Project Run and Play: Season 21 Week 3: The Sound of Fashion

It's time for you to sit back and listen. Can you hear it? It's the sound of fashion!
(Be sure to scroll all the way to the end of the post for the voting widget.)

Striped Swallow Designs - Blue Skies & Free Spirits

When I heard Week 3's theme -- Sound of Fashion -- it immediately took me back to a memory of dancing under blue skies with my girls at a music festival. Their carefree movements that day re-inspired me to go with the flow and to live life to the fullest. Drawing on that inspiration and my family's love for indie music -- rock, reggae and folk -- it was only fitting I created a pair of flowy festival designs with a bohemian vibe for my look.

For my first outfit, I drafted a new flowy, hi-low top and added an exposed zipper with the sweetest feather pull. I paired it with my first and most popular pattern the Coachella Shorts.

I was drawn to the colors I chose for this week, the gorgeous peach and blues, as they remind me of being outside as the sun is setting listening to great music.

For my second outfit, I drafted a new skirt with a v front waistband and a hemline that dips down in the front and back. The lace blue bralette underneath is from a dance wear pattern I drafted for my daughter a few weeks ago. Lastly, I used my Hideaway pattern as the starting point for the white top. I changed the neckline a bit, added casings and ties to the sleeves, and cut the length off the top to make it a crop and shirred the bottom.

More photos and info from our shoot over on our blog. xo - Mandalynn

Made of Starlite - We Never Go Out of Style

I can't believe I made it to Week Three! I am so excited for you to see these looks, they were so much fun to put together. 😄😄😄

Music has a special place in my heart. It's in my blood! I grew up on a healthy diet of the the Beatles and Paula Abdul, between my dad's cover bands (he's an awesome guitar player) and my mom's dance studio that she ran out of our basement. When trying to decide on an inspiration for this week's theme, I had literally a MILLION ideas! I settled on something pink, sparkly, and inspired by the artist that has dominated our sister dance parties for the past 10 years: Ms. Taylor Swift! 🤩💃🤩💃🤩💃🤩💃🤩💃🤩

Do you ever feel like sometimes people just "get you"? Love her or hate her, Taylor Swift is one of those people. Her lyrics cut straight through to the heart of a situation like few songwriters can! Each of my four sisters and I have spent precious bonding time with our dad, learning to play Taylor's songs on guitar, attending concerts together, and singing along to music that speaks to us and is *super fun* to dance in the kitchen to! With this challenge, I wanted to create some looks that my daughter and her cousins (also avid TS fans!) could play, go to school, and have dance parties in!

These looks are specifically inspired by the outfit Taylor wore to perform at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards. I found this almost identical sequin fabric at JoAnns, and crafted my designs from there. Since she is so tall, Taylor Swift loves to show off her legs, so I went with shorts, a miniskirt with bike shorts attached, and some gold leggings for the middle schooler. The tops are loose fitting and more casual in design, perfect for both playgrounds and concerts!

The pink tee is a heavily modified Talulah tee from Violette Field Threads, made with bubble gum pink rayon spandex. She says it's super soft and "bouncy" and was dying for me to take the flat lay so she could wear it to school! The skirt is a pair of Rocky Shore tights from Sofiona Designs, shorts length, with a self-drafted skirt attached and a flat waistband. The sequin tee is the bodice of a Tatum dress from Violette Field Threads, lengthened an inch, with neckbands, armbands and a full lining from jersey so that no scratchy sequins actually touch skin! The shorts are Avery shorts from Violette Field Threads, modified so they are fitted all the way around, not elasticized at the back waist, and finished off with oversized gold buttons. For the sweater, probably my favorite piece of this collection, I started with the Tatum dress again, drafted a hi-lo hemline, widened the body a bit, re-drafted the sleeve to be a drop shoulder dolman, and added bands to the neckline, sleeve cuffs and hem to give it more of a "sweatshirt" feel. I totally love how it came out, and my niece has requested a million more for school! I know it's super hard to please my discerning five-year-old fashionista, so I definitely count it as a win when a seventh grader loves what I made! The gold leggings are a second pair of Rocky shores, cut to a cropped length.

Since her lyrics are the main thing that draw me to Taylor Swift, I had to include them on the outfits! I did a little hand embroidery on the pink tee pocket, with a line from the song "Paper Rings". To do it, I designed the text in Silhouette Studio and traced it onto my fabric with a wash away fabric marker. The graphic on the rainbow sweater was inspired by a line from the song "ME!". I painted it on my cut fabric with acrylic paints mixed with fabric medium, so the paint is flexible like screen printing ink. I cut the words from gold iron-on vinyl with my Silhouette. If I was making an outfit for a middle schooler, of course I *had* to include a scrunchie! Because apparently the 90s are back. And who am I to stand in the way of a trend? 🤷‍♀️

Check out my blog for lots more photos from our dance party, links to some of our favorite TS songs, and more words than any normal person is going to want to read! 😜

Love Hazel Grace Designs - Butterfly

This week's theme did not come easily for me. For weeks, I went around the house mumbling about the sound of fashion and what did that mean. One day my oldest daughter, Johanna, said to me, "Mom will you stop and just design something for that week" so I sketched something that I liked but it had absolutely nothing to do with any genre of music and that bothered me. So Johanna sat down with me, much like I have over the years with her, and started asking questions. She got about 5 minutes into her questions about the theme and looked at me like I had 3 heads and one was spinning around in circles, you know that look tweens give you when they think you have lost your mind. She said "Mom you have had this designed for years and it is finally time to sew it!" She got very excited and animated as she said "Your genre of music is K-Pop (Korean pop music) and your design is the modern hanbok you have sketched and have never sewn up." After calming her down a bit and making sure she would actually let me take her pictures in said modern hanbok, I set to work. For this reason, I am calling this post Butterfly 나비 after a BTS song and how these designs emerged like a butterfly.

