UPDATE: VOTING IS NOW CLOSED!  The votes are being tallied and counted and the outcome will be announced soon!

Oh my!  There were a lot of ideas  as to what the theme for Challenge #22 should be!  There were over 135 comments with theme suggestions (often multiple ones per comment), and commentary on the suggestions, both for and against.

I spent a good couple of hours over the weekend going through all the suggestions,  combining similar ones, and clarifying others, trying to get the most important points and not change the intent of people’s ideas when I combined and re-worded.  (Democracy is hard!  Vetinari had it right.  I should just be a benevolent dictator.  With committees to give people something to do…)

Like Felicity.  She rules with a firm but velvety paw.

I didn’t include suggestions where enough people pointed out that they wouldn’t be able to do it, or if I didn’t understand the idea, or if the theme was too similar to something we did this year.  Some suggestions were ones that were already on my list for 2015  some will make it on to it now – so even if they don’t make Challenge 22, you may yet see some of these (if my health and the  patience  of  Mr D  can stand a HSF ’15!).

At the end of it we have 12 fantastic options for you to choose from.  I’d like to do all of them, but there isn’t time!

Here are the options, in alphabetical order:

1. Gentlemen – Make something for a historical gentleman, or something inspired by men’s fashions.
2. Heirlooms & Heritage  – Re-create a garment one of your ancestors wore or would have worn, or use an heirloom sewing supply  to create a new heirloom to pass down to the next generations.
3. Hold it! – Create an item that holds your garment in, up, or together – belts, suspenders, garters, clasps, brooches, specialised buttons and hooks, etc.
4. No Waste – Make an item that incorporates every scrap of fabric and leaves no waste, or that uses scraps of fabric in a frugal manner.
5. Out of Your Comfort Zone –  Create  a garment  from a time period you haven’t done before, or  that uses a new skill or technique that you’ve never tried before.
6. Pleating – Make a garment that incorporates any type of pleating.
7. Sewing Secrets – Hide something in your sewing, whether it is an almost invisible mend, a secret pocket, a false fastening or front, or a concealed message (such as a political or moral allegiance).
8. Stash Busting – Make something using only fabric, patterns, trims & notions that you already have in stash.
9. Study Abroad – Make something from a culture other than your own (or a culture different to the one you usually costume in).
10. The Great Indoors – Create an item that you would only wear or use indoors (i.e.  nightdresses, dressing gowns, tea gowns, wrappers, nightcaps etc.)
11. Text-iles – Recreate  a garment as described in a period/primary text source.
12. Token of My Affection  – Craft  a sentimental piece (like a love token or 18th century garters with a motto) and/or a gift for someone else.

We’ll be using a ranked voting system, rather than a simple FPTP system, to ensure that Challenge #22 is a theme that the largest number of people  are happy end excited about.  (can you tell that I once studied Political Science?)

To Vote: Leave a comment with your THREE favourite suggestions, numbered 1, 2 & 3 (votes with more or less than three options will be disqualified).

Your #1 will get 3 points, Your #2, 2 points, and your #3, 1 point.  I’ll total everyone’s points, and the option with the most points will be the HSF Challenge #22.

Please do make sure to vote for three options, and DON’T change your vote as I won’t be able to keep track of changes.

Voting will close Wed 9 July.

There you go!  Go forth and vote my friends!  Have your say!

I say it’s time to sleep.