Duct Tape Party

So this is what the process of wrapping people in duct tape looks like:

The first layer

The next layer

The finished product

The tie dye layer looks so nice

Barb's finished dress form

Fun, fun, fun

Second layer and still breathing

Laurel in silver

Laurel in leopard!

Waiting for stuffing

Are you next?

Stuffing A Duct Tape Dress Form

So after the taping is done there’s still work to do. I’ve decided to hang my double instead of putting it on a pole and stand. I wore a long sleeved turtleneck and sewed a length of cotton knit around the bottom to cover my backside. It actually went almost to my knees and came in quite handy.
We cut our dummies in a zig zag up the back. I opened mine and sprayed an adhesive in the inside of the bust and pressed in an old underwire bra.

Inside view of bust

Spray adhesive

Bra glued into form

Turn the sleeve to inside

Tie sleeve into a knot

I had an old pillow so I separated it and hung it over the hanger to take up the middle of the space.
Bra strapped around pillow, taped to hanger

Cut kitchen cutting mat in half and place over hanger (shoulder support)

Cutting mats over hanger, bra taped in too

Taping form together-belts help if you don't have a buddy

All taped up-check to see if your real measurements match your double's

Time to stuff-prop double to prevent squishing the girls

Stuff through the neck also

Tie end with rubberband-just in case there's a need to add stuffing

One pillow, one and a half 32 oz. bags of fiber fill needed to stuff

To retain the shape at the bottom of the dress form and to give you something to anchor the pole to if you are putting dress form on a stand, measure around bottom of dress form and around your legs at the same place. The circumference should be close to equal. Measure the with of this oval formed by your legs and the depth so you can draw this on 1 1/2″ insulation board.
Use flexi ruler to draw oval on insulation board

Cut insulation with utility knife-score both sides

Push board into bottom of body double

Trim as necessary

Ta Da! One Body Double weighing in at 7.5 pounds!

Just a little something for your weekend…

So most of you know about the two weddings this past August-well, the boys are going elk hunting with my dad and last week at Treadle something caught my eye and, well, I may get in trouble or at least an eye roll, but I made pillowcases for all three of them (yes, my 81 year old dad, too) and hid them in my dad’s packed stuff.

And then just in case the new wives were feeling lonely…

The “Hunks with the Red Trucks” is no longer available at Treadle but they have new patterns that are attractive to females.

Have a great weekend. I’m dreaming of elk steaks and the safe return of the men most near and dear to my heart.

October Fashion Sewing Club

Thanks to everyone who attended! Another wonderful month of sew inspiring show and tell! I’m going to show you those pictures first. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

KwikSew 3764

Linda's inspiration after Katherine Tilton's class-several colors of this knit at Treadle

Kids' Jackets

Children's Jumper

One of a large family of dolls

Beautiful Jacket

The children’s jumper and doll can also be seen at TaDa Creations on etsy. Amy is cranking out dolls and clothes now that the kids are in school. She was a wealth of information-the quilt store knits (Michael Miller and maybe Moda) shrink. I confirmed that with Tracy at The Sampler. She said 5-6″ per yard. Amy recommended Chez Ami as a source for great kids’ knits. The site has clothing for sale but also sells the fabric used in her garments.

And now for the Material Girls’ garments:

Kristin played around with two versions of a brown ponte roma (at Hancock) skirt, a long vest and was also inspired by Katherine Tilton to make the most of a “design opportunity” while modifying one of Marcy Tilton’s tee patterns.

McCall's 6169 and Straight Skirt

Modified Vogue #8582 and Silhouette Patterns #2010 Yoga Skirt

Debbie was inspired by the August/September Threads’ blouse variations and an idea in Quick and Easy Sewing With Your Serger.

Zen Shirt with Inserts

Designer Details

Embellishing a cardigan

Short Version of McCall's #6169

Laurel flashed us with a bit of red-I wish I could have had a video of it. We all agreed she should wear more of the color.

Shocking, Laurel, shocking!

Sewing Workshop MIxit Shirt and New Look 6598 Blouse

Boutique Blouse-McCall's #5138

Well, that’s it for October. Bernina is now carrying Swedish Monster paper for tracing patterns. The calendar is full of classes-check them out if you are interested. Let me know if there are glitches in the website as you are my proofreaders 😛

Enjoy the leaves and happy sewing.

Two Classes Rescheduled

The Kyoko Dress is finished-actually two of them-and my niece has chosen her favorite. She’s wearing it in the picture below. The other one is hanging at the Bernina store inside Hancock. The fabrics came from The Sampler. We’re offering the class next Monday, October 25, 1-4 pm, if anyone is interested. Fun pattern to put together and the instructions are in color!

The Vest Class will also be available on Monday, October 25 at 6:30 and will conclude on Monday, Nov. 1 at the same time. We’re using McCall’s #6169 for the pattern.

