Friday Ramblings

1. Thank you to JillyBeJoyful, I didn't realize that the double word verification was on my blog.  Honestly, I'm not that worried about spam right about now so I'm happy to turn it off until it seems needed.
2. I'm wearing my purple Renfrew, I wore it on Monday too.  Renfrew has me doing one load of laundry more frequently so I can rewear them.  This also works because I often only have enough time in the evening to wash and dry one load prior to going to bed anyhow and is keeping me well stocked in panties and socks (the usual reason to do laundry)
3. Remember the bra I started?  Then got distracted by pants and Renfrew?  I'm back at it and while the band is rather tight (possibly too tight) it's not looking too bad although a little retro in shape.  It still needs hooks at the back, elastic across the top (which I am hoping will solve some upper cup issues) and straps, but getting the channeling and underwire in let me have a sneak peek.  I can't believe I started that in January and still have not finished.  Where did the time go?  Oh right, Renfrew.  Never mind.
4. I don't want to do work today.  Not at all.  Happy to be here, don't really want to do it.
5. They installed new food service coffee machines with my Thurs/Fri client.  I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but man that mochaccino whatever was pretty tasty.  The longer I work here the closer I get to being an actual coffee drinker.
6. CAS still has not sent me information on adoption.  I've sent a follow up email. 
7. Research continues on dress forms, I do love each and every opinion expressed, keep them coming. 
8. We're seeing our fertility doctor tomorrow, seems a bit surreal for some reason.  I am looking forward to it, even when he has bad news (and lets face it, I am never seeing him face to face with good news) I feel better after seeing him.  At least there is a plan at that point.
9. Any tea drinkers out there?  I am a tea whore, I will drink just about any kind of tea - black, green herbal, rooibos, etc.  Present favourite is Loyd wine infused tea I bought at Starsky's after hearing raves from R's mom.  I do not have any with me at the moment and that makes me sad.  I have tried Traditional and Plum.  Both are good, I initially liked Traditional better, but after a few cups, Plum is winning out, there are two other varieties still to try.  Maybe another mocha-whatevery will make me feel less sad.



http://teatropolitan.wordpress.com/tea-collection/tea-collection6/attachment/90/

10. D&D after work tonight, ordering in pizza and then the game will begin.  Incentive (in theory) to do work.  I am guilty of picking away at work and suddenly realizing it's 3pm and I have 8 more things to do before I go home and leaving late.  People are arriving at 6:30, it's generally 45-75 min drive home from this office, I can't do that today.
11. Mr. Lina passes a little hobby farm on his way to work.  He is getting very excited that three of the sheep are getting very fat.  They are often just sitting on the ground rather than walking around.  The llama and donkey seem to stand near them in a protective way.  Perhaps there will be lambies soon and I will get daily updates on what the lambies are doing and how big they are.
12. My inlaws are visiting next week, arriving on Wednesday.  I love them, I have truly won the in law lottery, but I sometimes struggle when they are on my turf and moving my stuff around.  I went a little bat-shit crazy the first time they visited after we were married feeling like everything was criticism and I should have anticipated everything.  Doing things to Mr. Lina's apartment didn't bother me, moving my stuff in my house did.  Serious cleaning of things I don't want them to clean, purchasing of things I do have brand preferences for, and hiding things they don't need to see needs to happen prior to their arrival.  I don't need another bottle of Windex entering my house just because they can't find the two they bought in previous years. 
13. Mr. Lina is now sending me links to pictures of pregnant sheep and lambs.  Sigh.  Welcome to the world of infertility where lambies represent your desire for children.

Dress Form Debate Part 2

I suspect I will be pondering about dress forms for a while before committing to purchase.  It's just the way I am.  Sadly all the drawing of opinions and options can lead me to analysis paralysis and at some point I'll realize that I have known what I wanted for a month and a half and it is time to admit it to myself.  I still have a lot of work to do to find room for it anyhow.

Yesterday I was trying to find more opinions on the Uniquely You dress form.  Talk about a sewing community, I was reading Carolyn's post on online supply resources and saw ElleC suggest A Great Notion.  I thought I better check that out and they do indeed sell Uniquely You dress forms.

Reviews seem to be somewhat mixed.  The process is that you sew the cover until it fits you so close you can't breathe and then wrestle the dummy into it.  The foam compresses and fills the cover and ta-da, you have a clone of yourself.  But... some people have found the cover stretches a bit over time so it's not accurate any more.  Small busted women have needed to take a knife to the breasts because it's too much and compresses in weird ways.  Elegantly Basted bought this last year and I found her struggles educational, as was Diary of a Renaissance Seamstress.  I think I could be up for the fitting, my bust is probably big enough I don't have to worry about it escaping to the sides or cutting them off to make them softer like DofaRS did to fit her corsets.  But... I can't do pants or a bathing suit or anything involving the crotch...  I know I don't do a ton of that kind of sewing, but it seems like I might at some point and it's silly to limit options unless it really is the best option.

On Pattern Review, someone suggested buying a Roxy form and padding it out. 

Roxy have full body, half body (dress forms) and three quarters (body forms).  Now these aren't adjustable but they are pinnable.  It would require padding out.  I'm less interested in the half body because of the reasons listed above.  The three quarters is only $50, could be used for pants etc, but only comes in one size.  Getting a 34" bust to my full bust is a heck of a lot of padding.  Full body come in a lot of sizes, I could get a size 12 that fits my upper bust of 38" and pad out.  Full body is $379 and comes with a full (detachable) arm for free.  I have no idea how shipping would go at this point.  Handmade by Carla bought the half body version and the padding from Fabulous Fit to pad it up.  Georgeous Things bought the full body from Roxy, and if you look in the comments, so did CoutreMode and Kadiddlehopper.

What did we do prior to Google?  I have been able to find a ton of links and reviews and opinions about these forms.  I know it muddies the water to have so much information at your fingertips, but at least I feel like will have made an educated decision rather than just going with whatever cheap ass form Fabricland was carrying because it was the only option I knew of.

Dress form recommendations?

It's been a busy few days with a project finishing up for work, hosting chili night (9 entries, all were good for different reasons) and well, being sad.  I dunno guys, I'm feeling a lot of the same doldrums, but I don't really have much new to say on that front.  Just stating that it's there.

So this summer I did get a promotion at work, apparently this puts me into a new pool for bonuses.  It's not a lot of money, but more than I usually get and enough that I'd like to make a planned purchase with it rather than just seeing it disappear into household expenses.  Part of it I will tuck away because my car will need replacing at some point in the not so distant future and I'd like to have a down payment set aside rather than scrambling.  Still, there is enough to do that and buy something for me.  I don't have a dress form and while I've always thought about making a duct tape dummy or some other DIY, but I haven't.  After this long of thinking, I probably won't.  But where to start...

The Singer form that Fabricland sells?  The price is right, membership often gets you 50% off.  I don't know which specific model that Fabricland carries or if there is much variation between them.  This picture is from the Joann website.  Is it me or do the Dritz ones look pretty similar?  

http://www.joann.com/singer-150-adjustable-dressform-small-medium/prd29699/

Or what about the Fabulous Fit?  I like the idea of being pinnable and it looks more realistic than the gaps in the singer form, I can put the padding where it's needed.  I like the 3/4 view because I could do pants or see how panties will fit.  And bathing suits, I have made bathing suits for myself (just not while having the blog).

http://www.fabulousfit.com/ Personal Misses 3/4 Form

I looked at the Wolf page, wow, that would take damn near my whole bonus (all of it and then some for some of the models).  I'm not sure I'm up to that kind of investment unless someone can tell me some incredibly good reasons it's better.

So, I poll you for opinions and thoughts.  There are lots of reviews on pattern review, I'll be reading through those too.  I'll probably end up with analysis paralysis and not order anything until June...

And in other sewing news... I cut out another Renfrew, same view C with cowl and 3/4 sleeves on Saturday.  It's out of the purple/grey/black swirl fabric I bought in the fall. 

I was sewing it up on Tuesday.  Shoulders went together well, the cowl made far more sense.  I tried the double needle trick around the neck and eh, something just isn't right with the tension.  It's okay, but not great.  Then I went to sew in the sleeves.  Something is totally screwy with the tension.  I tried a whack of things and just decided it needed fresh eyes.  So I will get back to it soon, when I'm ready to tackle the loose thread issues.