Duct Tape Dress Form

I finally got Hubby to stick around home long enough to tape me up.  It's not pretty, and not really the shape thought it would be.  I was a little surprised to see my belly sticks out farther than I thought it did, but I also was surprised to see that my chest isn't as big as I thought it was.

Before we started this, I read countless websites and watched a lot of  YouTube videos on how to make a duct tape dummy.  I even consulted a few people who had made one before, looking for tips.  And one of the things that kept coming back to me was how hot it was going to be under all the tape.  And that made me a little nervous; but really it wasn't that bad.  We did this in the middle of January and usually keep the house fairly cool during the day.  We did 3 layers of tape and Hubby was sweating more from doing the taping.  I was comfortable.  In fact, and I know might sound weird, being taped up like that was actually kind of comforting, like a full body hug, although I wouldn't want to wear it all day.

Really the only uncomfortable part was having my arms taped.  I think he got a little to tight around my left arm because I could feel it starting to tingle towards the end.  Cutting it off was a little harry too because I was worried he'd snip me with the razor-sharp scissors, so I sucked in everything I could to give him room to maneuver the scissors.

Dress form before stuffing

Now I just need to stuff it.  Which is another thing I did a lot of research on.  Some fill theirs with polyfil, some with newspaper, some with fabric scraps.  These are fine if you're a tiny person.  It would take maybe 3 bags of polyfil for a tiny person; but tiny is something I'm not, and I figured it would take a lot of poyfil to fill to stuff mine.  Not to mention the shifting and settling after awhile.  I  even thought about expanding foam, but I wasn't sure how well that would work or where to get it.  I did find a few websites that sold the stuff, but couldn't afford to have it fail.

Then on one of my knitting boards somebody suggested using something for a solid core and then add stuffing around that to fill in the gaps.  That sounded like a great idea, but what to use?  It hit me, Styrofoam.  It's lightweight, easy to shape, and fairly cheap.  I picked up a sheet at the home improvement store for $6.  My original thought was to cut it into  4 strips and stack them on top of each other giving me a 6" block for the core.  Turns out I didn't need the whole thing.  I started by cutting the Styrofoam the width of my hips since they are the widest part of my body and rounded the tops to fit my shoulders.  I shoved 2 pieces in as far as I could and then broke up a few other pieces to fit where needed and stuffed newspaper fill in the rest and taped up bottom.  Now that it's all stuffed and closed up, I see a few spots where it could use a little more stuffing.  I'll fix that with expanding spray foam (the kind used for insulation).  I'll cut a small hole, spray the foam in and tape it over when it drys.  Walla, my very own dress form.

Stuffing the dress form with styrofoam and newspaper

Finding the perfect fit: The next chapter

So my Sure Fit kit came yesterday and I'm very excited to try it out.  But first I need to extend the measurements a little, because I'm slightly larger than the master pattern.  This shouldn't be a problem because Glenda has some videos on how to extend the master, and it looks fairly easy just a little time consuming.

I live in capri pants during the summer and with Fashion Bug closing, it's getting harder to find ones I like.  A few years ago I found the perfect pair of capris, and I should have bought all of them in my size, because I wore those pants just about everyday, until they finally wore out.  I'm hoping with this Sure Fit kit I can make my own perfect capris in a multitude of  colors.

Another thing I'm doing to find the perfect fit; and you can call me crazy, but I've decided to make myself a duct tape dress form.  I'm hoping to be able to use it to help me with fitting the sweaters I knit and  once I master pants maybe I'll venture into sewing tops for myself.

I'm on a quest for the perfect pair of pants

I have an new obsession. Pants, or more so sewing pants, and even more so sewing the perfect pair of pants for me.

Over Christmas, I made a few pairs of toddler jeans for the shop.  They're really cute.  It inspired me to pull out the pattern and fabric I bought several years ago with the intention to make myself a pair of capris. The pieces were already cut, I just had to sew them together, but my fear that they weren't going to fit, kept me from finishing them, and they got put in a drawer and forgotten about.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I pulled them out and spent the last 2 days sewing them together.  Like I feared they don't fit quite right, there's some areas where it needs modified.  I started searching for tutorial on how to make pattern adjustments and found many, but I'm sure which adjustments I need to make.

I tried taking a pair of pants that fit well and compared them to the pattern pieces, but that didn't seem to help at all; since the pattern pieces were much wider than the pants and the main problem was the finished pants made from the pattern were to tight and I even used a smaller seam allowance than it called for.

Then I tried tracing the pattern and adding a few inches to the sides, but I'm not really sure that's going to help because my problem areas are my butt and lower belly; and I really don't need any extra room in the waist.  I haven't sewn them together yet to try it, I'm a little scared to.