Click on “Classes” in top bar or individual class name in right hand column to register.

The calendar for November and December has been added. We hope you see something that interests you.

#1 Kyoko Dress

Kyoko Dress #2

Short version of vest

Fiber Art Blog Candy

Just a quick entry to urge you to check out Cote Passions. It’s a blog from France (in Safari I was offered a translation by Google) but you don’t need to translate to appreciate the pictures. If you liked my travel pics and love fiber art-not many garments but oh, oh, oh, just go look. And be sure to go far enough to see her pics from Greece. I think I’ll make a screen saver slide show of them for the cold days of winter.

Eye candy for your weekend.

Love Your Serger and Something to do on Saturday

A cold, rainy day and we got to play with sergers all day yesterday. As someone said, “It’s too icky NOT to go to class.” Debbie and I had three new serger operators in the morning and then two sessions of Love Your Serger. We focused on the triple coverstitch and chainstitch. Hem tape turned out to be a great alternative to ribbon as there were plenty of colors and markings on the tape to help keep needles on track (well, it was a good idea anyway). We also discovered YLI’s Success Serging Yarn. It’s a fuzzy acrylic yarn that looks great on polar fleece or wherever you might want to embellish with yarn but don’t want to mess with the real thing. If you want to try it out there are about 6 colors displayed in the classroom at Hancock/Bernina and they can get it for you. Don’t forget to pick up Simplicity patterns for $1.53 or check out home dec (53% off through Sunday). I found the coolest brown silk that looks like cracked leather.

Something to do on Saturday (11 am) is attend The Sampler’s “Fabric Buyer for a Day” class. They promise goodies, snacks and door prizes and you get to see several new lines of fabric and see what it’s like to choose fabric for a store. Granted, it will be quilt fabric (Northcott/Monarch) but it’s gorgeous. And this is as close as I’ll get to the fabric market in Las Vegas! Call 934-5307 to register. Cost is $5 which will be credited back toward purchases. See you there!? Sounds like it will be well attended.

And the Kathryn Tilton Arty T class on Sept. 30 at Treadle filled up today. They’re working on a Friday session-I’ll let you know if I hear anything as I’m on the waiting list. That’s great to hear that classes are filling up.

Coverstitch pillow

Busy Babylocks

Brown silk from Hancock home dec.

Sewing Challenge and More

I’ve cleaned my sewing space and have everything off the floor except the elk hide that my son wants sewn into a patchwork quilt…somehow. I figure it’s a job for my vintage Singer 201.

Anyway, in the process I found lots of UFO’s (Un Finished Objects-you may have a better name for them) and I need some group therapy to get them done. I realize that the answer for some of these projects may be the garbage can but at least I can salvage some of the fabric or notions and consciously make the decision.

So here’s the challenge (have you figured out that you are the group therapist or that I’ve assumed that you also need group therapy?):
Finish one already started project per day-AND put it on the Material Girls Facebook page or this blog.

Goal: To have 100 finished UFO’s on the Facebook page by Fashion Sewing Club week (Oct. 15th). Those would be the whole group, not just me. I hope I don’t have 100…

Mending is included-sewing on buttons, hemming pants, shortening t-shirts or sleeves. And any project counts-pillows, quilting-anything started and waiting to be finished or tossed.

That’s about 5 per day and I got 2 done yesterday-sewed on a button (lost the replacement button, it’s been so long) and sewed the pockets shut on a pair of pants-then they don’t stick out so much or add bulk 🙂

So I’m going to go put this on Facebook now because that is easy for people to put pictures on too. If you don’t have a Facebook account just shoot me an email or leave a comment here and I’ll put it on for you.

Anybody with me?

I almost forgot the “and More” part-I watched the Project Sewing Workshop webinar featuring Linda Lee yesterday. You can sign up to watch it on the Bernina website and see past issues on the Sewing Workshop website. It had some great ideas and how-tos. The best part though, is that everything on both websites-Project Sewing Workshop and Sewing Workshop is 25% off today until the 26th!

Great time to get the patterns you’ve been seeing at Fashion Sewing Club. Check out her fabric and notions, too.

Booties Continued

The Danskos won out and I went to the shoe store. A bit disappointing…sometimes you win, sometimes you lose…I had previously bought some pretty cool sandals at their summer sale so that’s why I didn’t welcome the cool weather.

Anyway, I found one pair that I really liked. I was wearing the skirt outfit so I’d know if they worked or not. It was a cute pair from Born but the sales person was emphatic about me not wearing them with a skirt. I was a bit put off and left without them. She didn’t have to state her opinion quite that strongly. Kind of makes me want to wear them with a skirt anyway-show a young woman what a 50 year old can pull off. Why cover them up with pants? Aren’t they sweet?

I haven’t bought them…yet.