Bravo, catisnapping! Anyone who doesn't want help or charity is perfectly free to decline it. This sounds like an excellent organization and worth looking into further.

In 1969, I would have been 12. Daddy made us all stay up late, late, late so that we would see men walk on the moon when it happened. My little sister, 7 or 8 at the time, was very crabby and didn't get the significance, and I can't swear that I did, but I do remember Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon for the first time. Eventually I did read quite a lot of science fiction and dreamed of exploring other planets, but I don't have enough math or natural talent to be a physicist or astronomer. Maybe I could ship out as a cabin steward.

I've never tried draping although I'm constantly impressed by it on Project Runway. I've had this book on my wish list at amazon for ages but I don't know when I'd be able to afford it.

The show is supposed to find the next great American fashion designer. Anyone looking at just the pictures shown here could see that it's Mondo. I like Andy's work, but Mondo has the magic. Gretchen is just sad. When did the judging criteria become "immediately marketable"? Compare Gretchen's collection to Jay McCarroll's or Christian Siriano's: there is no comparison in the excitement or the inventiveness, much less the final result walking down the runway. I think it might be time for some new judges.

One of these years, the challenges are all going to have to include "No black" in the instructions.

I still don't know what the judges see in Michael Costello. I don't think he is the devil incarnate like Gretchen seems to, but he just doesn't come up with interesting clothes.

Gretchen is a bad joke: I think she's making some kind of upscale grunge or hippie redux, but someone should tell her not everyone in the world lives in Portland. I like having a contestant around to create some human drama but the producers should, by the end of the season, make sure that fashion week is strictly about the fashion. If they were doing their jobs, Gretchen would have been gone. At least April designs.

Mondo and Andy are both very interesting and I have no problem with them going to fashion week.

And to whoever was complaining about so many contestants getting to do decoy collections, that is purely a factor of the timing. If Fashion Week is going to be in the middle of the Project Runway season, everyone still in the game as the shows are being broadcast has to present a collection. Otherwise, we will all know who the final three or four are long before the season is over and Lifetime will lose a lot of viewers.

I would probably not buy a print like Mondo's, at least in part because I don't generally have a use for any shade of yellow, but Mondo's outfit was the only one presented (besides April's) that had serious style to it. Mondo absolutely deserved the win without his story behind it. April's dress was OK, but there are colors other than black out there.

I just had a thought: what the show ought to do for the final, pick the final three episode: By now, they have seen what the designers can do really well. April loves black. Mondo loves prints. Gretchen loves Gretchen. So each designer should be told to design something that keeps them from using their usual bag of tricks: no black for April, solid color only for Mondo, and Gretchen has to design something for someone other than Gretchen. Tie one hand behind each designer's back and see what they can do.

I would think you would not want to put this strip at the elbow or any other stress point. Seems to me that a bias strip at the elbow is going to get very baggy after a while and you'll end up with a permanently stretched spot. You could prevent this by underlining the sleeve in one piece, I think.

I do not agree with Mondo winning. His dress was striking, but I thought Andy's was much, much more interesting and inventive. I do agree that Ivy should have been out - that dress looked so sad. But I am eternally mystified by the judges' love for Gretchen. I find her work boring, and this week's entry was just awful. It was a 1970s housecoat for a frump. How that got into the top 3 will forever be beyond me.

This was a train-wreck of a challenge according to Tim Gunn's vlog posted on Facebook. The judges did not understand the challenge at the beginning which is possibly why their comments were so awful (although Kors could afford to take it down a notch - anyone else have the feeling that he's still trying to top his "Appalachian L'il Abner Barbie" comment from long ago?). Anyway, the judges didn't understand the challenge and it was a stupid idea to begin with because Jackie O didn't really pay much mind to American designers to begin with - she was all about Europe.

If you really went with what Tim said it should be: if Jackie O was alive today and 30 years old, what would she wear, then Ivy should have won. Yes, I can see why the judges picked Mondo - it was OK - but Ivy's actually had some originality to it.

Mondo or Andy should have won. Michael C's dress looks downright messy by comparison with either one of them. This has to be one of those instances where the editors exerted heavy influence on the judges. Otherwise it makes no sense.

Nothing describes the whole mess better than this post at Project RunGay: http://tinyurl.com/292fe3p

Team Luxe produced a nightmare in various shades of beige and I wouldn't have been sorry to see the whole lot of them go, if only for the utter idiocy in calling that mess "Luxe." How did they manage to find all the fabrics at Mood that looked cheap? That takes shopping talent. And having the gall to blame the entire abortion on Michael C demonstrated a complete lack of character on the part of every one of them.

I wasn't all that wild about "Military & Lace" and I still don't see why Casanova won, but it didn't look universally sorry like "Luxe."

Why on earth didn't anyone tell Gretchen to bugger off. It was incredibly nervy of her to critique other designers and someone should have slapped her down hard. I thought Andy did quite a good job with ribbons so I'm happy with his win. In retrospect, looking at these stills, I can see why the judges aufed Sarah but I think Nicholas and Mondo's dresses were pretty bad too. Mondo's is a boring re-run and, although I like Nicholas's color choices, the bodice is nothing less than a hot mess.

I had to teach myself how not to end up with a puckered sleeve, and I finally settled on two rows of gathers well in the seam allowance. I then gather the cap as much as human possible and then I smooth it out so there aren't any obvious places where there will be puckers. Then I take my nicely shaped sleeve and pin it in to the armhole. Depending on how smooth the shaping is, I may also go so far as to hand-baste inside and outside the stitching line. I would never put the gathering basting along the seam line - it will be impossible to remove and will be likely to show somewhere on the outside.

I would very much like to see much more info on the exact way hair canvas was used in this garment. The front is semi-obvious, but how exactly was it used with the back pleats? Also, since you mentioned the sleeves being cut on the bias, more on that would be helpful. Was hair canvas used in the hem of the sleeves too? Lots more technical details, please.