What I did for this challenge was nowhere near as exciting as what the actual designers of the show had to do. They were split up into teams and taken to a paintball range. Each team then took turns shooting at each other while they made a run to grab fabric. They thought the fabric that they ran for was the fabric that they were going to use for their challenge. As it turned out, their paintball costumes were going to be the fabric. They wore white jumpsuits that got splattered with paint. As a team they had to make a cohesive collection and could use the fabric that they ran for as supplemental material. The designers were then allowed to play with dyes and paints when they were back at the studio and given more paintballs to smash and do whatever with. I was not going to go out and play paintball by myself or have Morgan shoot me while I ran for fabric. So I chose to experiment with what I had at home. I used an off white muslin as my fabric and dyed it with turmeric to create the textile for the jacket. When I was pressing it, the iron was not quite hot enough so the warm water dripped out and made a really neat splatter effect. As for the skirt, I used some acrylic paint that I had. I mixed it is in hot water. But I purposely left some chunks here and there so that it would make a splotchy effect. Then I had some spare orange cotton that I made into a little tank top to go with the jacket.
I have actually had this outfit finished for weeks, but Pearl didn't like it and refused to try it on. She really liked the orange Turmeric jacket and very firmly told me that she wanted an Indian dress. She basically wanted me to make her a Sari. But I think there has to be a balance here. That would have been way too much orange. I think the colours together look great. I actually really like this look. I started to feel that my designs were becoming a bit too grown up. So I wanted to have a more full and playful skirt. I think it is a nice balance to the little kimono jacket. I totally love how the textile turned out too. After pearl put it on, she loved it. She said it was her Moana outfit because the skirt looked like water.
I think the judges would have liked it personally. But this one may have been a design where Heidi might have said, "Personally, this was not one of my favorites" because thats kind of how Pearl felt about it. And on this show, she is my Heidi. But oh well. She is four and very hard to please. I like it and I stand by my design.
