Quickie

Just a quickie note to let everyone know we are still alive. I have been sewing. Quite a bit actually! I've made Conner about 4 pairs of pants from the 1/2009 Ottobre issue. They turned out so well and fit perfectly.

I've also been working on a bra for me that actually fits. I made up a Sewy Rebecca and L.O.V.E. it. I just need to make some adjustments to the apex. It has a little East/West action going on since I have to use a pattern that is intended for a woman with a larger ribcage. I discovered that I have a "narrow" ribcage, btw. At least part of me is narrow! LOL!! I tried the Queen Elite again and used the 46H and the cups fit pretty well. I had to take out about 2" from the back band pattern which is a total of 4". Whew! I wore it yesterday and was comfortable all day. I didn't have any wires for that size so it was just a soft cup. I really need wires for shape though. This was a sort of "muslin" though and I think I can cut into my better bra fabrics now. I just need to call Needle Nook and order the wires needed for that size. I also need to stabilize the lower cup which I haven't been doing on any of the bras. I've also been reading Beverly Johnson's book and it has a wealth of information! It's expensive but worth every penny, IMHO.

I'll try to get some pictures up. I've been very lazy in that department and I haven't done a review for Patternreview in forever. I started cleaning up my sewing area yesterday and I seriously need to find a way to organize all my patterns. I found two Simplicity 3503's for cryin' out loud. It's a pretty dress but geez...I don't need two! One idea that I have, which will be rather labor intensive, is to scan them all, print the pictures, and put them all in a 3-ring binder in numerical order. Then organize all the patterns themselves in numerical order and maybe by company too. SO, all I'll have to do is flip through a book to see what I want. Eeeek...that sounds like an awful lot of work.... but it would be totally awesome.

A little experiment...or, the fun things you can do with Kool-aid!

A little experiment
Originally uploaded by li'l miss muffett

I love to dye things. It's just so darn fun...

So, I did a little experiment the other day. Now, dyeing with Kool-aid is way cool because you don't have to worry about wearing layers of protective gear or worry that your childrens' hair will fall out or their fingers will fall off.

I've dyed wool yarn with Kool-aid and it really comes out beautiful! Nylon can be dyed in this way also and I've seen several Etsy sellers that dye vintage slips or girdles, etc. and it looks soooo GOOD!

Anyhoo, I pulled out a scrap of white nylon tricot (the kind used for slips, panties and bras) that was about the size of an average pair of panties and cut about a yard of white stretch lace. This will kinda give you a reference for how much dye is needed for your fabric/lace/undies.

Here's how it went if you want to try it:

The first go around, I filled a large saucepan with water and brought it to a boil. I dunked in the nylon and lace and then sprinkled the Kool-aid on top (my mistake, apparently) and stirred and squished it with a potato masher until the water started to look clear, water simmering all the while. Then I removed the fabric and lace, rinsed till the water ran clear, and hung them up to dry. By doing it this way I came up with a really groovy tie-dyed effect. Although it was really pretty, it wasn't quite what I was going for. So I started another pot of water and this time added the Kool-aid first. This produced a much more uniform spread of color but still a little tie-dyeish. This could be due to the fact that it was swirly to begin with.

The color is really hard for the camera to pick up but it's a really pretty pinky-purple with swirls of blue. The lace picked up the colors differently as you can see in the picture. Some parts took more of the Kool-aid's blue dye and others took more of the pink.

My next color was going to be cherry red but a certain munchkin living in my house made it in to an actual drink. Dammit!

This is a very "KOOL" experiment to do with you kids too!
Have fun!

EDIT: After posting this I found out that you don't have to boil the fabric and in fact it's not too nice on the elastic in the lace. Instead bring your water to a simmer and then turn off the heat. Add the kool aid, stir, then add the fabric. Continue to stir/mash until the water is clear or you get the color desired!

Happy New Year!

I think many people share my opinion that 2008 flew by rather quickly. For me, Conner starting preschool escalated time consdiderably! I miss him in the mornings but don't regret our decision one bit. He is a completely changed li'l fella and the speech therapy has been a Godsend.

Anyhoo, we got our New Year off to a rocky start with everyone (except Gene, of course) getting a horrible tummy bug. I even spent an evening in the ER ('cause I fainted and freaked Gene out). Whoo hoo! We're all okay now though! The ER doc did say my blood sugar was too high so I need to follow up with my doctor. I'm not really looking forward to that little bit of business but my MIL has Diabetes so I know not to fool with it.

