Project Dollway @ Home is DONE!!!

Well the competition that turned into a nightmare is finally done and I'm now just recovering from sewing burn out and the disbelief that this turned into a forum for the organizer's friends to be recognized!!!
What started as a fun challenge competition took a turn for the worse about half way through and things started going terribly wrong.

Challenge 1
We started back in October with our first challenge: Vintage. The contest was all about design. I have NEVER designed anything in my life. I have sewed for my Barbies once now and again, but actually design something and actually make my own patterns.......NEVER.
So I jumped right in. First to interpret the challenge word Vintage. I chose my era the bold and swingin' sixties. My premise for my collection: I chose the sixties as my vintage era, partly because I grew up in the sixties and loved the variety of styles, from Austin Powers to Flower Children, and partly because of the use of bold color and wild patterns. Anything seemed to go together in the sixties!!! I would like to take this bold use of color and build the collection on it by bringing this boldness of color to the styles of the 21st Century!!!

I chose as my colours for this collection: brown, orange and yellow.

To my surprise and delight I won the first challenge!!! http://projectdollwayathome.blogspot.com/2008/11/challenge-one-winner.html

Judges Comments:

Judge 1
5 5 5 Total 15 Super all around
Judge 2
4 3 4 Total 11 Good interpretation of the 70's. Loved the bag and the long vest and the peace sign. The color is very indicative of the 70's. I like it.Over all construction looks pretty good.

Judge 3
3 2 3 Total 8 Bright, colorful, very 60's. Garments fit well. I like the coat, but aren't the shorts too long for this era?

Total points: 34

Also, here is the Point System the judges used for this competition:
Points go from 5 - 1, with five being the best , in these three categories:

1) Designer's interpretation of the theme, Vintage. How successful were they?

2) Originality (the style)... Is it different or does it look like something you have seen before in fashion... accessories... color.

3) Execution: How well is the garment made? Does it look finished? Are there clean edges? Ironed? The full presentation.

The most a designer can acquire from the judges is 15 points.

This should have been my first clue. The organizer suddenly decided, after a number of designers were late with their designs, that if you got your stuff in early you would get an extra point. Being a teacher I had to put my 2 cents in and said that when you do that you only encourage sloppiness and people will hurry their designs, better to say points off for late. I think that vocalization might have been my first mistake.

After the first challenge we were told that one of the judges had not been able to receive the pics of our designs and so only three judges had judged our work. One judge turned out to be the organizer's daughter.........hmmmm shouldn't that have been our second clue.......or is that foreshadowing!!!

But we were all new to this and everything was exciting. After that first challenge a number of designers quit.......one even claiming, "I can't believe that she beat me by 1/2 point!!!"

On to Challenge 2...