Kinderquin

What is a Kinderquin you may ask? 
The more I watch Project Runway the more I think "wow, it would be so much easier to make clothes for Olivia if she was standing still in my dining room (where I sew) all the time..." OR "if I had my own $200 adjustable dressform".  Since the budget does not allow for a dressform, I had to resort to making my own.
Enter the Kinderquin.  According to my book (Making Clothes kids love...which has some very funky patterns, but great techniques) the writer came up with this term a combo of a German word Kinder (child) and the word manequin. 

So, yesterday we put Olivia in a tee shirt and tights and duct taped her up!  To get her out we had to cut the side and slide her out.  And then we had fun stuffing it with old fabric (some of which is peeking out of the sides, need more tape!) and some fiberfill we had laying around.  Once I finished it, I put on the dress I've been working on.

Awesome!! Although I'll still have to test her for length and final fitting, I can actually check to make sure things are straight and shoulders are right.  It's not as pretty or as fancy as a real dress form, but I should be able to just add some stuffing and make minor adjustments as she grows. 

It is sort of creepy though to see it naked...