No, I didn't volunteer for the crossing guard.
With the help of my sister, we made duct tape doubles of ourselves. I had been wanting a dress form for a while. It's hard to check a garment's fit on one's self and the boyfriend never quite grasped proper tailoring techniques. Thankfully my sister was excited about the idea of making duct tape dress forms so we slotted out a time during the holidays when we both had a few free hours.
Here mine is in her spot in my sewing "room". We used
this tutorial but also learned a few tricks along the way through trial and error. If you try this at home, here's my advice:
1. This is a two person project. I assume that's obvious, but just in case...
2. This project took much longer than we both anticipated. Plan to be standing straight and still for at least two hours. Go potty beforehand and wear comfortable shoes (kind of like the advice people give to brides, no?).
3. Scissors are no match for duct tape. It's much easier to just rip and tear it.
4. Use smaller pieces of duct tape. They're much easier to manage and go on smoother over curvy areas.
5. To make the process quicker, rip a bunch of pieces off at a time.
6. To stuff the dress form, use fiberfill. We used newspaper at first but found that it didn't stuff well at all. My dress form took 104 ounces of fiberfill to stuff.
7. We used a wooden curtain rod cut to size and a Christmas tree holder as the base for our forms (the rod goes all the way through the dress form).
I'm so glad to finally have a custom fit dress form. I've already used it on the two projects I've worked on so far in 2008. Here's hoping my shape and size don't change anytime soon!
Check out my review of the Amy Butler Anna Tunic today at Sew Mama Sew. I was really excited to be able to do a review for them.
I had a lot of fun making this tunic and definitely plan to make another one.
My favorite part of this tunic: the buttons on the back!
...and it's fire engine red.
Materials used: red corduroy, big black buttons.
This is a late birthday present for Peter's mom. Better late than never, right? It's my first apron. The pattern is from Amy Butler's In Stitches with a few modifications: a shortened waistband width and shortened overall length. The pattern was very easy to follow. I used fabric from Heather Bailey's Freshcut line. At first I wasn't sure about these two fabrics together, but now I love the combination. I'm almost jealous that this apron will be headed down to sunny Sarasota while I brave out the freezing weather here. Spring will be here soon though. I can't wait.
No, I didn't volunteer for the crossing guard.
With the help of my sister, we made duct tape doubles of ourselves. I had been wanting a dress form for a while. It's hard to check a garment's fit on one's self and the boyfriend never quite grasped proper tailoring techniques. Thankfully my sister was excited about the idea of making duct tape dress forms so we slotted out a time during the holidays when we both had a few free hours.
Here mine is in her spot in my sewing "room". We used this tutorial but also learned a few tricks along the way through trial and error. If you try this at home, here's my advice:
This dress might look very familiar to some of you folks. That's because it's an almost exact copy of Christina's awesome dress. I was floored so much by hers that I wanted to make one of my own. Christina graciously lent me the now out of print pattern so I could make it happen. I even used the same fabric but in a different color (I didn't want to seem too much like a copy cat). It's a washable organic wool from Fabric Mart. Any wool that can be washed and looks this amazing is a keeper in my book.
I'm still amazed at how easy this dress was to sew up and how great the end result is. I feel like this is a dress that will never go out of style and one that can be slightly modified for many great looks.
These were so much fun to make. My sisters tell me the girls think they are so much fun to play with. A win win situation, no?
My sister gushed about the applique skirts I made last month so it was pretty easy deciding what to make her for Christmas. This is my favorite of the skirts I've made so far. I almost couldn't give it away! It's made of burgundy denim. I think I have enough fabric to make another one to keep this time.
