Once a year, Heritage Hall at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair becomes a working sewing studio.

Machines hum, irons steam, patterns cover the tables, and teams work against the clock to turn ten yards of remnant fabric into a finished runway look. Fair visitors can step inside throughout the day to watch the garments take shape. By evening, the worktables are moved, chairs are arranged, and the sewing room becomes a runway.

This is Project G Street, an annual one-day fashion design and sewing competition sponsored by G Street Fabrics and hosted by the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair.

The competition restarted after the pandemic in 2023 and is open to the public. You do not need to be a professional designer—or even an advanced sewist—to participate. Each team consists of three contestants and one model, bringing together people with very different backgrounds, experience levels, and approaches to sewing.

I first experienced Project G Street as a contestant. Now, as one of its Fair Department Chairs, I have had the opportunity to see what happens on both sides of the competition.

Although the sewing happens in a single day, the preparation begins months earlier.

The Fair Department Chairs begin meeting in January to coordinate the venue, sponsorship, registration, judges, volunteers, contestant communications, workroom layout, and runway show.

Registration opens when the fair catalog is published. Contestants are recruited primarily through the fair and G Street Fabrics.

The week before the competition, teams attend a meeting where we review the rules and logistics and reveal the year’s theme. Beginning the next day, contestants visit G Street Fabrics to select ten yards of fabric from the store’s $3.97 remnant table. Each team also receives a $25 gift card for notions such as thread, closures, and trim.

The limited fabric selection is an important part of the challenge. Teams must work with what is available rather than beginning with the perfect fabric for a design already in mind. One year, the fabrics were selected for the contestants, adding another layer of creative constraint.

Once teams have their fabric, they have a week to prepare. They may sketch, select or draft patterns, create mock-ups, take measurements, conduct fittings, and organize their competition-day workflow.

The only hard-and-fast rule is that the competition fabric cannot be cut or stitched before 8:30 on competition morning.

As a former winning contestant, one of my practical tips is to pin the final pattern pieces to the uncut fabric the night before, roll everything together, and transport it to the competition ready to go.

Contestants arrive at 8:00 a.m. to unload their machines, tools, irons, dress forms, patterns, and everything else they expect to need.

At 8:30, cutting and sewing begin.

From that point, teams have nine hours to execute their plans. At 5:30, we call “needles down.” Sewing stops, models begin getting ready, and the room starts its transformation from workroom to runway.

During the sewing period, fair visitors are invited into Heritage Hall to watch the teams work. This makes Project G Street more than a competition hidden behind closed doors. People can see the concentration, cooperation, problem-solving, and occasional controlled chaos involved in making clothing.

The hardest part is rarely sewing alone. Contestants must manage their time, assess their progress, edit their original vision when necessary, and achieve a good fit before the deadline. A complicated design is only successful if the team can finish it and send the model down the runway.

At 5:30, volunteers move quickly to set up chairs and reserved seating while the runway director briefs the models. Noncontestants and unnecessary personnel are asked to leave during this transition so the room can be reset safely and efficiently.

At 6:00, the runway show begins.

One Fair Department Chair currently emcees the show while the other works behind the scenes, directing the models. After the final look appears, the judges deliberate while we keep the audience entertained.

That entertainment has included contestant questions and answers, fair trivia, and presentations from the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair Princes and Princesses about 4-H and their roles at the fair. We have even resorted to a Dad Joke segment—which worked surprisingly well.

After the judges reach their decision, the contestants return for the awards presentation.

The garments are evaluated using a 100-point rubric:

Judges should have professional-level knowledge of sewing, design, construction, fitting, or fashion, although they do not necessarily need to work as professionals. A minimum of three judges works well for an eight-team competition with one division.

The judging panel brings together different kinds of expertise, which is particularly valuable when evaluating garments created under significant time and material constraints.

Project G Street depends on several partnerships.

First, it needs a host that can provide event space with little or no overhead. Event spaces are expensive, so a county fair, state or city event, or publicly owned venue can make a competition like this possible while helping promote sewing as a craft, hobby, life skill, and potential career.

It also needs a major sponsor. G Street Fabrics supplies the competition materials while receiving public exposure and strengthening relationships with loyal sewing customers.

At least two dedicated chairs are needed to manage the planning and event-day decisions. Additional volunteers help with morning setup, the workroom-to-runway transition, and final cleanup.

For our current space, eight to ten teams is a manageable number. We hosted eleven teams one year, but the room became too crowded. Capacity is not determined by space alone; more teams or divisions also require more judges and additional time for deliberation.

We have found that two additional volunteers are ideal for morning setup. Another five to eight volunteers are useful for the runway transition and cleanup. However, more volunteers also require more organization. Next year, we plan to provide a printed floor plan and clearly assigned tasks so everyone knows exactly what needs to happen.

One of the greatest benefits of Project G Street is the community that forms around it.

The competition brings together a diverse group of people who might not otherwise have met. Teams spend an intense but enjoyable day sewing with friends and loved ones. Families and friends become part of the experience when they attend the runway show and celebrate what the contestants created.

The constraints also push contestants beyond their usual habits. They must work with limited fabric choices, solve problems quickly, make compromises, and trust their teammates.

The public benefits as well. The fair gains an additional live attraction, and fairgoers get an entertaining show—and an air-conditioned break.

More importantly, visitors see sewing happening in real time. Several people have told us that watching the contestants made them want to learn how to sew or finally take their sewing machine out of the closet.

That may be one of the most meaningful outcomes of the entire event.

Project G Street continues to evolve as we learn from contestants, judges, volunteers, and audience members.

For the next competition, we hope to create separate novice and skilled divisions. We also plan to invite someone from the previous winning team to judge the novice division.

Other planned improvements include introducing the teams before sewing begins, providing clearer prompts and length limits for runway commentary, returning judges’ feedback to contestants, creating a fabric-swap table, and building in time for contestants and audience members to get food.

We also want to help the connections formed during the competition continue afterward. A Project G Street Frocktails gathering or a more casual sit-and-sew would allow former contestants to reconnect without the pressure of a countdown clock.

Project G Street works because the format is both exciting and relatively simple: find a public host, partner with a materials sponsor, recruit committed organizers, begin with a manageable number of teams, and adapt the details to the available space and local sewing community.

It does not need to look exactly the same everywhere.

A competition might be hosted at another county or state fair, a community arts event, a public library, an educational institution, or a city-owned venue. The fabric might come from a local store, manufacturer, designer, or community donation program.

What matters is creating a place where sewing is visible, creative work is celebrated, and people can challenge themselves together.

The format can be simple. The experience can be transformative.

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