A few moths ago I decided to clone myself. The reason I wanted to do so was to make sewing, and altering clothes easier for myself. Basically, I wanted to have my own dress form, and here's how I did it.
I found a t-shirt I wasn't using and a few rolls of transparent packing tape and kindly asked my boyfriend a.k.a Mr Kitten to tape me up. I wanted my dressform to have a bit of an arm, so that I can make things that sort of go around my shoulders. I also wanted it to continue down to the wides part of my hips, so that I don't accidentally make a skirt too tight. When I was all taped up, Mr Kitten cut through the tape and the t-shirt from the back and I could peel of my shell;
Then I taped the back together again. We used about 1 ½ rolls of tape and the form was pretty sturdy made from tape + t-shirt alone.
Looking right trough me...
I wanted my form to have a filling, so that it would keep it's shape, and a stand to make it easy to work with. So I went out and after a bit of a search found an old lamp stand for 5 €. I also got some filling material that builders use, makroflex I think it was called, which expands.
I cut up and old plastic bottle (for the neck) and taped it to the stand, then filled it with the flex-stuff...which didn't work out too well as it needs air to dry, which there wasn't too much of in that sealed off bottle and that caused the flex-stuff to sort of melt in parts. But it was still good enough for me, so I continued.
Before the melting.
When the bottle was firmly attached to the upper part of the stand I turned my shell up-side down and put the neck/spine in place.
And started filling the shell up. This took me several days to do, as the flex-stuff takes about 12-24 hours to expand and dry, and you have to do it in layers, because if the layer underneath is not dry, it will melt when there's no contact with air...At this point I did wonder why I hadn't filled it with something else, but hey, trial and error is the way to go, right?
Filled-finally!
Finally I taped a piece of cardboard cut to shape on the bottom to cover the filling up and put the stand back together, et voilà;
My home-made dress form (and my hoover).
If you are into sewing and want your own "customised to you" dress form there are a few things that might be useful to know:
Choose a better looking t-shirt than I did, alternatively cover the finished dress form up in a new fabric/long neck tight t-shirt when it's done. I still need to get one of those cover up shirts as I am not too keen on that yellow t-shirt being visible...Another alternative is to use a coloured tape, or duct-tape, as used on the site from where I got my inspiration.
Be careful when getting taped - don't let it get too tight because you will need to breathe!
Choose a good assistant who isn't shy, they will need to be very careful when doing the taping to avoid creases and get an even result. Me and Mr Kitten were a bit too impatient and as a result, my clone is a bit funny under the arms...I would also recommend using strips of tape, instead of you spinning as your assistant moves the roll of tape up and down. Don't rush!
And finally, use a different filling! Maybe old newspaper or scraps of fabric or old pillows, but nothing too soft or loose.
I am quite pleased with my result, although it is a bit too wide under the arms, and the shoulders got deformed after standing up side down for a few days, but it's close enough. Pinning pieces of fabric together on my back and sides is so much easier when I have a clone to do it on!
Questions?
I found a t-shirt I wasn't using and a few rolls of transparent packing tape and kindly asked my boyfriend a.k.a Mr Kitten to tape me up. I wanted my dressform to have a bit of an arm, so that I can make things that sort of go around my shoulders. I also wanted it to continue down to the wides part of my hips, so that I don't accidentally make a skirt too tight. When I was all taped up, Mr Kitten cut through the tape and the t-shirt from the back and I could peel of my shell;
Then I taped the back together again. We used about 1 ½ rolls of tape and the form was pretty sturdy made from tape + t-shirt alone.
Looking right trough me...
I wanted my form to have a filling, so that it would keep it's shape, and a stand to make it easy to work with. So I went out and after a bit of a search found an old lamp stand for 5 €. I also got some filling material that builders use, makroflex I think it was called, which expands.
I cut up and old plastic bottle (for the neck) and taped it to the stand, then filled it with the flex-stuff...which didn't work out too well as it needs air to dry, which there wasn't too much of in that sealed off bottle and that caused the flex-stuff to sort of melt in parts. But it was still good enough for me, so I continued.
Before the melting.
When the bottle was firmly attached to the upper part of the stand I turned my shell up-side down and put the neck/spine in place.
And started filling the shell up. This took me several days to do, as the flex-stuff takes about 12-24 hours to expand and dry, and you have to do it in layers, because if the layer underneath is not dry, it will melt when there's no contact with air...At this point I did wonder why I hadn't filled it with something else, but hey, trial and error is the way to go, right?
Filled-finally!Finally I taped a piece of cardboard cut to shape on the bottom to cover the filling up and put the stand back together, et voilà;
My home-made dress form (and my hoover).If you are into sewing and want your own "customised to you" dress form there are a few things that might be useful to know:
Choose a better looking t-shirt than I did, alternatively cover the finished dress form up in a new fabric/long neck tight t-shirt when it's done. I still need to get one of those cover up shirts as I am not too keen on that yellow t-shirt being visible...Another alternative is to use a coloured tape, or duct-tape, as used on the site from where I got my inspiration.
Be careful when getting taped - don't let it get too tight because you will need to breathe!
Choose a good assistant who isn't shy, they will need to be very careful when doing the taping to avoid creases and get an even result. Me and Mr Kitten were a bit too impatient and as a result, my clone is a bit funny under the arms...I would also recommend using strips of tape, instead of you spinning as your assistant moves the roll of tape up and down. Don't rush!
And finally, use a different filling! Maybe old newspaper or scraps of fabric or old pillows, but nothing too soft or loose.
I am quite pleased with my result, although it is a bit too wide under the arms, and the shoulders got deformed after standing up side down for a few days, but it's close enough. Pinning pieces of fabric together on my back and sides is so much easier when I have a clone to do it on!
Questions?
