A few years ago I first discovered the "duct tape dummy". I gathered a roll of duct tape, an old tee shirt and my hubby and a few hours later had a somewhat lumpy and sticky replica of my torso. It worked ok, but I never figured out a good way to hang it permanently, my stuffing wasn't stiff enough, and my pins came away sticky every time I used it. After a year or so of it sitting around the house, taking up space and getting limited use, I tossed the thing.
Now that I'm sewing again I really need a new form. I thought about getting one of those cheap adjustable forms but the reviews didn't convince me. A fancy form made to my specs sounds nice but besides being costly I'm sure my size will change when I have another baby and then the form will be useless.
8/25/11
DIY Sewing Dummy Tutorial -- Duct Tape Dress Form Alternative
Dummy BeforeMy mom has a form from her college days -- it's a small, and I'm at least a medium -- but she generously let me borrow it so I could attempt to enlarge the dummy to my size. It's not as exact as a duct tape form, but it can be altered as my figure changes, has a built in stand, and best of all I can pin into it without getting my pins all sticky!
You will need:•A dress form with smaller measurements then your own
•Padding - I used about a yard of ironing board batting which I found on sale for $4.00/yard. Regular quilt batting should work fine as well. (You may need more or less depending on how much you need to alter the dummy).
•A 1/2 yard or so of supper stretchy knit fabric
•Pins, scissors, thread, needle, measuring tape, patience
Step One, Assess the Situation:
Write down detailed measurements of the dummy and yourself. Have a friend measure you for accuracy. I found that not only were my bust, waist, hip measurements larger, but my torso was longer then the dummy's. This was my biggest challenge. Be sure to note your shoulder to bust, shoulder to waist, and shoulder to hip, measurements as well. Honestly the more measurements the merrier.
Step Two, Prep Your Materials:
I cut the padding into 3" and 4" wide strips.
Step Three, Make a New Waist:
Mark on the dummy where your bust line, waist, and hip will fall, using your shoulder to bust, etc. measurements. Next wrap a strip of padding tightly around the dummy's torso, overlapping the ends as necessary. Use pins to secure each end. Pull the padding tight and feel free to wrap it at an angle to keep everything smooth and avoid lumps. Continue, creating a single layer from bust to hip, securing as you go. If the pins don't hold the padding tightly enough, use a needly and thread to whipstitch the pieces together. If you are close in size to the dummy, one layer of padding may suffic, if not, continue layering and pinning the strips as tightly and smoothly as possible until the waistline measurement is the same as your own.
Step Four, Hip Time:
Now remeasure to confirm the vertical location of your hips. Mine fall 20" from my shoulders, whereas my dummy's fell 18" from her shoulder. So the dummy's hips became my lower waist -- I had padded the dummy's tiny 27" waist and surrounding area until it measured 31" (my waist size) -- and didn't need to pad the dummy's existing hips much at all since her tiny hips measured close to my lower waist measurement. Sigh. So I measured 20" down (to my where my actual hipline falls) and padded that area until it matched my hip measurement. As you pad your hips, make sure to contour them to meet your own body - this area can be pretty curvy so hopefully you've got those detailed measurements handy. I padded to the widest part of my hips and didn't bother being too exact in the thigh region. I plan on mostly sewing flowy dresses and skirts, but if you want to make lots of tight dresses then you may want to be more exacting here as well.
Step Five, Bust it Up:
Now for the bust! Pad the chest until it meets your above- and below-the-bust measurements. Now you should have a figure that looks like you minus some boobs! To make the breasts I cut a rectangle of padding, pinned, then sewed it in place. I only sewed three sides, leaving a small opening which I padded with extra fabric until the bust line measured correctly.
Step Six, Finishing Touches:
After a final measurement to confirm everything is correctly padded, whipstitch as needed to hold things together. If the measurements are not correct, then make any alterations before sewing pieces together. You may want to put a nicely fitting dress onto the dummy to make sure it looks the same on the dummy as it does on your own body. Then, as a finishing touch and to make the finished form look nicer, create a "tube dress" from the knit fabric you have.
This is pretty straight-forward: cut a rectangle of fabric that measures from your shoulders to mid-thigh on the "long" side, and the measurement of your waist on the "wide" side -- so for me it was 25" long x 31" wide. Fold in half lengthwise (now mine measures 25" x 15.5") and sew, so you end up with a tube. Wriggle that over your dummy and it should tightly hold everything in place. If your fabric is extra stretchy you may need to sew the tube even narrower then expected so that it really stretches tight around the padding. Oh, and it's not a bad idea to draw some pattern lines - bust, hip, center, waist, etc. on the tube dress for extra accuracy.
That's it! Whew, time to actually start sewing. Good luck!
Update:
So I actually decided the final version was a bit too lumpy for me and below the bust was also a little big, so I revisited the padding, removing a layer and smoothing the hips. I also added some stitching to hold the whole thing together a bit more.
I guess you could use a hot glue gun to glue the layers together, but then it would be harder to alter.
Overall I'm thrilled with it and my first project is already in the works!
Oh, and for those of you who want to stick with the duct tape version, check out this great tutorial.
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