Handmade Dress Form

I love sewing! Would I ever want to quit my day job and become a full time seamstress? Eh, probably not. My mom is great at sewing and I've been sewing for a long time - maybe since I was twelve years old. The foundation of my love for sewing definitely comes from my mom. Everything else I learned about this craft I have picked up on my own through research, experimentation and of course, following instructions.

I've almost always followed store bought patterns and lately I have come to the conclusion that I am shaped differently than bodies these sewing patterns are made for. What's the point of taking the time to craft a beautiful garment out of fabric that I love, if it's not going to be tailored to fit me specifically? So, I decided to make a dress form. I looked through some books and searched online for help. Here is what I found to be most helpful:

Mimi Goodwin's $7 video download
The free version of Mimi's video here
The Stitch Lounge Girl's book, Subversive Seamster
Having a ready made dress form on a stand that I could use for my DIY dress form
Having a boyfriend with insulator and other construction skills

I combined some techniques used in the book and in Mimi's video and also added a few of my own.



What I did differently:

1. I used rolled up paper for the neck - there is NO way to wrap my neck in tape....for so many reasons.


2. We constructed a shoulder support using a leftover piece of dowel which happened to be the same size a the width of my shoulders. That dowel was then screwed to the top of the the main dowel and then shoved into place.

3. We hung the dress form upside down and filled it with Touch and Seal spray foam. You have to do this outside because of the fumes and potential for a slight mess factor. This stuff expanded nicely into most of the upper body's curves and did a fine job holding the support dowels in place.



4. After letting the foam do what it does and dry for a few hours I finished stuffing the booty and hip area with Polyfil, working around the hardened foam.

5. We cut a piece of foam board to match the bottom, cut a hole in it and taped it into place.

Here she is modeling the last dress I made before the dress form!