1. Moulage 2. Sloper. 3. Dress!

As promised, here is result #1 of making clothing from my moulage and sloper:

A casual, knit dress.

I drafted the sleeves too, for an extra challenge.

Another challenge was drafting everything by-the-book(ish.) It's a simple design; I didn't have to follow the rules, but it was good to prove to myself that I could and test out my moulage and sloper.

Princess lined back bodice.

There are still a few kinks. I'll work on 2 (including the sleeves) and live with 1.

Overall, I like it!

Monthly Issue Note: 

In these pictures I'm nearing the full results of Aunt Irma's upcoming visit I discussed in my last post. You can tell it most in the photo directly above. Not bad! I'm so happy!

Moulage and Sloper

It's been a while! I was in a crafting slump.

A moulage is like a body-double, a sausage casing made for your body. It's made out of woven fabric. It has just enough ease so you can try it on and not bust it! 

Years ago, I was in sewing school and had the opportunity to take a moulage class. So. Much. Fun! And so easy! Getting a sloper to fit had taken days and tears. The class itself took days, but the process was like a breath of fresh air. Instead of multiple fittings I made 1 version, a couple of small adjustments, tried it on to make sure, no adjustments. Yes! I was sold.

Unfortunately, or, rather, mostly fortunately, that moulage no longer fits. It hasn't for a while. I'd been meaning to make another, but it just didn't happen...Until now!

You can't tell, but I'm happy! Some issues with the bottom are because of sewing when tired. Lesson learned. They were fixed.


Here's what version #1 was like:

Adjustments were needed in the front and back.


Remember that lessoned I learned? I forgot it when I went to do the sloper:

Don't sew tired.

Once you've fixed the mistakes your tired self made, you can use the paper pattern of the moulage to check the fit of clothing, make a sloper (but not when sleepy) and use it to check the fit of other clothing patterns, make your own patterns and other things. Awesome!



Now, I don't like talking about stuff like this, but someone may find it helpful so I'm going to go ahead. As you may have noticed, I have a unique body. We all do! Mine gains about 10 pounds of water weight at a certain time of the month that then goes away until next time. Between that and other temporary changes, getting things to fit around that time is not fun. One thing that might look like a mistake but isn't is the extra room in the sloper. It's there for this issue. I want to see how clothing made to accommodate it will look month-long. Stay tuned for the results...once I do some other things that I really should do first. Until then, thank goodness for leggings, knit dresses, and lacy cardigans for warm weather wear!

More Exploding Etuis

Christmas was a while ago, but it takes my friends and me a while to get back in gear and exchange gifts! A long while. Just 1 more to go now, though! Shh.

This one went to D:

This one will go to E:

Now to get us- and the etuis -together for a crafternoon. 

Crafting Aids and Macarons

Wow! January is almost over!

Slowly I've been chipping away at the list of projects I want to do this year. Participating in this craftalong has certainly helped keep me motivated. 

Another aid is being able to work and watch TV at the same time. I heard of people doing this a while back and thought man, they must be nuts. How does that work? But then I tried it. Double the entertainment! I'd try it with audio books, but, while I love books, I hate being read to. I prefer to be in control or something. I'm not sure. 

Anyway...

I made up this Magic 8 macaron...

...and already sold one! That makes me feel so nice.

It's available as a kit too.

Remember my first one? Want to see it made up? Here you go:

And a side pic at the bottom there:

I have more projects- macarons, exploding etuis -either done or nearly done. Pictures are another story. I'm looking forward to sharing them!

Hottokēki

I had a wonderful breakfast Sunday morning:

Okay, so, yes, I need to work on my food photography skills (make that all photography skills), but these, apparently, Japanese-style hot cakes were delicious!

I didn't beat the eggs as much as the recipe advised, which may account for them being a bit on the tough side, but that did not stop the stack of tall pancakes from being reduced to 0. They were even good reheated!

Year-End News

Happy (Almost) New Year!

I got a head start on my projects list by getting this done:

He's so forceful, the little one! 

You can make your own with this kit, now available in my shop!

As with my other kits, I designed the fabric and had it printed by Spoonflower.

Bonus 'cron:
Now that the recipient has received, I wanted to share this...

In real life this Captain America-inspired Christmas present is less washed-out. I had to surreptitiously take pictures in a dark corner as the sun was going down to avoid ruining the surprise!

 Have a fantastic 2015!

That Season Is Definitely Here

Whew! It's a whirlwind here. Christmas is a-coming!

I know it's been a bit of a popcorn-fest on this blog, but I made these "popcorn baubles" up and wanted to share.

This recipe is tweaked from one of my grandmother's old, old, old cookbooks:

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/3 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
32 cups of popped popcorn (takes a bit over 2 batches for me to get enough from my air popper. I get it popping while the syrup is cooking.)


Cook the first 3 ingredients in a small pot over medium to medium-high heat. I stir occasionally most of the time, but, really, I’m a ditz sometimes and I haven’t figured out a way to mess up this recipe up yet.

Put the popped popcorn into lightly greased, shallow containers (don’t include unpopped kernels if you can. They’re no fun.) I use 2 disposable aluminum roasting pans from the grocery store (but I wash them and keep them instead of disposing of them.)

When the syrup reaches softball stage- I use a candy thermometer to tell -quickly stir in the vanilla and salt then pour over the kernels. Stir to coat.

When it’s cool enough for you, grease your hands (butter is tasty!) and get to forming the sweet, corny goodness into balls.

Let cool all the way. If they haven’t been devoured after that, wrap in plastic to keep fresh and/or to hang them.

That's it! In about an hour, you have classic popcorn balls!

You can have bunches of fun dressing them up, like Christmas ornament baubles (above)

or Ice Planets:

I found this fantastic Firefly-inspired dessert idea here.