My Doppelganger Needs More Butt Padding

Keen eyes may have noticed my mention of an Epic Meltdown (post before this one) due to my missing out on family fun at the lake.  Well, I have to admit that, in my petulance, I ended up doing a little online shopping.  However, it did mean I snagged a Singer Dress form for $99 (still going for another couple days... qualifies for their fee shipping, too).

Please excuse the mess. 

And this time I was armed with knowledge of how to pad it out and make it more "me" shaped.  I started out I used the dial for the upper bust and under bust (which on the dress form  = waist) measurements. Then I used one of my older bras and padded that out and then started with the quilt batting. I did two wrap-arounds with low-loft polyester, tucking it under the bra strap.  Next I cut out more rounded shapes to pad the tummy and posterior.  I measured as I went, both myself at the moment, then the dress form.  I'd stand side by side with it to make sure it was approximately the same shape as me.  This also meant I ended up in my underwear. Actually, that happens a lot when I'm at the "try it on" phase.  I don't always remember to pull the blinds cause we practically live in the woods, so its really only an issue if I have pervy neighbors with binoculars and insomnia.  In any case, I now I basically "bump breasts" with it if I'm trying to put a tape measure around or something, which means I probably have a good height too.

I then draped and pinned some scrap red knit/lycra I had kept around pinned an approximation, and then serged. You can tell from the white showing that I didn't bother to change the serger thread. Cause I'm lazy like that. I didn't really think to take photos of that part.  It was around this time my roommate woke up and wandered through the sun room and said "Hey, that's very you shaped!" Bonus.

The padding did settle after a days sleep, so when I got up and had enough coffee in me to ask his opinion, my husband says  "Good job, but your doppelganger needs more butt padding".  *insert BADUMDUM TISS here*

Oh yes, I plan to put BOTH sergers to work on these. There's one more that I cut but is not in this picture. 

He's right, probably need a bit more of a tummy pooch too. Ah, the joys of motherhood. Now I just need to sew up that pile of knits sitting next to the sewing machines. Hmmm.

I'm a Teapot in a Boat!

Little girl is my daughter, baseball cap is my brother in law, and the man behind the wheel is my Elusive Husband. 

Did I mention my brother-in-law* bought a boat?  Like, a ski boat that seats about six. I found out and was like WHOA, AWESOME!  But not until after my friend Jenna talked me out of an anxiety attack about the kids learning to ski.  She pointed out this is why they make life vests. Oh right... durrr.  And seeing as we live close to the lake, their grandma takes them to the pool, and we like to vacation at the beach, well, our kids pretty much develop webbed toes and gills in the summer time.  Not to mention the ever adorable freckles across the nose.

Felicity is biting the strap to keep it from flapping against her face.

We're all happy about swimming here.

Last weekend they went out and it was kinda last minute and I had an Epic Meltdown because I couldn't go.  So this was a sunset ride so I could go. SO. MUCH. FUN.  I didn't actually go swimming,  I'm not happy with my current swimsuits for that purpose. The one I want is on back order and I might just have to modify this pattern to make one I like. We'll see. There are just some things I don't feel like spending the effort on.

In any case, this means there may be some more beach style cover-ups in my future (shirring anyone?).  So obviously, we had a blast.  The funniest thing happened as we were all driving back to my Brother-In-Law's, a friend of mine ended up pocket dialing me.  This particular friend, Kris, has known me so long he still uses my maiden last name.  My husband says its cause he's an optimist.  I reply by sticking my tongue out at him.  It devolves in maturity from there. Anyway, pocket dialing.  If you've ever seen "Real Genius" and remember   Val Kilmer's character then you have a pretty good description of both looks and personality. So of course, after hearing Kris talking AND I could tell he was talking to some other people, I realized that the phone was actually in his pocket, I couldn't resist what happened next...

Me: HELLO KRIS?  CAN YOU HEAR ME? YOUR PANTS ARE TALKING TO YOU!!! HELLO!
*wait a minute, still hear talking*
Me (singing at the top of my lungs):  I'M A LITTLE TEAPOT SHORT AND STOUT, HERE IS MY HANDLE HERE IS MY SPOUT!!!! WHEN I GET ALL STEAMED UP AND START TO....  *devolves into a fit of giggles from me and the kids in the truck* 
Me (after I still hear talking): HELLO, KRIS, YOUR PANTS ARE TALKING TO YOU!! HELLO!
Some other person in the room: Dude, your pants are talking...
Kris: Uh, hello???
Me: Hi Kris, you pocket dialed me.
Kris:  Who is this?
Me: Elizabeth
Kris:  Elizabeth [my maiden name]
Me: Yes, that's right.  Your pants dialed me.
Kris: My pants dialed you? Why would they do that? Are you seeing my pants behind my back?
My Husband in the background:  I don't know, you should ask them.

