So? Whatd-ya get?

This is the question I’ve received a lot from people. They’re referring to my prize package from winning Season 14 of Project Run and Play. Some of them are probably wondering if they should bother trying it for themselves! And they have the chance! Right now all you adventurous sewers or sewists (???) can pop on over to the Project Run and Play website and enter yourself for a chance at a spot in the upcoming season. It’s starting REAL soon. So take a serious thought about it!! For real! This is also a way to get your face out there for future seasons as well.

You may have heard that “my” season marked the end of an era. The ladies that have been running this for years have moved on and Audrey of Skirt Fixation has taken it over. And, folks, she has PLANS! I really, really hope that she succeeds.

So, as we do our part to support a NEW era, I thought I’d share with you what I chose/received as my prizes and the thought would be to lure you into auditioning for yourself. Except, here’s the thing. I got some good stuff. But this has NOTHING on what Audrey is working towards for upcoming season prize packages. I’m not kidding. There’s a good chance I’m going to be begging for another chance. I told her this was going to be my test to see if I can “rejoice with those that rejoice” when I see the prizes coming up. I want to give you details, but I think I’m going to just ask you to trust Audrey. But shall we take a look at what I’ve done with my own goodies in the meantime?

The first prize I received was my choice of 8 Violette Field Threads patterns. I was very glad this one came in time, because I needed these for some Christmas presents. After lots of perusing I chose:

• The Autumn Pinafore
• Alexandra Top/Dress
• Gretchen Sweater
• Dainty Deer stuffie
• Fiona Fox stuffie
• Odette Top/Dress
• Adelaide Dress
• June Dress

The stuffies were the Christmas presents.

I don’t normally do non-clothes type sewing anymore, but these are just too cute. My girls LOVE stuffies so I was fairly confident these would be a win. Success? A big yes. They love them. The dresses are not part of the pattern. I used a Simple Life doll pattern and made a few changes to create some Dolly and Me type Christmas outfits.

Then we have the Autumn and Alexandra combo. These ones just had to go together. The dress alone I wouldn’t normally buy. The pinafore, yes. The collar on the dress just needed to be included though. I don’t think that pinafore is quite as amazing without that collar.

The pinafore is made of a denim and the dress is that gorgeous Cotton & Steel/Rifle Paper collaboration. I just can’t get enough of those florals. With denim?? YES!! I made my own cuffs as I’m not a fan of woven ruffles as sleeves. (Knits or rayons, yes. Just not woven cotton.) I also made my own pin tuck placket, but only because I cut out the pattern piece before realizing, I mean, reading the instructions.

For this dress I sized up from this pattern’s largest size. Unfortunately, I can’t quite trust PDF size charts when it comes to my growing girl’s size range. She SHOULD have fit the size 9/10 no problem. You can see that this sized up version fits her just right so I’m glad I made the change. I could’ve added length too. Oops.

One big issue I had was the shoulders. They were unbelievably tight. I had finished the dress and used the burrito method on the sleeves and french seams to be sure the inside was as pretty as the outside. Can you imagine my despair when I saw that she couldn’t even raise her arms!!!??? I could’ve cried. SO thankfully, I had JUST enough fabric to remake the sleeves. (There goes my nice insides.)

I pulled those sleeves out and made the adjustment seen in the picture. I raised the top curve a bit and spread out the piece to create more room in that shoulder. While I did have to do some big fixing, I ended up with SUCH an amazing outfit. I’ll focus on that. 😉

 

The Gretchen is the last of the VFT patterns that I’ve made so far. I chose this sweater knit from So Sew English. I was very excited about this plaid though it’s not quite as soft as I imagined. My winter hands don’t help. It kept catching on my fingers and I don’t know of many more things that just make me feel as “ick” as dry hands do!! I made the size 9/10 since the pattern states that it runs big. I definitely didn’t need to go up on this one. In fact, I prefer it with a belt in order for it to look right. It’s pretty cute and she’s going to have this sweater for next year too, I’m sure.

I also received 2 other PDF pattern bundles. I haven’t had time to do those yet.

Oliver and co. patterns

• Ice cream Dress
• Field Trip Raglan
• Ladies Chai Tee (I plan to cut this out this weekend!)
• Feed the Animals coin purse/bags
• Fairy Tale Dress

Petit a Petit patterns

• The Morocco Pant/Short
• The Loveralls pant and dress versions

 

Then we have my camera bag from Jo Totes. THIS was the one big prize I was looking forward to the most and there was NO disappointment. I love this bag. The colour in person is even better than what I expected. It’s a bit more “dusty” in colour than the pictures on line (and this filtered image) and I was actually relieved. I was afraid it would be a bit too trendy in colour. I chose the Missy Mint bag and my final decision was based on the ability to also carry my laptop in the bag. One blog reviewer wrote about how well this bag travels. That was a big selling point for me as I didn’t have a good way to bundle my camera and laptop properly for flights/travel before now. I get excited just carrying this bag from upstairs to downstairs in the house now!! I feel like I even need to walk differently when I carry it. Don’t laugh, you have things like this in your life too. I know you do.

I had a Fat Quarter Shop gift card to use. I used it to get some Amy Sinibaldi Little Town fabrics for what I hope to make into a Christmas Tree skirt. Along with that I just filled my cart with notions that I wanted to add to my sewing room. I have my eye on some potential English Paper Piecing…. someday. It was kinda sweet to get the supplies for free. Now I’m ready for the day I finally sit down to try it.

I don’t have any pictures of my fabric winnings and I’m still waiting on some of it so that’s all I have for you. I hope that perhaps some of you will consider auditioning for Season 15. And I’d love to encourage you to sell yourselves well! Showcase your skills and let people know a bit about how you are inspired.

Good luck!