goldenoro: Custom dress form 1

I have always wanted my own dress form, mostly so that i can work on a garment whilst it is actually hanging up on form, and also to try my hand at draping.

But commercial dress forms are expensive and rarely come in my size or even dimensions. Honestly, does anyone really have a body shaped like a tailor's dummy, even the adjustable ones? ( they will never match my measruements!)

So, besides the duct tape DIY dress form, what other options would i have to make my own?

I have tried the tape version but found that having to rely on another person to tape me up was tiresome, and for some, too close for comfort. My bust area ended up being not accurate at all, purely because my rib cage has two inward- bending ribs which affect the drape of any clothes on me, and gives me an unusual bra and bust sizing.

Then i came across this, which is a tutorial in which one "eyeballs" one's own figure and makes a dress form out of a base of chicken wire. It's a form of sculptorly self portrait!

So i tried my own. It was fairly easy to measure my general dimensions and get the structure into shape. My only tools were a wire cutter and pliers, tiny zip ties, scissors to cut the padding and some normal cellophane tape to hold things in place til i sewed them.

Once you get to the bust area, waist and crotch, you need to get creative. An understanding of anatomy coupled with pattern-cutting helps. Especially when trying to get chicken wire to bend nicely to follow the human form.

After the wire structure was finished i covered it with bubble wrap and then a layer of thin foam ( bubble wrap from ace hardware and foam from juwita, a malay wedding hantaran supplies franchise - one in carrefour/aeon big in wangsa maju, comes in A3-sized sheets for RM1.30 each).

You can stuff the form or leave as is. I think stuffing it prevents it caving in badly if some accident happens. My last form, I stuffed it with all the plastic shopping bags Malaysia insists on giving me, and that kept it light yet well-stuffed. I came across this post that recommends expanding construction foam filler, which looks good too. It also shows how to cover the form once made.

I will cover it with a cotton layer and post pics of that soon:)