The contestants are split up into teams of three:

• Ken, Alexandria, and Sue
• Kate, Jeremy and Karen
• Justin, Dom, and Helen
• Alexander, Miranda, and Bradon

Each designer is responsible for one look in a luxurious high-end mini-collection. And, it’s an unconventional materials challenge, with three stores to choose from: a vintage wallpaper store; my old supermarket; or the worst home goods and party store on the planet.

Once all of the miscellaneous materials have been procured, the designers bring their bickering to the workroom where Ken is at wit’s end with Alexandria and Sue. They steamrolled over him at the wallpaper store, Alexandria doesn’t know how to sew, and Sue is just grating on his nerves. Bradon has an interesting skirt started with foam eggshell material, and Miranda is quilting wallpaper. Jeremy is making a cocktail dress out of placemats while Kate thinks about lampshades. Justin and Dom also have something neato happening with wallpaper pants—wallpaper pants!!! And then….

Tim wheels Sandro into the workroom on a Hannibal Lector-style gurney so that he can say goodbye. He apologized to Helen and Ken for being “emotional crazy Russian.” Well that was awkward. Afterwards, Tim Gunn checks in with the teams. Tim is blown away by Miranda’s wallpaper quilting. He is questionable as to whether Kate’s placemat quilting will work, but Jeremy’s placemat bustier is intriguing. Also, Tim is worried that the placemats aren’t unconventional enough for the judges. Then Tim looks at Dom, Helen and Jeremy’s wallpaper collection. It’s artful, but quite possibly a bit boring. Sue and Alexandria try to talk Tim on board with their looks, but he calls the team out for their curtain cop out. “Have you seen what the judges do when presented with a fabric?” We have, Tim, and it’s why we watch the show.

With mere hours left, glue guns heat up, sparkles get sprinkled, Ken duct tapes the back of his dress together, and…Sue is hand-stitching an entire dress because she doesn’t know how to use a sewing machine. For the first time ever, a model leaves the workroom undressed. Sue didn’t finish, and although her team tries to stitch her dress together in the hallway, Tim asks them to stop and leave it as is.

Everybody to the runway! The judges this week are Zac Posen, Nina Garcia, Heidi Klum, and June Ambrose, celebrity fashion stylist and designer. Also, Tim Gunn still has not used his patented Tim Gunn Rescue.™

Alexander’s windowpane wallpaper pants are meh. Miranda’s silver wallpaper cocktail dress is nice but also kind of a snore. Bradon’s gown is stunning.—a gown made of plastic things! And wallpaper! As a collection, it works.

Justin’s wallpaper and berries outfit is sleek and stylish. Dom’s structural wallpaper cocktail dress is quietly dramatic. Helen’s wallpaper pouf dress is…not flattering. The overall collection is a little blah.

Sue’s half-finished dress is just gross. Ken’s isn’t much better, but at least it’s made well (until the model turns around and you see the duct tape). Alexandria’s dress is a variation of the other messes, but the skirt is nice albeit noisy (don ‘t even ask).

The collection looks like it came from the sale rack at Hot Topic in 1987. Jeremy’s placemat dress is really kickass for a dress made out of placemats. Karen’s placemat dress is less successful since you can still see the shape of the placemats. Kate’s version is a sexy little black dress that has a slit so far up the back that it’s borderline obscene.

Jeremy, Karen, and Kate are the winning team, and Alexandria, Ken, and Sue are the losing team. The judges are all over Kate and Jeremy’s dresses, and they love the random poppy seeds and rice in Karen’s look. When it comes to the losing team, Sue explains that they were trying to go for a modern and edgy look for an active woman. Zac just flat out says, “To me, the material choice is bad, the sewing is bad, and the taste is bad on all three.” There’s just no redeeming quality in any of the outfits. Alexandria calls out Sue for not knowing how to sew or make patterns because it held the rest of them back, and Heidi is shocked that someone on Project Runway can’t even do the basics. Then, Ken explains that Sue’s model sewed her own look together in the bathroom before the runway show. Oof. Not good.

The judges immediately narrow down the elimination to Ken or Sue. But first, the winner. It’s Jeremy and his sleek white dress. And now, the loser. Sue is out. Good riddance, non-sewing designer. But why are the other two losers still on the runway? Uh-oh. Alexandria is in, and now it’s just Ken. Lonely Ken. He’s in, but the judges wanted to make him sweat it out which is such a Nina thing to do.

Next week, glamping!