I Feel Like A Super Hero

Do you think that maybe one time I could fix my hair before taking pictures? Good grief.




I made a dress form out of duct tape tonight. I have been wanting one for a while, but they are pretty expensive, and from what I hear aren't very accurate to real body shapes. Having a double of my body to try clothing on as I'm sewing it seems like it will be very helpful, and easier to get an accurate fit. I searched online, and found several articles about making dress forms with different materials, and was going to try the paper tape method, but couldn't find the right kind of tape. So duct tape seemed the easiest and most cost effective option. Here is how I made mine, using bits and pieces from other resources, plus my own ideas thrown into the mix.
First, go pee. It might take a while and once you're wrapped in duct tape you can't bend very well. Also, this is definitely a two person project. My favorite plumber did mine, he got out of his bad mood and agreed to help me with my duct tape madness.

Wear a long t-shirt that goes past the hump in your bum. If you don't want to shriek like a banshee when you take the dress form off, wrap a piece of saran wrap around your neck.
Using the duct tape, wrap a strip underneath your breasts, then a piece over them. Then make an x, going from each shoulder to underneath the opposite breast. Use small pieces of tape to fill in the spaces and keep wrinkles in the tape to a minimum. Make a nice shape with the tape around the armholes and the neck; this will make it easier to tape them up after stuffing.
Place pieces of tape from side to side on your front. Don't try to wrap all the way around your body, it is a lot harder to keep the wrinkles under control. Smaller pieces are best. After completing the front, turn around and do the back, making sure to keep the tape snug so it is as accurate to your body shape as possible.
Grab an appropriate weapon and pretend you're a superhero. When else are you going to be wearing a shiny skin tight suit straight out of a comic book? Take advantage!




Of course that's a whisk I'm holding! What else would The Magnificent Momma use to fight her battles?

using a marker, make horizontal marks across the back. Then cut up the back and take the dress form off. Go pee, cause you know you have to.
Using your marks, tape up the back. Then tape up the neck. This is kind of tricky, as you don't want to distort the shape of the form. It is helpful to have someone else hold it up and 3 dimensional.
To support the dress form, I nailed a wooden disk (2.00) to a flag pole (5.00) I found both at Wal mart.



Wrap a big fluff of stuffing around the disk, and shove it into the form. Holding the pole straight up, with the dress form upside down, start stuffing. Make sure that the breast holes are tightly stuffed, and that you stuff evenly around the pole so it stays in the center. I read that it would be a good idea to use styrofoam in the breast area, and I tried it, but it didn't look right. Stuffing them tightly with just stuffing worked fine for me. I ended up using 3 bags of stuffing, and could have used maybe a 1/4 bag more. I used the stuffing bags themselves to fill the last few spaces.
Now you want to tape up the bottom, again being careful not to distort the shape of the form. I left a small space open and stuffed again before taping the whole thing up.
Fold the sleeves of the tshirt inside, and tape up the armholes.
The base was the hardest thing for me to figure out how to make, some people use Christmas tree stands. I was going to go that route until I found this. It is the bottom of a chair that broke. Perfect!
You could also build some type of support if you're handy like that.


I bought some 2 dollar a yard knit fabric at Walmart, and sewed the side and top to make a tube. After placing it on the dress form inside out, pin and sew to get a tight fit over the form. I threaded some ribbon through a large needle and just stitched it around the bottom and pulled it tight like a drawstring.


You actually can't see the tape through the fabric, but the flash kind of exposes it. I also added a rose applique to kind of pretty it up, since its going to be living in my living room. (The plumber REALLY like that idea. He wants to keep it in the crawl space. What good is it going to do me there? He just doesn't get it) I need to find something to cover the duct tape by the base, but it's almost 2 am so I'll worry about that tomorrow. I am hoping that I will have to make another one soon after I lose all of my baby weight (only 15 more lbs!) , but for now it will work great.