Me, pinable

For Christmas, my husband gave me the most perfect gift: a dressmaker's form!  Until now, I spent a lot of time topless (or bottomless) pinning and repinning in-process clothing in front of the bathroom mirror.
It took a while to find the right dress form for me, but I ended up getting a Fabulous Fit, because of how customizable it is.  The form itself comes very tiny, with a bunch of foam pads to fill it out to look like a real human.  A stretchy cover goes over it all to keep the pads in place and make it smooth.  My cover came with full-length legs, but I cut them off and finished the leg holes with fold-over elastic.

It was a serious exercise in humility to see my form take shape with all the measurements and adjustments of the pads.  I used all the "regular" pads provided to add girth, except the bust pads. Ha! Even after setting it to my exact measurements and trying on clothes, my form still looks odd to me.  You'd think I'd recognize my own shape by now, but it has unnaturally long torso because I shifted all the hip and butt pads up a bit to account for my petite-ness.  Perhaps that's why it looks strange me.  Here's the back view:

As with most bodies, my form looks better with clothes on :)  Here's an unfinished muslin of a top I have in the works--a preview of an exciting project I've been working on.  This is actually the third muslin I've made, all out of 100% lightweight silk! Still needs some adjustments, but I might be ready to cut into real fabric.

While at the local fabric store, buying more silk "muslin" fabric today, I found this incredible 100% silk plaid suiting fabric.  Gorgeous and only $14.99/yard!  I have a fitted dress for teaching in mind for this...just need to get it done before the seasons change!

I also got this crazy fabric, another silk "muslin".  I'm not sure what to do with it, if anything, now that I'm fairly happy with my pattern.  Might just serve as a pleasant reminder that I didn't need to make a 4th unwearable version of my top!