The garment challenge was to make a child's hoodie. Everyone seemed ok to start although a few of them hadn't used an overlocker much before. Its essential to use an overlocker on jersey fabric as it stops fraying and your lovingly made garment from falling apart. Ben decided to go off pattern and attached his ribbing around the bottom of the hoodie using a twin needle rather than the overlocker and Shiela's pocket was a little wonky.
Janet won this challenge because of her neat stitching and pattern matching of bunny rabbits.
The Transformation Challenge was to make a fancy dress outfit for a child from fake fur coats. The brief was to think of mystical beasts, monsters and animals. Riccardo made a dragon outfit from a blue coat that had orange spikes running down the back. Jen made a fantastic Bird of Paradise, and Alexei was inspired by werewolves. I really like Alexei's transformation as it was simple but effective. Ben won this challenge with his Mr Ant outfit, with very clever extra arms and boning underneath to make the shape of an ants body.
The Made to Measure challenge was to make a dance outfit for a child in 4 and half hours. Fit and flair were the brief for this challenge.
Janet was gain inspired by her love of sailing and made a lovely dress with a red skirt, Alexei was inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream and made a forest fairy dance outfit with lovely autumnal colours. Ben made a contemporay dance leotard and skirt which I thought was inspired by the Pierrot clown. Leah was inspired by the Swan Lake ballet and made an outfit for the black and white swan, using feathers for the skirt. Mercedes made a vibrant street dance outfit from a bright orange airtex jersey. Sheila also made a street dance outfit, attempting to make a reversible jacket but ran out of time, in a pink lamé and it looked great with the shimmering colours. Jen made a great structured Highland dance outfit with a tartan skirt. Riccardo made a dress based on the tarantula opera from the south of Italy. Juliet made a traditional Igbo cultural dance dress using what is fast becoming her trademark fabric, the waxed African print.
Sadly we have a contestant who goes home very week and this week it was Sheila. I felt she struggled with the fabrics and techniques and her fit was not the best on the Made to Measure challenge. I feel she has learnt a lot and will continue to make her lovely dresses for her mum! I must look her up on social media.
This weeks Garment of the Week was won by Leah and her spectacular Swan Lake inspired dance outfit. It was black on one side and white on the other, to show the two aspects of the swans in the ballet.
Next week is Vintage Week and in the clips we saw them using vintage sewing machines, making denim flares and the Made to measure challenge is a maxi dress! I'm looking forward to this challenge!