Crafty Manolo

Wow. Last night there was a Project Runway first that I never expected to see!

For my thoughts, join me after the cut. For those who haven’t watched, don’t wish to be spoiled, or just don’t really care… move along, nothing to see here. Except this pretty picture of the inimitable Tim Gunn (Call me, Tim! I’ll bake the scones!) deep in thought.

So. In last night’s episode, the designers descended as per usual on Mood to do a little fabric shopping, when the unthinkable happened: Anya lost her money. No designer on the show has ever lost their budget in the middle of Mood before.

The good news is that fellow designer Anthony Ryan had some money left over after buying his fabric and notions, and he was willing to offer it up to Anya so she would have something other than plain muslin to work with. The bad news is it was only eleven dollars and fifty cents. Everyone else got something in the neighborhood of a hundred dollars worth of materials, and Anya had eleven fifty to work with.

After a good cry, Anya did what Anya does best. She got down to work and found a solution to her problem. She took the fabric she was able to buy and made a fabulous pair of palazzo pants. She took some workroom muslin and dyed it  to make a top. She found a way to smile, sewed her heart out, and in spite of the goof, she freaking won the challenge. Okay, it was with the second look added in a classic PR twist. She didn’t lose the budget for that one. Still, Heidi, Nina, and Michael seemed pretty blown away at what she managed to accomplish on eleven dollars.

As for Anthony Ryan whose generosity and good humor helped Anya pick herself up when she was as low as she could go… well, unfortunately he laid one stinky egg too many on the runway. The lad has a hell of a lot of talent, and I was rooting for him, but he seemed to just crumble about halfway through and never recovered. Tim seemed positively verklempt to send him up to clear out his work space. I’ll miss you, too, Anthony Ryan. I just couldn’t help rooting for the colorblind testicular cancer survivor from New Orleans. Somehow, though, I don’t think we’ve heard the last of him.

Congratulations on your win, Anya! Her big prize? Her winning look will be sold on Piperlime. It’s the jumpsuit. The dress is by Burt. He didn’t win, but they decided to add the dress to the line, too. Well done, both of you.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 30th, 2011 at 2:02 pm by Twistie and is filed under Media, Sewing, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.