This Week Project Priorities

Wow, so much to do for different events in the next few months-but you know, its really not that much as long as I keep moving, ya know what I mean? The more I sit and overwhelm myself the bigger it actually is, whereas if I just pick one thing and cross it off-it will all get done on time.Sewing/project wise I made a priority list for the next four weeks- and this time I was realistic, and it just so happens it looks like I will be done 2 weeks worth of projects within a week and a couple days.

This week the  projects were to mend a jingle block where the sewing machine did not catch,finish a nursing cover for a friend, and a set of burp cloths that have been waiting to be top stitched for a couple weeks now(for the etsy shop). I have yet to list it on etsy, I will as soon as I find my camera charger, or find a friend to take pictures for me.So, again, these are from my phone- sorry I know its a huge blog no no, but I am doing it anyways- try not to remember this when im famous! haha.

Oh! I also fixed my blogging problems because I was under edit HTML instead of Compose- yes, I am officially blog illiterate-oh well! All fixed, and they made some nice changes so you can drag your photos where you want them,instead of always popping at the top and messing up your already written post-good job blogger!

Here are a few pictures

I gave different length options with extra snaps.

Meet Manica- The New Woman in the House

So did anyone have any idea what all that duct tape was for last week? If you checked me out on Pinterest you probably figured it out, drum roll please....A duct tape dress form. I have been wanting a dress form, even more so now that I am doing a lot of clothing. However it costs $94+++ dollars to buy one, and then Iv been told even with adjustable ones they are not exact to your body shape and hard to fit still. So,I took the plunge and tried to do what I could trying out the duct tape dress form,I figured the worst I could do was spend 30 some bucks and have it not turn out-better than 94 bucks on something that may not work well either.My husband was nice enough to wrap me up;-). We had about 2 1/2-3 layers of tape, ending with the pretty pink with white polka dots-because I love pink,and so happen to have polka dots in my craft room. I got my inspiration from various sites, a few listed at the bottom this post.

I am helping my sister in law make the same pink skirt(and green skirt I made the other week)tonight, here she is whipping together a brown one,using a serger for the first time..

Overall the dress form went as planned,we had to cut the arm a bit to get it off because we wrapped too tight(hence my hand turning a bit purple)and we just tapped it back up,Filled it with newspaper and plastic bags,then used expandable foam for what we could not reach,any gaps. It got a bit loose in the stomach area, and you want to be careful with the expandable foam that it does not blow it out a bit-leaving you with incorrect measurements. I pushed the stomach area in a bit, hence the 6 pack looking bumps-but i measured myself and the form- it is almost spot on-awesome!

With the extra material from my pink skirt, I made myself a scarf in about 5 minutes.

Blogger is acting up- again, So here is the links in raw form:

My inspiration-adding the arm:
http://craftlog.org/craftlog/?p=2699

Threads magazine instruction article:
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3659/clone-yourself-a-fitting-assistant

Tips if your making a dress form:

-Read up on several different sites and most importantly,read comments, some of my best sewing ideas/alterations come from comments, other people did the work and messed up and redid- id rather learn from their mistake than my own.

-Definitely do the 3 rounds of tape-no less.

-If you want to do a "pretty duct tape", use regular boring grey on first 2 rounds-there is less than half the yards on the pretty ones-save money.

- Have good posture while standing

-wrap chest area in very small strips(you can read about why on various sites-or use your brain)

-Do not wear bulky pants like me- wear leggings or thin topped pants.

Thanks for Reading! If you have any questions, feel free to comment!
Oh, if you are wondering on the name,I was uploading the pictures from my phone(yes,camera difficulties as well as blogger-sorry for the quality!)and started to type in mannequin but spelled it wrong and then as it showed up on my email, I thought-what a great name for "her".