Christmas was really nice and we got to spend time with lots of family. Gene bought me Beverly Johnson's book on bra making and I'm itching to dive into it. Also got a couple Merckverdigh bra patterns and the Rebecca pattern by Sewy. They're all in German and I just don't remember enough to get me through. I emailed Michaela and she sent me her English translations and even a step-by-step photo tutorial for the Rebecca pattern! She has really been so helpful and friendly, even offering to help me more if I get stuck. I definitely recommend her shop and will be buying some bra kits in the future.

I've sewn about 5 bras so far (Kwik Sew and Ann St Clair's) but still need to work on the sizing for me. I have a rather difficult size (38L or 40J) and finding bra patterns is about as difficult as finding RTW (ready to wear) bras! The patterns I mentioned above come highly recommended and also in larger bust sizes! So we'll see....

Here is the bra set I made my sister for Christmas:

I was very proud of how it turned out and she loved it! And it fit her!!! Yay! Her hubby approved tremendously as well. LOL!!! The bra is Kwik Sew 3594 and the panties are both from Jalie 2568. The fabric is a periwinkle lycra knit that is sooo soft and slinky! I seriously need to make me some panties out of it. It was a real bear to sew because it kept rolling up on me but well worth it (I did line it with 50 denier tricot for support)! The white panties are wide stretch lace and the simplest thing to sew. I swear it takes like a total of 15 minutes to cut them out and sew. Since the lace is finished on both sides there is no finishing! No elastic waistband, no elastic on the legs... awesome!

I've also started sewing some custom lingerie! That has been really fun but I must admit it has made me think about lingerie all the time now! Sounds kinda naughty but really my thoughts run more towards the technical. I find myself daydreaming about how to build a better bra or how to embellish panties and slips with lace, etc. Really, if you have never tried making your own undies or at least buying handmade, you should! They are so much more comfortable than RTW! They're the first thing I reach for in my lingerie drawer.

There will most definitely be more lingerie sewing show-and-tell here on my blog so watch out! I'm really concentrating on that for now and for-who-knows-how-long?!

Wishing you all a healthy and properous 2009!

Heather

Punkin Patch!

We took a trip to the Pumpkin Patch near Sublette, KS just before Halloween. Yes, I know I'm a little behind....story of my life!

Anyhoo, I have never seen so many different types of pumpkins! They had white, black(!), yellow, several shades of orange(duh), and a bunch others that I just can't remember at the moment. They also grew squashes, gourds, cantalope, and watermelons.

Here we are going on a hay ride through the farmer's land...

and we even encountered some of the locals. Honestly, I forgot how damn big cows are!

This is a shot Gene took of us watching the catapult. The man had this huge well, catapult, that he flung watermelons several hundred feet.

It was cool. We also went through a maze that they had plowed through a large patch of corn. I don't know why I didn't take any pics but it was really fun and we got lost a couple of times. I think that's the funnest part but I could tell the old hubby was getting a little freaked out.

We had such a great time that this will be a tradition from now on. I just can't believe we hadn't gone sooner.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I have to say in these gloomy times our nation is going through I am so very thankful for all the blessings bestowed upon myself and my family. My husband has a good job. It allows me to stay at home and my kids have their Momma to greet them when they come home from school. I can't think of anything much better!

Almost forgot

OMG! I can't believe I forgot to add this yesterday....Anyway, when I was at Needle Nook this last weekend Deb told me about a new bra pattern they have coming out soon. She really liked my bra and stitchy abilities so she asked if I'd like to be one of the testers! How cool is that?! I was extremely flattered and can't wait to see the new design. It is supposed to be a 3-seam cup. Most of the bras for larger busts from European companies seem to be this way. I just wanted to add that little "Yay me!"

I'll leave you with a super cute pic of my two babies.

Both sacked out on the floor. Penelope had her head right up against Conner's but of course she had to move before I could get the camera going.

Please disregard my UGLY carpet! LOL!

Back to business

Okay, seriously, I've been thinking about blogging stuff but I just never sit my butt down and get it done.