At which point I completely lose it and start laughing so hard tears are going down my face, which sets Kris and everyone in the truck to laughing too.  Eventually Kris says he has to go.  Have I mentioned I know awesome people? True facts, man.

Goggles a must!

Why yes, I'm a sassy redhead, what makes you ask?

Awesome, right?

So, great times!  What do ya'll have planned for those in the Northern Hemisphere for summer?  Don't  forget there's always fun things to do even on a budget, like Finding a natural swimming hole or even going on a day trip to the nearest State Park.  For those of us in the U.S. of A. I say explore the fun out-of-doors. National and State Parks are there for a reason and you should get your tax dollars out of them!

Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta finish padding out my new dress form,make some zucchini bread, and coleslaw.  

*My brother-in-law and sis-in-law live eight miles from me in one direction. My mother-in-law/father live eight miles in the other (basically live in a house turned into a duplex).  I gotta say having family close makes life easier.

Carved Messages

I <3 U

The downside to working nights is my children often complain they don't see enough of me.  It always breaks me heart, especially when they say it while I'm on my way out the door for work.  But then they do little things that make me just love them to pieces.  Now I smile whenever I grab the tailor's chalk.

Caterpillar Gave Me Mushrooms and This Doesn't Look Like Kansas

You know, I've totally had this photo shoot idea stuck in my head for months now. Desperately needed time/place/help to actually get it done.  First off, I think this dress was initially inspired by Ralph Lauren's Spring 2011 collection. Then it turns out gingham is the surprising IT trend of the season. So for once I'm a bit ahead of the curve. Huh, who knew?  I think pink wigs should be all the rage, too.  A girl can dream, right?  I think this photo shoot officially puts me in the "Mom, you're weird" category.

I gotta say, I love this dress to pieces. Even more than my black floral and lace version.  I like it with the pink bow, but I also made a red belt and I have some lovely red shoes that also work with it very well.

Hmmm, I wonder where I am?

For the record, my coworkers all think I'm batty too. So, whatever.

Such lovely flowers!

Showing off the ruffles and the hand picked zipper. 

TWIRL~

Ok, time for me to go to bed. I think I'm officially done with this dress pattern and now that my cover stitch machine is working I'm gonna go nuts for knits. Later ya'll!

Get in the Groove!

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but space is at a premium in my house, particularly with the kids.  We converted the garage to a bedroom for our roommate*.  Which gave the kids their own room, but now I'm out a garage. We're still recovering from that (and hey, I got rid of an entire dumpster full of crap). Currently I take up about half our sun-room and I'm always fighting a losing battle against clutter and mess.  My daughter's art supplies share that space with me. Which brings me to one of my current projects that my Dad is helping me with.  We're building a new base for my cutting table, which currently looks like this:

Barely contained mess!

Oh, yeah, they finally came out with Instagram for Android and I've been having fun with it.  I like to use it because carrying my DSLR around is inconvenient when I need to be doing work. Anyway, moving along. The OTHER issue with this table is that its at exactly the wrong height that I lean in a manner that sets off my back (more about that here).  So now that Dad has his shop up and running in its new home, and we have light late into the evening, I'm making the effort to go help build the new base to hold my table. The base is essentially two sets of shelves to hold up the top of my current table. One side straight shelves, the other a bit more tailored to specific sewing needs.  Here's Dad's technical drawings:

Fun, right?

The other side will just be shelves, but I had what I call the "tall" shelf (on the left side of this drawing) so I can store actual BOLTS, woo!  We went this evening, including Felicity and her new tools.

Proper protection is important!

I love how different my kids can be. Felicity is all about the hands-on and making things.  Simon, on the other hand, got the President's Award for Academic Excellence this year. I'm having a Proud Mom Moment.

Felicity helps her Grandpa measure the router blade.

Felicity helped with holding the wood steady and removing and replacing the c-clamps.  And then, like most 9 year olds, decided that it was noisy and wanted to go inside for icecream. Cause Grandpa always has icecream. We made her earn it first though.

We moved to the porch after the first run.  We were all covered in sawdust by the end.  But, the grooves were cut, so I guess you can say we're groovy.  Bad DUM DUM.  So, now we have the shells done, Felicity held it together to show off.

I've Been Framed!!