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Mommy Tip Plus Future Post Tease

Getting out of the door with my kids, is probably the hardest part of going out- once they are buckled in the car seats I take a breath and start driving. I just cannot stand getting everything together to go out- and I realize part of that is organization- picking the clothes out the night before is a big help, as well as having coats and shoes in the same place. Another big help to getting out the door is having the diaper bag packed.My friend and I thought that it would be best to have a diaper packing list(not just a head one)- does anyone have one? Maybe I am behind the times. Having had two under two,One under a year and one towards the end of potty training(we have the occasional accident, every day is very different, we can have 4 days of no accidents and then the next day and a half we cant seem to make it at all- anyone else?)... ok well I should not say we, I can make it just fine thank you:-). So where was I? Ah, yes the diaper list. Here is my list for my 2 1/2 yr old and 10 1/2 month old (so far).

Diaper Bag List
Levi:
2 size 4 Diapers
2 Burp cloths
2 Pacifiers
2 Pacifiers
1 Pack of Wipes
Sippy Cup
Book
Small Toy
Light Blanket
Heavy Blanket for Car
Extra Outfit

Isaac:
Sippy Cup
2 pairs of Underwear
2 extra pairs of pants
1 Book
Toy/ Stuffed Animal

Mommy Essentials:
Hand Cream
Hand Sanitizer
Phone
Wallet
Camera
Nursing Cover
2 Nursing Pads
1 pair of Glasses
1 Lense Cleaner(for baby smudges on my glasses)

Additional Items:(Special trips like shopping)
Grocery Shopping:
Cloth Grocery Bags
Finger Snacks
Cupons

I also plan on making a all day out diaper packing list(yes believe it or not this is just for a 2-4 hour trip, when I go down the road (1-1 1/2 hrs away) to visit my family I usually have pj's,bathing suits and towels in the summer,extra diapers,changes of clothes,lots of snacks just in case(particularly when I have a 1 yr old who cannot eat raw veggies and tough foods)and other misc. things. I have always been an over packer, however there was one instance where I had no extra pants for my son and it was freezing and I would rather be over prepared than under prepared.I also plan on helping myself out a bit by putting a few of the extras in the car and not actually in the diaper bag(extra clothing and diapers)

I plan on laminating it and putting check boxes so I an use a dry erase marker each time- I am thinking this is especially great for husbands, no excuse not to know what is needed fellas!

So.. I want to hear from you, do you have a list written down or is it all in your head like it has been for me.Sure all in your head works, until you forget something- or like me keep packing extra because you do not have time to go and look, so you end up with 4 pants for your two yr old and no underwear. What items do you never use? What items do you always seem to need?

Now for a Tease, next week I will hopefully be able to show you what all this is for....

If you follow me on pinterest, you probably already know- if not, I just added a follow me on pinterest button to the top of the blog- feel free:-)


ps.(do you say that in blogs?)Blogger is acting up really bad for me tonight, so I have no fancy bold letters and no ability to add captions:-(. Will update if it changes back to normal settings!

A Skirt I Want to Wear

My nights this week have been taken up with making this skirt. It is my second time working with knit fabric, my first was a blanket for my baby which was plain and simple 4 straight seams, no bells or whistles. However this time I was determined to make something I would actually want to wear. So i cut out my fabric(the wrong way), apparently the knit I got was a one direction stretch fabric and I cut it the non stretch way which means that I had to add another panel. Since I had to add another panel, I had to change the shape of the bottom and pleat it in some form because it was too big. Then I sewed my seams with my new serger-which was great, however my fabric was a bit puckered (too much tension or pulling the fabric on my part)on the seams regardless of my trying to fix it. I then decided to just hid my seams to which I decided to wrap around the edges and walla! It worked and I have a skirt I will actually wear! It is super comfy, in the winter you can wear it with leggings and boots to keep warm, in the summer you can wear it with just flip flops. After the skirt was done I then realized that the seams did not look nearly as bad when I looked at the finished product- oh well, still looks good!

I added another burp cloth set to my Etsy Shop. Set of two burp cloths, elephants on front, polka dots on back.
Go ahead and check it out!

I have a set of butterfly purple and pink burp cloths coming up this next week, as well as working on a nursing cover for a friend. If anyone has a custom order they would like feel free to contact me through my Etsy shop on Bitsy Blessings Facebook(link in side bar)

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