I've been sewing quite a bit and dealing with a sick toddler. One minute he has horrible diarrhea the next, he gets it again, and now he is on meds for tonsilitis and a nasty cough. Sheesh. The first bout of diarrhea came the day before we were to go to Wichita. I wanted to finally check out Needle Nook and pick up the owner's bra pattern, her bra-making manual, and a couple of the kits they offer. Gene needed to go to get one of his amps worked on. I decided to stay behind so he went on with Meghan and whaddya know, he stopped by the shop and picked up the book and pattern for me! How sweet. I have such a good hubby! I promptly got to work on the bra using bits and pieces I had in my stash. I was sort of pleased with the outcome. Even though I used a mish-mash of fabrics and elastic it turned out pretty. The cup was too small and band too big even though I measured like the book said. Poo. I swear, me and my big hooters....

The good news is we got to go back this last weekend and I got to spend some time in the shop, get this....on my own! Holy Crap, right? Anyhoo, I can't say enough about how helpful the ladies are. I brought my bra along so I could maybe get a critique. Well, one of the staff, Deb, told me to go put it on and she'd see what's what. So, I did. She even gave me a quick fitting and had me try on one of their premade fitting bras. We found I just need to go up a cup size (shock of all shocks) and use better elastic in the band (the stuff I used for the bra band was vintage from the thrift store and had lost a lot of it's elasticity). I also picked up a few of the kits.

Here on the far right you can see the little baggies with fabric and all the fixin's. The nude and white have enough for three bras and the sparkly pink (doesn't every girl need a sparkly pink bra?!) is for one bra. They had black, too and a bunch of other fun colors. Now I just need to get Halloween costumes finished and I have a few alterations I need to get done before I start diggin' in. I can't wait! The other is some brown jersey with gold for a t-shirt, some irridescent white sheer tricot to make Meghan a bra and the red is a 50 denier tricot to make me another bra and some panties. Should have enough for Miss M, too. The last is some groovy camo print knit with a shiny snakeskin overlay (I have no idea what it's called) for Conner's costume. He's going to be a dinosaur. That boy lives and breathes dinosaurs....

Also, if you need elastic might I suggest the Kathy_s Yahoo group? I recently joined her coop and had her send me one of the 1 pound assortments (only $7 plus shipping!) so I could get an idea of the quality. Above is a picture of the variety she sent. Holy cow, it was like Christmas! It comes in one big bag so I sorted them and placed each in it's own little baggie. It's all really nice lingerie elastic and stretch lace (some just have discolorations or is a tiny bit dirty from storage). I've already used some of it to make Meghan a little bra. I made it yesterday and she's wearing it today so I didn't get a chance to take a pick of it, yet. Kathy also has tons of fold over elastic. I'm just starting to get used to it so I didn't order any from her yet but she has a 1 lb assortment of that for $15, too. I figure that would be perfect for the diaper makers out there!

I can't think of anything else at the moment. I need to go make some cocoa for Meghan. She'll be home soon and it's a cold, crappy day. Cocoa will make it all better! ;-D

nose bud

nose bud
Originally uploaded by li'l miss muffett

I just received this little "nose bud" from Lisa's Lovlies etsy shop. It is just the right size. She also has tons of beautiful handmade silver jewelry. I'm coveting several of her earrings and drooling over the rings!

The Chai Story

If you own a dog or know someone who does please read this: The Chai Story

I think I've seen these toys in my local stores. I'll be sure to go check next time I'm there. I know I've seen the brand Four Paws.

I just thought this was such a tragedy! I know some of you that read my blog have dogs and would want to know this information.

Thanks for checking it out.

Joy Nash

Found this on another blog the other day and thought it was really funny.

Family news!

Short post. Good News.

Well, we are inching ever closer to the final potty training stage. YESSS!! We have 3 pull-ups left and I will not be buying anymore. I only bought this one package so I think we are doing pretty darn good. It's been all of about 2 weeks since we started this whole business. Believe me, I still feel like I'm dreaming. I'm so proud of the little man though. No pee accidents at all and no poo accidents for a few days. He has found joy in pooping on the pot I guess. Finally!

Meghan is doing really good with her knee. We went to see the Orthopedic Surgeon yesterday and he said we can slowly work her out of the brace and off the crutches over the next few days. He had her bend her knee a bit and she did good although she was a little freaked out. I think she thinks her knee cap is just going to pop out again. He wants start aggressive physical therapy in about a week to strengthen her leg muscles so this won't happen again.

