Turning old socks into Barbie clothes.
That's the project Adrian Holtgrewe presented at the 4-H Club Fashion Revue event Tuesday evening as part of the Jefferson City Jaycees Cole County Fair.
Holtgrewe presented five outfits for her Barbie dolls ranging from a full dress to a skirt and tank top.
"I did it because I was bored," she said when discussing why she started making Barbie clothes out of socks, adding it is just seemed to make sense.
"I thought of an idea of making easy doll clothes out of socks," she said. "I have sewn before. I like that it's fun and simple and easy, for now, it's going to get hard. For now, I'm learning how to make bigger doll clothes."
Holtgrewe was one of five students to take part in the Fashion Revue event. She showed as part of the Anything Goes category along with brothers Maxwell and Thomas Black, who each made a pouch.
Fashion Revue focuses on sewing skills along with putting together outfits and shopping for bargains.
Marie Shafer, who led the fashion show, said it isn't something people normally think of when discussing 4-H.
"A lot people hear county fair and think livestock, which livestock is great, but not everybody is able to raise livestock with where they live," she said. "This is really nice for those kids to have if they're not into livestock. We've had kids who do livestock and have done this also."
Photo Gallery
Black Friday
Shoppers waited outside stores in hopes of getting good deals Thursday night and Friday morning.
There's more to it than making or buying clothes. For instance, she said, participants are asked to answer questions about their submissions.
"It really helps them grow," she said. "Their personalities come out, they start getting more comfortable in front of other people and this gives them a segue to public speaker where they're doing speeches and talking in front of other people."
While the show included a variety of categories, two are competitions at the state level in October: Clothes You Buy and Clothes You Make.
The first focuses on putting an outfit together whereas the second is about making an item or items for an outfit.
"They learn about savvy shopping, what colors look good on them, what kind of clothing is complimentary and those sorts of things," she said. "Usually there's a bargain aspect to it. Most kids aren't buying the $200 outfit. They're finding a bargain and we encourage kids to be savvy with their money but if they make an all-leather outfit from head to toe, nobody's going to dock them for that."
Her daughter, Eileen, has competed in both categories, as well as some of the others, for 11 years including Tuesday night when she showcased a pair of jean-capris and orange shirt she made along with an orange skirt and green shirt she bought.
In another category, she took a brown dress and altered it to fit better as well as adding the skirt with a gold addition in it.
"I had to undo alterations from the previous owner for them to be able to wear it," she said. "When it was first given to me, it was too small and thankfully I was able to undo some of the alterations to make it bigger. I added the gold fabric, which totally changes the look of the dress and makes it more fun to twirl in."
Leah Sommmerer also took part in the Clothes You Buy category with a red dress and gold shawl she bought for Christmas.