers to test their skills using IKEA Baltimore fabrics". I thought hey... why not? I always try to attend Artscape if I'm in town. Chopteeth was excellent in 2006 performing Fela's Water No Get Enemy =)





Anyways, back to the main story...

I checked IKEA online to look at available fabric patterns. There was a wide variety to chose from and I selected my favorites. I then went to the store to check them out. I was slightly taken aback by the composition of the fabric. I had envisioned soft cottony fabric that could be fluid and flowy but most if not all the fabric were stiff home decor types. I was thinking "for real?" But then again, the competition is is based off a Project Runway episode so why not? lol. I briefly considered buying the flowy "etched" shower drapes but didn't want to spend that much on it and most of them were white/ cream. I ended up leaving with ~4yds of the black/ white Saralisa fabric.



The cashier had to sign something for the competition and mentioned that no one had come in with that form. I wondered how many people would submit an outfit.

Because of the texture, I decided to make a structured dress but the petals were calling me to do something with them. I decided to use them as the hem of the dress's skirt. Life got busy and the project got abandoned until May 4th. Deadline day!!! I didn't want to be a spaz and not even try my luck. After confirming the 12 midnight deadline, I had to come up with a real simple outfit I could start and finish that day. Below is my sketch:



I decided to play on the petal theme and accessorize the dress with feathers. Got those and a sparkly button from JoAnn's. Here is the finished product.



I'll mention that the black fabric used for the bodice was part of a Tanzanian fabric my friend got me a while back. Thanks Modesta =) So... about 20 people submitted photos and I made the initial cut of 15. Then I turned in the dress for official photos and the Live Modeling Event that took place at IKEA last Saturday. All the events and voting happened while I was out of the country so I really anxious. Meanwhile, The Baltimore Sun online featured the competition in the "Design contestants have this competition all sewn up" article and my name and dress was mentioned along with 3 others! yay! That helped allay some of the anxiety =) Here are pictures of the dress on a model courtesy of MissCeliesPants (left) and LaCubanitaCose (right):



As I was typing up this blog, I just got word that I made the final round of 5!!!!!!!!! Yay!!! Thank you so much to everyone that voted for me. Now the real work begins. Will keep you all posted.

Dami@FR