So, not only will it be the correct height, I'll be able to reorganize my sewing and craft supplies.

In other news, I've finally managed to get the cover stitch machine to work. I've decided to keep BOTH machines so I don't have to re-thread when I want to go from safety stitch to cover stitch.  Four machines in constant use is totally not unreasonable, right?  I didn't think so.

* (Our roommate is also our nanny, it ended up that way as for numerous reasons he hasn't been able to find a job in years. He helps with the kids and house and he gets room and board, it works out.  Mom pointed out they used to do that years and years ago, the unmarried adult would live with and help whomever needed it)

And Then I Met The Doctor

I had, and still have really, plans to do a stylized photo shoot of the second dress from Vogue 8470 but we've been way too busy with work, home, and my daughter's upcoming birthday.  Part of that was spending most of the day Saturday running around at the Renaissance Festival.  I was practically asleep on my feet but it was worth it, cause you know what? I got awesome photos.  And I got to meet The Doctor.

Yes, that's right. The Doctor.  I have proof.

Me and The Doctor.

And he liked my dress! I win.  

The other thing that tickled me pink was Simon deciding to wear his Assassin's Creed costume.  I hadn't really thought about it but the game is set in a similar time period as the Festival.  And right inside the gate others in costume recognized what he was dressed up as and played along.  It was great to see him not feel like the odd one out, for once.  And I got some much better photos of his costume. 

You shall pay for your insolence!

So the best part about Simon wearing his costume was all the compliments and a couple of "Where do I buy that???".  I was not there for one of them and the other mom in our party said "I'm pretty sure his Mom made it".  Talk about making me feel appreciated. :)  Oh, and we met a gargoyle, but at first we mistook it for a weeping angel.  First thing Simon said was "Don't Blink!" 

A gargoyle protects

Saying goodbye.

The day was also spent with friends. Amanda, Ida and her husband Mark, and Ida's youngest daughter, Faitha, whom my kids love to pieces.  Usually I get lots of photos of Felicity being as photogenic as she is, but this time I just caught two. One of her literally jumping into Faitha's arms, and then when she got to open her presents when we stopped back by Amanda's on the way home (her roommate is also a long time friend). 

But I'm getting ahead of myself a bit.  Friend pictures!

Felicity tackle-hugs her friend!

While resting in the shade there was some dancers performing on the lawn area.  I got some neat photos.

More dancers. 

Oh yeah, the obligatory birthday present photo. Do not be fooled by Teh Cuteness. She has tools and is not afraid to use them.

Felicity is excited about her tools!

We don't believe gifts have to be gender appropriate. And yes, that is the dress from her Red Riding hood costume.  This is my sewing blog, after all!

I think that's all for now.  I do leave you with a few of my attempts at macro photography and hope you have a wonderful rest of your Sunday!

Let's Talk Business

Or rather, business casual. Except I don't really do casual so well. Its funny, I work for a large telecommunications company in the NOC (network operations center) and on third shift.  Up until about a month ago almost everyone except me would wear jeans and a nice looking shirt.   But now we're in a shiny new building right next to Head Quarters and you should have heard the engineers.  "Now I have to go buy a whole new wardrobe!".

I just kinda chuckled.  I don't really need to change much in dress, though I do desperately need more basic separates.  Skirts with pockets and some nice blouses.

Vogue 8747

I believe I've settled on this one for turning into a TNT blouse.  Princess seams plus ABCD sizing looks to be the easiest to fit and give me many variations.  The latest Threads even has a tutorial on adding a button placket to this specific pattern! Win all around.  My fabric choices, however, are a little on the rebellious side.  I have my eye on the Goth Bunny fabric on Spoonflower, and of course the Hello Kitty L.O.L Tana Lawn I pre-ordered, not to mention the one I got in NYC.

Goth Bunny

Hello Kitty Liberty of London

I like dressing up but since now I HAVE to... well let's just say I gotta be me.  For the bottom half of my wardrobe update I have two patterns.  The first of which is Colette's Beignet, which I'll be using some black rayon suiting from Fabric.com.  

I also have a wool/rayon blend small plaid suiting that I intend to make a pencil skirt out of with Vogue 8672, but without the ruching. View A, to be precise. 

So that's what I have on the top of my priority list for work sewing.  Then its on to making vacation clothes for the kids!  My blue gingham maxi is done and I absolutely adore it. Will probably wear it everywhere this summer.  Going to try and get photos this weekend to put up for you.  And stay tuned, next I'm going to post the "power dresses" and sporty jackets I have planned to round out my work wardrobe.