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Dressform
Okay, this one is a doozy! It is by far the most difficult confession I've made and, if you are faint of heart, I advise you not to read any further...
Well, at least make sure you are sitting down...
My dressform isn't set to my measurements. (Or to anyone's measurements that I know of.)
To be fair, I DID set it to my measurements when I first got it - but then it lost a bunch of weight and it doesn't match me anymore. When inanimate objects start working against you, what's a woman to do?
I know, I NEED to change this situation and start working more diligently on fit.
So, I suspect that I'm pretty much alone on this, but I'll ask anyways. How about you? Tell me about your dressform(s) - what type do you have and how much does it help you with fitting? (Oh, and have you named it/them?)
8 comments:
I have possibly the worst dressform around. I made one of those duct tape body doubles... I suspect it would be good if my arms hadn't been crooked when I was being taped up. As a result the shoulders are crooked and there is no way to fit an armhole on the thing.
To add to the horror, I squeezed the form too tight with many layers of tape to get it smooth and it is now smaller than me by two inches everywhere. Ugh, it only earns its keep by serving as a base for draping knit dresses. Aside from that, it is totally useless.
I want a good dressform! Waaaa
Losing weight—that's a good thing!
Here's info on my dress form: http://lindsaytsews.blogspot.com/2008/03/yup-my-figure-looks-just-like-this.html
No, I haven't named her yet, though DD calls her Mannie.
Well, here's a confession: I have been sewing since I was about 7 (that's, oh, 18 years!), and I JUST got a dressform about 5 months ago. Growing up, my mom would help me fit things to my body, so I didn't need one. Anyway, I fiddled with my form for about a week, and I still don't think the measurements are quite right. I think everything above the waist is pretty decent, but I KNOW I have more "junk in the trunk" than my dressform shows! Anyway, I use it mostly to get a general idea on fit (I know it's not perfect), and it came in very handy on my last project while I was doing a lot of hand draping.
Gwen, you keep making me have to confess to my shortcomings. ;o) I bought (a few years ago) one of those dress forms you pad out to your shape and there Julietta stands with a navy velvet dress I never completed on her. The pads are in the bag they came in, waiting for me to lose the extra 10-15 lbs I carry around.
I also own a cool "cage-like" form that I *HAD* to have when someone posted a link to an Ebay auction from PR a few years ago. She stands un-named, not fully assembled and nekked as the day she was made. (not even an unfinished outfit to clothe her).
Sooo...I'm worst than you. YOu should definitely feel better. LOL!!
My dummy is a discarded store mannequin from a bridal shop-- a fellow sewing friend spotted the store getting rid of them and nabbed one for each of us. The proportions were just about perfect for me, but I had to pad it out with batting and an old bra and duct tape. It's not perfect-- the bust sits higher on the dummy than on me-- so I still have to check things carefully on bodices and such, make muslins, try them on myself, etc. But I do use it on a pretty regular basis in my sewing projects, for draping things out and hand-basting parts together and such. And, as you probably know from seeing my blog, it's also my usual finished project model. Not bad for the cost of two rolls of duct-tape! My one complaint-- it sits on the pole very unsteadily. The screws that hold it in the leg kind of tore that area up and even at its tighest, it rocks back and forth. And sometimes the pole falls off the base altogether. And if I'm not careful getting into my closet (which sits behind it-- I keep it in my bedroom because there's no room for it in my mom's sewing room that she lets me share with her), I knock it into my bedroom door pretty frequently. I've got dents in the door to prove it.
Oh, and she doesn't have a name. I should probably come up with one...
I have a dress form with no name. The dress form is a petite, but is still not small enough in the shoulders/neck for me, so fitting anything other than skirts or sleeveless bodices on it is useless. It is good for photographing garments and for placing partially finished garments on it to keep them looking nice and out of the way.
I have a duct tape one, but she doesn't match me anymore. I think the stuffing has moved. And her butt has exploded!! I called her Eames as she looked so small!!
Need to do a new one!!
I have a packing tape dress form, (feels and looks like paper mache) which duplicates my unique body shape very closely. I am not shaped like a commercial dress form. You can see the comparison pictures here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/audan/sets/72157600632347838/ Her name is Verite (truth in French) and she has proven to be indispensable for pin fitting patterns before I cut out the fabric and fine tuning fit during sewing.
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