I honored sewing machine day by making our older daughter an antebellum costume for dinner theater. Looks bo-peepish to me, but she picked pink eyelet, with a white underskirt showing. Whatever!!
Jelly roll racer, I would not think it was cheating to make a practice one, even undersized to see what you may need to do different. After yall talked about it before, I put the Pfaff 230 up against my 301, and Pfaff was the winner. Just timed myself on both on lap quilt stuff. I know you are doing it for fun, but one thing I learned coaching kids in softball is that you don't have to teach them that losing sucks. Maybe it is a mental thing, but I usually go prepared. Good luck.