Another Attempt at fitting Cassie

If you recall I got a Uniquely You dress form for Christmas last year. I was six months pregnant at the time and just never got around to getting Cassie (the dress form) to look like me. In July I tried to make a sloper up, but got to frustrated(or was it bored?) to work on it. I once again used the information from Kenneth King's Moulage to make my sloper this time.

I should mention my disc is in pieces, and so I'm very thankful that I printed out most of the book when it was still in one piece. Anyways with the help of MacMac sitting next to me, we worked on it while SqueekMoo played at our feet. Now having MacMac help adds another dimension of frustration, but I think the frustration I have towards his lack of knowledge in what he's reading cancels out my frustration of making mistakes because I was rushing through things.

So I made up the back Moulage. Tomorrow we shall hopefully work on the front, which means Wednesday maybe news of a fabric fitting. I hope it turns out well. I really would like Cassie to be a use-able me.

This afternoon I made another mock up of the training pants. I'm still having a tough time. I think much of my problemw ill be fixed if I jsut give into pinning the PUL. I'm sure the holes will shrink in the dryer but I'm still weary to pin it. Also I think a non-stick pressure foot for the sewing machine would help. But the pin thing is a cheaper solution so that will probably be the solution. I tried the size large with size small bands. I cut out a medium with small bands, but I might have to cut a small with smalls just to see. very tricky this fitting diaper thing is.

Another month gone?

Another month has gone and past. Progress has been hit and miss. The house looks a lot better so atleast that. SqueekMoo stunned us at the library the other day. We pulled out and ABC book and "just for fun" try quizzing him on the letters. He was able to say all but 5, he may know the ones he missed but he may have be distracted not sure. but WOW.

So I ended up buying a pattern for the training pants. All the time I fiddled, I wasn't far off from how you construct it. Fit however I don't think I'd ever get right in a million years. So I think my $8 was well spent on the Tinkle Time Trainer pattern. I made mine with a welt pocket. i think I'll probably add another welt pocket to the front. Still need to figure out the best waistband and leg band size, but very happy. As far as materials bought. I did splurge and get some lovely PUL knit prints on-line. But am using polyester from my stash for the waist and leg bands. I have some cotton knit in my stash the i'm using for the lining. Nothing I had was working well as a stuffer, however getting materials on-line isn't in the budget so I picked up a bundle of microfiber towels from Wal-mart. They work like a charm. Wish it wasn't a weird synthetic, but for now it will do.

That time of year is creeping in. When my cross stitch finds its way back into my hands. I've been drooling over the needlework system 4 again. I made a deal with MacMac that if there is no baby insight by next summer then next Mother's day that's what I want. Because if I get any time soon, it would be as a Christmas gift and that would be past the stitching season. If I'm to get it I'd like to get it as the season is starting up.  I did get an hours worth of stitching into the Romantic Stitcher though.

Plan for the week is to work on Cassie, get her fitted. We shall see how far we get with that.

Where have I been?

Not being crafty that's for sure. I have made a few more mock ups of training pants but don't like what the results turn out to be. I am doing some light smocking this evening but having a hard time staying focused.

I need inspiration, but I don't need another project to add to the stash. Sigh.

Personal Sewing Time

SqueekMoo had a late nap. I should I known better than to let him catch a nap so late in the day, but he was so tired and i really wasn't in the mood to deal with a grumpy cranky little one. I think I have a mild cold.

Knowing he had a late nap, I didn't rush to put him to bed. We took out sweet time. He eat the left overs of his dinner when he ought to have already gone to sleep. I laid down with him for a while, but eventually he got tired of laying and played in his room.


I wanted to play with my sewing machine, and so I decided that if he was going to stay up he was going to have to amuse himself without me. Which is able to thankfully.

So I finished up the last of the little quilts I had pinned and ready:

I had a size extra tiny gown that had already been prepped, pleated, sewn and had the first row of smocking in. I was able to finish all the smocking on it tonight.

Trial Cake

Someone's birthday is coming up. As such I've made plans to once again bake him is birthday cake. This year though is a new cake recipe so I'm testing it out. The recipe that I used is from here.

This is actually test two of the cake. The first time was the first time i ever did anything involving egg whites. I quickly realized that it was close to impossible to whip egg whites into a meringue using just a fork. Since then a hand mixer has been bought.

I baked the cakes last night and made the custard as well. This morning i made the whipped cream.

I put come of the custard on to one of the cakes

Added a layer of canned fruit cocktail.

Another layer of custard and then the other cake piece.

Covered in homemade whipped cream

Chill. Cut. Eat.

Review: It doesn't taste exactly like what we expected. I don't think we normally have a custard filling with the fruit cocktail. MacMac says that he'll happily eat it as it though, not alterations required, unless i really want to figure out the differences.

Training Pants part 1

These are not the first training pants i've made. They are however the only ones we put on SqueekMoo and let him wear for any length of time. It's a mock up so the materials were all things found around the house:

-Brown 100% polyester fleecer from Hacncock fabrics for the waistband
-Blue print 100% quilting cotton from Fabrics.com for outer print (not waterproof)
-100% cotton flannel cut from a Carters receiving blanket for lining
-stuffed with a Gerber prefold left over from when we used them as burp cloths for SqueekMoo

After the pictures were taken we realized he has already peed in the pants. The outside was a little damp. They held up nicely. We put it in the wash. The prefold does not automatically come out in the wash.

Update: Aug 8
The mock up got retired today. SqueekMoo had a poop the consistency of a milkshake while wearing the mock up. It held up well, but poop did come out.

Charity Quilts

Like I said earlier, I was able to make some head way and finish a few of the quilts I'm making for charity. These quilts aren't very big all less than 24" square. Some are blocks from a block of the month thing i was a part of but never finished. Others were made using jelly roll size stripes from my stash as a means to reduce the overflowing quantities that I have. I had tried to do quilting then bind, but its my least favorite thing. I realized my dislike was preventing me from being productive so i switched to a sew then flip then topstitch method of finishing. Being that I'm doing minimal quilting i figured it would be okay. here's what I have done: