Sloper Attempts and Making Base Patterns

I like mass production, I like feeling like I'm being efficient with my efforts. Thus the idea of a sloper really appealed to me. That is, I knew if I could get a base pattern that always fit me, I could just readjust it for different styles. Which is so much better than, every time I like a new pattern, having to cut it out (I hate the tissue paper), make something, see that it doesn't fit, figure out how to make it fit, and recopy the pattern....and then repeat the whole process for every new dress I want to make.

However, I've spent so many hours researching different sloper strategies, etc, to save time (theoretically), I have read through 7 different sloper instructions, and made slopers from 3 of them, and always, for one reason or another, getting frustrated, and giving up. (Darts are the worst. The frustration usually comes from weird bubbly or too sharp darts, I have yet to master darts)


OK SO BEST DRAFTING LINK!!!  I like it, because instead of tracing random lines with a magical type of step by step instructions, the first thing you do is make a grid from the measurements, so its much faster than random steps, because you can actually see what you are doing.
(for some reason the link sometimes redirects to the website's homepage. Go to http://www.yourwardrobeunlockd.com/ and go to "Free Articles-->Beginner Articles -->Easy Pattern Drafting)
However, its WITHOUT SEAM ALLOWANCES, so you just trace around 3/8" at end for seam allowances, and figure out ease yourself.

The other link I like is this one because its just so incredibly intuitive (not the magical instructions kind)
http://en.inthemoodforcouture.com/drafting-the-bodice-basic-shell/

Now I know how to do a FBA reliably on princess seams http://sewaholic.net/pendrell-sew-along-6-princess-seam-fba-full-bust-adjustment/ which really helps with nursing figures changing and all.

What base patterns I would like to have...

1. -Basic Armhole Princess Seamed (for Hobbit/Dirndl bodices, so tight at the waist)
2. -Basic Shoulder Princess Seamed (for Eowyn styles---or also for Hobbit Bodice?)
3. -Basic Empire Princess Seamed (for Arwen styles. Leaning toward Armhole Princess, because want wide unbroken necks, may be finicky with shoulder princess?)

Best dart tutorial ever.

I've had SO. MUCH. TROUBLE. with darts. I need to follow this tutorial on curving the darts, if the garment is at all tight (thus, for loosely fitted shirtwaist stuff, probably not as necessary).

1. -Basic 2 darted to natural waist, more fitted (sloper, basically)
2. -Basic 2 darted empire, more fitted (empire line sloper)
3. -Basic 2 darted to natural waist, with room. (for Shirtwaist dresses, blouses, etc)

More drafting links

A speed video of someone drafting a sloper http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/29753/a-fast-look-at-pattern-drafting using these instructions http://images.taunton.com/downloads/th/Pattern_Drafting_Primer.pdf (alas, they draft the front and the back separately, which I find frustrating because I have to constantly measure things in relation to the "side seams" which I don't really trust myself to do properly, unless someone is wearing a cami with permanent marker on it, traced via plumb lines...)
A useful article... http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/4498/the-merits-of-a-basic-fitting-pattern/page/all
A nice article on FBA adjustments, but now you have to pay for it? http://www.agrilifebookstore.org/Pattern-Alteration-Increasing-Bodice-Front-Fullne-p/e-377.htm

Kuzzles' Cuteness

We put the kids down and then heard someone playing a tambourine outside of our door. Josh looked out, and saw the following. Kuzzles with a tambourine in one hand and the jingle bells in the other.

She also likes to creep off into a corner when you look for her, sometimes hunching down, and then when you find her, she laughs uproariously.

She also loves to pet the baby's head. During this transition from baby-laurete to one of the crew, she's been emotional, and sometimes seems resentful of me. However, to my utter astonishment, having watched at least 6-7 children through this transition (my own, and my little siblings), she does not resent Mariam for it at all. I have not seen any aggression or even passive-aggression.
She will yell "BEE-BEE!!" when she sees Mariam, then I will bend down till I am holding Mariam at her level, and she pets her head gently, while beaming.
We've repeated this little ritual hundreds of times since Mariam came home.

That is not to say that Kuzzles doesn't have aggression. I've watched her tackle her older siblings on many occasions, sometime getting a kick out of walking on them when they are trying to sleep, or just lunging at them from behind, getting them in a "hug", and knocking them down, crushing them beneath her, all while maintaining exuberant cheeriness. She's quite a tough little kid.

Terrible Twos have definitely hit already. She's been into taking her siblings toys, yelling "MY MY MY!" and just today, started on the song of "no no no no no" when I try to get her to do something.

Another of her favorite pastimes is to invert the nipples of her bottles, and then yell "MO-MEEEEEE!" until I come. She then presents me with her sabotaged bottle, saying very innocently "Uh-Oh". I will fix it, and then we repeat the little ritual 5 minutes later...

Yesterday, I was trying to teach Jenny her lowercase letters, having made a poster and then using one of the foam lightsabers as a pointer to the letters, as we would make the sounds.
Kuzzles was very interested, standing behind, yelling her assortment of sounds along with us.
Later that day, I found her with a foam lightsaber, whapping the poster and making random sounds.

She's a sweetheart.

A Thoughtful Baby

So that His blood could Un-Zerg Us

Reposting I think the best post I ever wrote.

http://makingrivendell.blogspot.com/2013/09/of-zerg-and-protoss-or-why-jesus-came.html

Life with Mariam

At breakfastime, I put Mariam down on a blanket in middle of the living room as I made eggs. When I looked up, Isaiah and Jenny had abandoned their chairs and had gone into the living room. Kuzzles, bound into her highchair, was the only good kid still at the table.
I went into the living room and found Isaiah, standing over the baby, adressing her "Get up, Pick up your bed, and walk!" then he paused, and narrated "And he got up, picked up his bed, and walked"
Jenny was offended "NO! She's a girl!!"
Then Jenny proceeded to dance around the baby, singing "You are my baby, my only baby, you make me happy, when skies are grey..."

Kuzzles insists on coming up and carefully stroking the baby's head, and then beaming up at me as I tell her she's a good sister and she's being gentle. She does it at least 10x a day.

Mariam continues to be the best baby so far. After a nightmarish cluster feeding 3 days in which she didn't let me sleep more than an hour, she has settled down to deep feedings and lots of sleep. It's wonderful.

Jenny imagination continues to grow. She told me "I'm a little monkey swinging from a tree" as she hung off the bunkbed I was napping on.
"Are you my little monkey?" I asked.
"Yes"
"Can I be your big monkey?"
"Yes"
"Can my little monkey give me a hug?"
She did, but then stepped back, a little troubled look on her face.
"I'm not a monkey. I was pretending" she informed me, making sure I knew. She cracks me up. Isaiah gets lost in his imagination, but Jenny is never lost, and always knows exactly where she is.

Isaiah found his toy wrench and stared at it with new eyes. "It's a part of Chopper!"

"Its a wrench. Chopper has wrenches too" I tried to explain.
"Chopper shared his wrench with Isaiah. That's so nice" he continued.
Then he proceeded to tell stories about what Chopper and Isaiah were doing together, positioning the wrench doing different things. "Chopper is reading a book with Isaiah" etc. He arranged the wrench into an L shape with some other toys. "Oh no, Chopper turned into a gun!" then he took it off "Now he is chopper again." That wrench is now "Chopper." And Isaiah seems very pleased.
It somehow made me think of reliquaries with pieces of saints...

Jenny turned 3. Kind of. At least, we celebrated her turning 3 while Aunt Sarah was here.

She got a red tricycle for her birthday. She has been very generous with sharing it with Isaiah. As they rode it together they looked to me like part of a little motorcycle gang (with a medieval flair)....

I tried to do a sibling photoshoot. I will leave you with the best of the bunch.