Now you likely have two questions (1) how did you get into K-Pop long before K-Pop was cool (if you know popular music think BTS - they are a K-Pop boys group) and (2) what is a hanbok. This first question is easy. Samuel and Johanna are adopted from South Korea. 11 years ago my husband, my mother and I spent a little over a week in Korea meeting not only Samuel and Johanna but their foster parents and falling in love with the country that made my husband and I parents. Going to Korea we were a family of two and coming home we were a family of four! Ever since that trip we have worked to learn to read, write and speak Korean as well as learn about the culture. Which brings us to the 2nd question, what is a hanbok. Hanbok is the traditional attire of the Korean people and has a history as colorful as the garments themselves. Traditional hanboks were worn daily up until about a century ago but the hanbok remains an important icon of Korea, and is still worn on special occasions and holidays. You can see a picture of Johanna’s 1st hanbok here and her current hanbok here.

Many K-Pop girls groups have worn modernized hanboks in the last 11 years and I have always loved the look and so has Johanna. There are a few aspects that were non-negotiable for Johanna; the pleated skirt, the jacket and the hanbok bow. Ideally I would prefer a dress that can be washed and ironed easily as well! I started with fabric and for the solid colors I decided on Kona cotton and the skirt a watercolor floral cotton to symbolize the flowers sometimes embroidered on the hanbok. Next I knew the skirt needed to be shorter. The to the floor look of the hanbok was not one that Johanna liked and Hazel always fell over her hanbok skirt. I determined that just above the knee was the perfect look to be age appropriate and still keep with today’s trends. Finally I added pockets, since what girl does not need pockets in her dress!

In a traditional hanbok, the “dress” is two thin straps you slip on your shoulders and then wrap the bodice around you and tie at the chest. Our family has had many times where someone’s hanbok came undone and it was a good thing they had on clothes under the hanbok. For the bodice of this dress, I took a basic sleeveless bodice sloper and lengthened it a little past Johanna’s natural waist. She asked to be sure it did not plunge in the front but in the back she wanted a little plunge, so I made those changes to the bodice as well. Finally, I used an invisible zipper in the back, which helped to make the bodice more form fitting for Johanna.

For the jacket, Johanna requested the shorter jacket similar to the one on her 1st hanbok but with short puffy sleeves. Using Johanna’s current hanbok jacket as a starting point, I made the overlapping jacket and created a starting point for the sleeves. I added some to the sleeves to make them poof like Johanna requested. The jacket collar is made out of the same material as the skirt. The last touch for the jacket is the traditional hanbok bow.

Johanna insisted I also make a modern hanbok for Hazel. I thought the look I designed for Johanna was a little old for her 2 year old sister, so for the younger modern hanbok wearer I designed a wrap dress. I started with a jumper pattern I designed for Johanna when she was 4. That pattern is made to cross the body in the back with a full gathered skirt. I started by flipping the front and back pieces of the jumper. The now front pieces of the jumper needed to have a straight edge so I squared those off to resemble the same closure of Johanna’s jacket. After constructing the lined upper bodice portion, I added puff sleeves similar to Johanna’s sleeves and a “belt” to make the upper portion look like a jacket and resemble the big sister look. Finally, I added a removable traditional hanbok bow, to cover the buttons required to keep the dressed closed.

For the skirt, I changed the gathers to pleats to keep that aspect of a traditional hanbok. Hazel does better with skirts and climbing all the things when the skirt falls just above her knees, so I hemmed the skirt at that length! I also added pockets to Hazel's skirt.

These dresses will be perfect for celebrating Korean holidays with friends and family as well as to wear to church and special occasions! I am so grateful that Johanna sat down and brainstormed with me this week! To read more about the patterns and fabric used check out my blog post.
Patterns: Bodice sloper for size 10 girls; Ready to Wear hanbok; Love, Hazel Grace Designs unreleased jumper pattern Fabric: Kona cotton, watercolor flower cotton from Hobby Lobby

Unfortunately, our 4th designer had to drop out before completing this week's challenge due to health and a hospital stay! We wish her the best and know our sponsors will be rewarding her handsomely.

Now it's your turn to help these designers out.

The designers scores are determined as follows:

1/3 of the score is based on YOUR vote

1/3 of the score by this week's celebrity guest judge Jess of Lil Luxe Collection

1/3 of the score comes from the panel of judges

If you are inspire to sew along, you can link up your creation on the sew along page.