I made a dress-form a few years back with my seamstress, and here are some tips from my experience: * It helps to have two helpers. One to cut the strips, while the other layers them on. * Do NOT wear a stretched garment as the base, because it will contract and wrinkle the duct-tape mold! An old oversized t-shirt works well. * Add sufficient layers of duct tape! More layers make the mold more stable and prevent deformations. * We added strings with weights to the middle front and back of the neck and under each arm. Then we marked where each plum bob string hit around the waist. Those marks later help align the dress form properly on the stand. * When cutting the duct tape mold open, making a zig-zag cut helps with the alignment of the mold for reassembly and later stuffing. * On reassembly add only one layer of duct tape over the outside of the cut for a smooth finish. Add all the rest of the reinforcement on the inside. * I stuffed with expanding foam (like you use for sealing around doors and windows). In total I used three cans. * I started foaming the shoulders and arm holes, adding a wire arched from side to side. * After the foam in the shoulders hat set, I looped a string around the wire up through the neck and hung up the duct tape mold. Now I started bending the wire arch until the attached plumb bob strings aligned with the marks around the hips. * After plumbing the form mold I hung a piece of PVC pipe from the same point as the hanging string, so that the bottom of the pipe is about even with the bottom of the mold (for later mounting on your stand). * It helps to poke several thin wires between the shoulder foam blocks, to help prevent the new foam from falling out of the mold. * Once the PVC pipe is set (remember to check your plumb bob lines and marks for alignment), you can turn your mold upside-down to add more layers of foam without making a mess on the floor. * It is best to add the foam in small layers and allow sufficient time for setting. Otherwise you will get pockets of sticky liquid where the foam has not been able to set. * Once the foam is set, you can easily trim the excess from the the four openings to clean up the dress form. * Unless you use safety (bandage) scissors to cut the duct tape mold open, whatever you wear underneath for modesty will very likely get damaged and partially cut.
DON'T ask your grumpy husband to tape you. Find ANYBODY else to help, even if you have to go to an alteration shop and pay a stranger to do it. Trust me on this one! DON'T tape a bit and use the model's body to pull the tape. My dress form fit like a too tight corset by the time my husband was done pulling the tape horizontally around my body. By the time he got done with the first layer I was about to pass out. DON'T use form-fitting clothes, because by the time the husband is done pushing duct tape under the "girls" first, the shirt is going to wrinkle like crazy and start fitting like a tight corset. DON'T skimp on the tape. Yes, you *can* go buy 4 rolls of duct tape from Dollar Tree, but then the hubby will yell at you for not buying enough and it just gets worse from there. Just buy a roll from Walmart. Honestly, with all the wrinkled t-shirt, wrinkled and too-tight duct tape, grumbling and insults to both myself and my mother and a s***y end result, it's not worth the hassle to try and smooth this thing out. I could cry. I don't even know where to start to try to fix this, I couldn't even get him to do the neck part but now I'm glad I didn't, as tight as he pulled things. (Except on the "girls", he did not even do it firmly on the one he did so I have one regular boob and one Madonna boob😭) I am just going to buy a dress form, buy the internet-made body double dress form pdf, and have fun putting the two together. Seriously, having your taping partner being in the right frame of mind (ie NOT grumpy) is a VERY important part of doing this.
This is one of my favorite comments I’ve ever gotten! Excellent tips, especially about having a taping partner who’s in a good mood. It’s definitely far too easy to underestimate how tight all that duct tape will be as well. I had a few similar issues with mine. Good luck with your adapted dress form!
Thankyou for making me laugh...your have a wonderful personality. You managed to make watching a video on making a dress form from duct tape, actually funny and interesting...yet still informative...Well done!
Have you ever considered making a duct tape dress form for yourself? ✨ Want to see this dress form in action? Check out this video where I sew a short winter cape: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xDG68akXgo0.html
This process can also be used to draft patterns! It's especially nice for corsets, bustiers, vests, or anything else you want to fit very closely. Just follow the same steps with the taping, then cut where you want your seams, and trace onto paper. Thank you for sharing yourself with the YouTubiverse. Your sweetness and charm are absolutely delightful and I'm very happy our RU-vid algorithms aligned.
I purposely made my duct tape torso a little small so I could add a thin layer of padding on top of it to pin into. It does unfortunately leave a sticky residue on the needle if I pin directly into the duct tape. Hope that helps!
