Well as if the world wasn’t scary enough I now have a body double. Ok, it’s a shiny, headless, torso double, but it’s basically my shape and size. All the dimensions correspond pretty well to my measurements except it was lacking in one key area, umm make that two areas. Somehow the boobs got smooshed into what appeared to be pecs, so it was a decidedly male looking shiny torso. Of course, the flatness of the chest didn’t appear to be much of a discrepancy to my eyes until I slipped the shirt I was working on onto the form and the cups had nothing to fill it out. I repositioned the shirt, assuming my lack of doll-playing years had left me ill equipped for dressing someone other than myself, but that didn’t fill out the chest either. Thinking that somehow I had cut the pattern wrong I took the shirt off the dress form and put it on myself. “Wow,” I thought, “I have boobs!”
It was time to bust out the tissue and stuff my dress form. Suddenly I was feeling very immature. And that was just the beginning of the downward spiral into immaturity land because once I had fashioned a couple fakies and duct taped them onto the dress form I stood back and started giggling.
Maybe it’s just me, but they look like two big eyeballs. Two big shiny robot eyeballs. Yeah, apparently I’m 12. At least I resisted the urge to draw in pupils and eyelashes.
I found the easiest way to eliminate the little bumps and ripples was to put a cotton sports bra on the dress form. Not only does it smooth out the bust but it gives the fabric something to stick to when I try clothes on the form. I am still debating whether I should just cover the whole thing with some nylons for the same reason.
I didn’t mount my form on a stick of some kind, though I think that might be nice. For now I just stuck a bag of beans in the bottom and she sits very happily on the table. I would like to use the form for making dresses and skirts as well so I’ll have to impale the dress form sometime.
All in all I’m happy with the outcome. Except it scared the hell out of me when I caught the shape out of the corner of my eye last night.
6 comments:
I think you are very brave to make a body double. The eye-boob had me laughing so hard my kids came over to see what all the fuss was about! I have a dress form, her name is Julia and she is almost exactly half my size. :)
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Love your dress form! I've SO been wanting to make one too... but I'm a little scared ;) Thanks for sharing your experience & thoughts, and thank you for stopping by the blog!! :D
Blessings!
Kristin
http://homegrownrose.typepad.com/reclaimingthehome
I can get scared too - from jacket, hanging somewhere drying or something..... :)
Where DID you get this idea? I'm inspired to make a whole family...well, not really. I have 6 kids -- could you imagine 8 shimmery body-doubles suspended from the ceiling of the craft-room? Actually, now that I think of it, the idea appeals :)
Hi jj. I thought I first saw this idea on craftster, but I can't find it there. But I do remember it said to use a t-shirt as a base to apply the tape to. I thought this was a little wasteful, so I used plastic wrap instead. Actually now that I think about it a garbage bag would work just as well and would save on the first mummification step.
psst...they make duct tape in other colours too, you could have a whole rainbow of body-doubles hanging from your ceiling. Pretty and a little creepy...works for me.
I had heard about this body double duct tape idea but never seen it, how funny! another solution to you sorts bra thing would be a dancers leotard if you need pin. cyndi
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