The Dress Form

Ok, so as I said in my last post, I had to postpone work on my Craftsy Couture Dress due to the lack of a dress form.
When I moved into my new sewing studio I made the decision to pass my dress form onto the Goodwill in hopes that some young new sewer could make use of it. There were a couple things wrong with it that no longer made it useful to me. The biggest was the size, I was always at the upper end of the size range and unfortunately after breaking my leg I could no longer use the form effectively. I basically was just using it to 'hang' my projects on.

When I moved into my new studio, I was really wanting to get a professional dress form made for me. However I thought long and hard and decided against it for a couple of reasons. One, I am losing weight and have a substantial bit to lose not just 10 pounds but more like 50. Ugh... Second reason, they are very expensive for my budget.

I still want a professional dress form! But, in the meantime while I wait for my weight to stabilize I decided to go with a hybrid of sorts that will allow me to get a great usable and adjustable dress form for the interim. After much thought and tons of investigation this is what I came up with.

My criteria:
Customizable to look like me
Adjustable as I lose weight
Pinable for draping, etc..

My Solution:
A Dritz My Double Deluxe Dressform from JoAnns that I got for $100 of the price.
And
Fabulous Fit, fitting system that I also got on sale.

How did it meet my criteria?
I'll work backwards on the list since that is how I basically made the Dressform into me.

First thing I did was adjust the basic adjustable setting on the dress form for about 3 sizes smaller than me, wrapped her in 2 layers of thin poly batting to make her surface pinable everywhere. I then spent a while with some help getting accurate measurements of myself, Fabulous Fit comes with a great measurement chart so that was helpful. After that I slowly added the first cover and the majority of the fit pads to the form. Honestly this took several hours to do. I was being very picky!
I then added the second Fabulous Fit cover, with the princess seams, along with a couple extra padded areas to make it really look just like me. I tried to think ahead and make these the areas that I think will be the first to leave my body as I lose weight.
My Dressform now looks quite like me.



The covers are quite snug so they did a great job of compressing the batting for my pinning surface.

I met all of my criteria quite nicely, I wish it had a little more weight to the base for stability. I may add an old plate weight that my husband has in the garage to the base. I actually think it will fit through the pole at the bottom quite nicely.

I really like having this Dressform to work off of since I do not have a sewing/fitting buddy.
What I really don't like.... Seeing me with no clothes on standing there. Yikes! I'm hoping it gives me extra motivation to keep losing weight!! I'd put up a picture... But, I'm honestly am a little self conscious about it. Here is one with a dress on it which hides my lumps quite well!


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Location:Maple Ave,Lisle,United States