Then I ran across a website called Sure Fit Designs.  It's suppose to give you a master pattern made to your body based on your measurements.  It's a little pricy, but after watching a few videos, I decided to give it a try, because I have yet to find any commercial patterns in my size range that I'm happy with.  So we'll see what happens.  If nothing else I could use it to draft patterns for my daughter, although finding patterns that fit her really isn't a problem.

So my quest has begun.  Finding the perfect fit.

Sewing up a storm

The day job is done for the season and now I have a lot of time on my hands.  I've already done the whole cleaning & purging, which is easier done when nobody else is home; and I did my fair share of couch sitting.  It was during a cleaning/purging session in my sewing area, that inspired me to pull the sewing machine out again after a few years.  I was going though my fabrics and scraps deciding what I wanted to keep and what could be donated.  Originally I was going to donate all my juvenile prints to a local charity to make baby clothes, but after a day or two I started to think about it and decided that there was still enough there for me to do something with it.

That's when I made this cute little bubble dress.  It's 100% made from fabric and materials I already had.  It's 2T and listed in the shop for $30.  I can make this style from 2T to size 8.

The next project I did was this hobo style bag for my daughter.  I was looking online at fabric and ran across this Michael Miller print on eBay.  She fell in love with it.  This project was a little more involved, since I had to go buy supplies for it, but both of us are very happy with the results.  The straps are made from an old pair of jeans I had in my stash of up-cycled fabric.

Since I still had some of the fabric left from the bag, I thought I'd make her a matching fabric bracelet.  I let her pick out the strip she wanted and whipped this up in about 10 minutes.  Super simple project, especially since the batting and interfacing was already attached.  I just had to cut it to size and sew it together.

 And I still had enough left over to make this make-up bag.  Three projects from 1 yard of fabric.

This next one was a fun little project for an internet friend.  She posted on Facebook how she needed a super hero cape (and what mom doesn't)  for when she played dress up with her son.  The fleece blanket tied around her neck just wasn't cutting it.  She wanted pink & sparkly, so when I walked into the fabric store and found the sparkly organza on sale I knew it would be prefect for her.

And in between all this sewing I managed to finish a knitting project too.   This cowl is perfect for dressing up up an ordinarily outfit and keeping the winter chill out. It's listed in the shop for $43.00.

Peasant Loaf

We do a pot luck kind of Thanksgiving, and I'm always in charge of bringing the pies. A few years ago I discovered this wonderful bread recipe, and now I'm also responsible for bringing the bread.  With Thanksgiving just a week away, I'm busy baking.  I put together an apple pie earlier this week and froze it, I have 2 more to make and I'm on my second loaf of bread.

I wanted to share this recipe with you.  Although time consuming, it's very simple and makes a European peasant style loaf.  The best part is you can add ingredients to make just about any flavor and works well with white or wheat flour.  I could of let this loaf bake a little longer, but I like my crust a little lighter otherwise it tends to get hard.

Peasant Loaf     

Time: about 1 ½ hour plus 18 to 24 hours’ rising

Ingredients:

3 cups	Flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon	Instant yeast
1 ¼ teaspoon	Salt
1 ¼ cup	Water
	Cornmeal as needed

Directions:

1.  In large bowl combine flour,  yeast and salt.  Add water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Let dough rest 18 to 24 hours at room temperature

2.  Dough is ready when surface is dotted with bubbles.  Lightly flour a work surface and place and dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold over itself once or twice.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 15 minutes.

3.  Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking gently and quickly shape dough into a ball.  Generously coat a cotton towel (not terrycloth) with cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more cornmeal.  Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 to 3 hours.

4.  At least ½ hour before dough is ready; heat oven to 450°.  Put a 6 to 8 quart covered pot (a covered casserole dish works well) in oven as it heats.   When it ready, carefully remove pot from oven.  Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into a pot, seam side up.  Shake pan once or twice to evenly distribute dough.  Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake until brown

Entrelac cowl

Remember when I asked what to do with with 250 yards of alpaca yarn?  Knit myself a entrelac cowl was the answer.  This was a great project because I not only learned a new technique I also got to knit with some luxury yarn and now I have a beautiful scarf to wear this winter.

If you're looking to learn entrelac here's a free tutorial and pattern to get you started
Entrelac tutorial

Basic Entrelac Scarf

I knew there was a reason why I was hesitant to start my next sweater.  I couldn't put my finger on it for weeks, but finally figured it out last night.  My pattern was way off.  I entered the wrong bust size in my pattern software, and when I entered my hip measurement I had something that flared out at a very unusual angle and would of look something like a skin tight maternity sweater.  It would fit my hips, but I'd be damned if I could get it buttoned over my chest.  I'm so glad I finally figured it out, because I would hate to put in all that work and not have it fit.  I re-figured the pattern last night with the correct measurements, and I'm going with the slightly angled version.