School seems to be going well for them both, too. Conner is starting to say more sounds/words and Meghan is making new friends. No bullies in her class this year thank goodness. Last year was rough.

Well, that's about it for now.

Have a Happy Hump Day!

School Days Again

Thank God! I thought I was gonna kill me some kids. Today is only their second day but its so nice and quiet.

Also we have some exciting news! (If you are not part of my family you will not give a rats ass about this post, sorry)

Guess who has been using the potty like a big boy?

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Yep, you guessed it! My little Con man! We've only had a a few #2 accidents but I'll forgive him that. The first one was my fault anyway. I put him down for his nap and he kept getting up telling me he had to poop but nothing was happening so the last time he got up I put him back to bed saying "Oh, you don't have to poopy. Now go to bed!" Of course he got up again and the deed was done. I could have flushed myself down the toilet! He's not really into wearing the big boy underpants so we're still doing the "pull-up" thang. Found some with Diego on them so he was a happy camper. When we're done with this pack I'm not buying anymore though. He stays dry at night and through naps so big boy undies, here we come! I made him the cutest pair of boxer briefs several months back so I'll need to make some more up. I just need to find some super cute cotton knits. I had to take my M-I-L to the doctor for her broken foot (it's finally healing YAY!!) but tomorrow should be nice and uneventful. I'd like to get back to sewing everyday again.

Mr. C should be home soon so I'll sign off here. It's raining cats and dogs so I'll have to be sure to meet the bus. Ya'll have a happy Monday.

Big C's first day of school!

(Meghan erased the picture Conner took of her so I have none of her first day, dammit!)

been a bad bad girl

and not posting like I said I would... Sorry family! Had a busy but fun weekend though. Well, Gene and I did anyway. He had a gig Saturday night and we had a lot of fun. The lead singer is getting married this Friday and his Bride-to-be had her Bachelorette party there, too. She had a penis shaped cake and got a gigantic rubber penis from one of the ladies. It got nasty (and funny) when they took it out on the dance floor and were...well, lets just say having a little fun dancing around it, etc. Emphasis on the "etcetera". I was part of the party but refrained from dancing around/with the big dick. I did get out and dance the Electric Slide which I haven't done since high school!

Well, that's about all I have for y'all today.

P.S. Family: I've posted some pictures on flickr of the kids. Be sure to sign in 'cause you won't be able to see them if you don't. They're set to private.
XOXO

Happy Father's Day

to all the daddies and especially to my sweet husband and wonderful Dad.
Also, in remembrance of a couple of amazing Dads:
You are greatly missed.

Sewing and stuff

I haven't updated 'cause I just haven't had much to visit about, I guess. I'm still sewing like a mad woman. I finished up a cute top using some groovy Alexander Henry fabric. It's called "Baddanna" and looks like a bandanna print but up close you see it has skull and cross bones. Cool. I look a little preggers in the top photo there. I assure you, I am NOT. I'm just standing kinda wonky.

Our trip to OKC may be off, unfortunately. With the cost of gas and everything we figure it'll be around $800. That includes my tattoo, though. Soooo, no Foo Fighters, no ink.... poo. But on a lighter side we can take half of that moolah and take the kids to Wonderland Park in Amarillo! While we're down there we may check out the tat shops. It's much closer and we can make a trip in a day instead of having to sleep over. We'll just see. But as talk of gas is going up to over $5 a gallon, I have a feeling OKC is out. Oh, David Grohl, I'll miss seeing you belt out those tunes.
And, dammit, I was really looking forward to this tattoo!!! Ah well.

One thing we've been enjoying is bike rides almost every night. I told Gene once school starts in the fall I'm going to take Conner in his little cart. It hooks on to the back of the bike and he loves it. We did a test run and it only took us about 8 minutes to get to his school! Gene is riding to work a few days a week and that only takes him 5-6 minutes. Yay! Saving gas, good for environment, great for my porky ass!

Clouds after wind storm

Clouds after wind storm
Originally uploaded by li'l miss muffett

We had a seriously wicked wind storm whip up the other day. The sky was full of these neato lookin' clouds. Unfortunately, we had a tree break in half, too. It is pretty diseased so we will have to take the rest of it out. :(