Obviously, a knowledgable dealer with an expert repair person on staff is what we want. But how rare to find one! I live in New York City with a Pfaff dealer right around the corner but drive 45 minutes to Rockland County to get my Brother and Pfaff machines serviced, happy to finally have found somebody trustworthy.

Moreover, not everyone lives where there is a choice of dealerships. You may be limited to choosing from one or two brands because that’s what is available. When I was looking for a new machine, I wanted a sewing machine store that had a variety of brands to try out, but most places had one or two brands and that was it. And many expeditions to “dealers” turned up dinky places selling mostly vacuum cleaners with a very modest sideline in Singers and a hodgepodge of various brands of used machines. Depressing! So online reviews and purchase was what worked for me in the end.

Consumersearch.com has excellent advice on what features to look for and also a report summarizing reviews from many sources, including Consumer Reports, and a list of best machines in various categories. Highly recommended.

I think that the attraction of clothes from this period is that they acknowledge the body underneath, and indeed try to enhance it. My teenage years had the shift dress (ugh, no way to look good in it), plus every year a fashion change that you had to adhere to. Before the shift it was those circle skirts that needed a crinoline to look good--I remember starching mine with sugar water and laying it out on the grass to dry, to the delight of the resident ants!

Why the judges' shock that Michael used the same color for for all three (gasp) of his pieces? I've seen plenty of collections shown at Paris, Milan, and New York that have 25 outfits in the same dreary color. Color is not Michael's strength, but at least his pieces looked like runway fashion, unlike Gretchen's whatever-the-cat dragged-in outfits.

I'm probably the only person living in New York City who thinks that black clothes, and also black and white clothes, are boring. With a black wardrobe, you never have to think about your clothes, just grab and go. Obviously, there's a lot more thought in Mila's collection, but honestly, will she do only black and white collections for her whole life? Rooted so strongly in retro and minimalism, will her designs progress in future years?

The collection that I thought was consistently beautiful was Jay's. If I were 20, and if I were going to an event in Soho, I would yearn for one of his outfits. I loved his beautiful use of greys, and I thought that the proportions of his clothes made them feminine and wearable (I don't mean to go to the supermarket!)despite the hard sci-fi edge. He's not the only one of the ten designers' collections shown on the Blogging Project Runway site that used those weird hip thingies, and where they appear in his clothes, they are balanced by other parts of the design. Another aspect that I liked was that his curvy clothes emphasized the models' waists. Other designers had flashes of brilliance during the season, but seemed to be treading water in their final collections. Jay,and Mila, I'll grant, moved forward in their final collections well past what they had created earlier.

Lots of useful information in the comments so far! I'm starting to plan a sewing room, too. For the first step, my brother will build a Murphy bed on one wall with drawers and shelves on either side (drawers below, shelves above) so the room can double as a guest room.

For storage, I like drawers for fabric to keep the dust out, but I like to put notions and tools into clear plastic boxes so I can see them. The Container Store is my favorite for storage boxes. I looked at labelers after seeing Martha Stewart raving about them, but honestly, I think that the Post-it removable labels are cheaper and more attractive.

Then, on the window wall, I plan to build a fold-up table from a piece of plywood that I salvaged, with 45-degree supports. I love the table that Sarah bought, especially the light box, but I want something that I won't stub my toes on. (My graduated bifocals leave a blind spot right where I plant my feet, so leaving the floor clear is preferable.) For cutting out, I'll get two folding tables from Home Depot to put side by side. And one more thing, a ladder-like rack (made from dowels and 2x4's, probably), to hang fabric as inspiration for upcoming projects.

It's a lovely dress. Can you tell us who makes the fabric?

I was surprised at how unfinished their collections were when they arrived in New York, and second, how unfocused they were. In previous years, most of the designers had some sort of theme that gave their collections consistency, but did you see it in the brief glimpses we had of their work?

As for the cattiness that has been remarked on here before, it seems that me that it's a staple of reality tv contestants. I think they know, or if not, are told, that they have to produce some sort of conflict to keep the viewers' interest. It generally is expressed in those face-to-the camera interviews where they obviously have to come up with something that the directors can use.

I'm more than a little disappointed in the quality of the show this year--the designers seem unadventurous and lacking in basic skills, the challenges are unexciting, and certainly, the time given to showing the clothing is minimal. The producers must realize that the Project Runway audience is interested in the clothes! In addition to the runway show, the final stages of construction are shortchanged, too, so we have no idea how some of the designers got from their beginnings to the final garment.

I had some really hard-to-turn silk organza, and I found that wearing a rubber glove (the thin medical kind) made the process of starting the turn much easier.