TGBSB -- Season 3 Semifinals thoughts

(Hopefully not too much of a spoiler, but you never know... consider yourself warned if you haven't seen it yet)
Wow wow and wow.


Anything can happen in the semis...
This is a very evenly matched group.

Neil...breaking stereotypes left and right, he's done exceptionally well all along and is the discussion-board  favorite to take home the golden dress form.  But he's not immune to the misaligned pattern or the not perfect embellishment...or, in the walkaway dress challenge, the unfortunate slip of the scissors.

Lorna, the consistent second-placer, is, I think, someone who sews very well within her own comfort zone.  She's branching out, though..and that refashion challenge this week had to be a big step for her.
Still, she's not experienced in the new territory and she's not inclined to practice techniques because, as she says, 'I don't like to waste material.' So her sewing is not always dead on.

I can identify with that.

I think Matt has really good technical skills; he's just inexperienced, and it shows every now and then in his fearless beginner's optimism that an idea is just going to work (like the hardware on his peacock costume).  His fit problems on the jacket were all related to the fact that he used a pattern intended to be made from a jersey knit, so the close fit did not translate well to leather. He's going to be formidable behind a sewing machine by the time his kids get to high school and involved in theater.  And, seeing as how they seem to be excited about costumes and dress-up now, I would expect them to be inclined to that.

 Deborah has a good instinct of what will and will not work, and running the slider off the end of an altered zipper  is a mistake I bet every one of us has made at some point.  My heart broke for her at that moment.  Been there, done that...knew she didn't have time to fix it.  But zippers aside, her jacket was too small for the model.  It needed a FBA.  I'm not sure the model she had didn't put her at a bit of a disadvantage; the other models were a bit less, um, curvy, so who's to say if anyone of the others would've caught and allowed for that issue?  They were allowed to cut out the jackets before they came; bit late to adjust for something as baseline as a full bust after that.  Surely they had the model's measurements to go by when they were cutting....

Paul squeaked by last week; I think if Ryan had done just one point better on his kilt...having the right underlap or having it the right height or having it the right length...he would've gone on and Paul would've gone home.  Paul was on the bubble this week and I think he was aware of it.  But the bubble was not for sure...and Patrick even owned up that there just wasn't much difference amongst most of the lace skirts.

Anyone can mess up...and anyone can do something stellar.  And two of the three going into the finals are pretty much who I expected from the beginning.  That third slot...well, it could've been any of several.


And I'm kinda sad that next week is the end....