In my previous two articles for Foundations Revealed I looked at the history and evolution of mannequins and dress forms, and reviewed the wealth of DIY mannequin projects available online. In this article I continue this journey by documenting my own, somewhat experimental, process of making a body cast for more accurate fitting and dressmaking.

My plan was to combine elements of the duct tape and moulded mannequin methods and add an external covering of my own devising. This, I hoped, would be quicker and cheaper than the plaster cast method but still able to accept pins without ruining them. I decided to use duct tape to carefully build up a sturdy skin as per the tutorial in my previous article, fill it with foam to keep it light and help it hold its shape, and then to cover the outside with a layer of felt and fabric to create a pinnable surface that wouldn’t ruin my pins. This last step – the pinnable surface – was what I was most interested in as I haven’t seen it done anywhere else.

 

Materials

• Duct tape – the petite form that most of my pictures show used a bit more than 50m,
• Cling wrap,
• Spray adhesive (you could probably use another kind of glue, but read the instructions carefully to make sure it is suitable),
• Big pieces of polystyrene from appliance packaging (not essential – just to speed up the process),
• Lots of newspaper, or a few out-of-date phone books,
• A piece of hardboard big enough to cut out a base to tape to the bottom of your form, and a disk for the neck,
• A piece of wood big enough to cut a circle for the base of your stand,
• 2 x adjustable furniture legs (have a look at the pictures for a better idea of what these are),
• A dowel that fits snugly into the furniture legs,
• A piece of felt big enough to comfortably wrap around the person you are making the form for,
• A piece of four-way stretch fabric the same size as your felt,
• +- 4m tape or ribbon for hiding seams,
• Pins, needle and thread, scissors.

 

The process I went through breaks down into four sections:

 

Creating the Shell

The materials required for this stage are duct tape, cling wrap, and a pair of scissors that can get a bit sticky. Ask your model to wear simple underwear, or close-fitting clothing, and cover their torso in cling wrap. You want cling wrap anywhere you are going to put duct tape, but you can add pieces later if you discover that you have missed a spot. If your model is female, be careful not to compress her bust when you clingwrap her as it will distort the shape of your dress form.

 

All of the duct tape mannequin tutorials I read or watched used an old shirt or fabric under the duct tape, but I find that this creates unnecessary bulk. Also, if your model is wearing a tight top made from a stretch fabric then once you remove the tape mould the elastic pull of the fabric stuck inside can distort the shape of the mould. I was very pleased with the cling wrap as a base - I definitely recommend using cling wrap instead of fabric or an old shirt.

Once your model is covered in cling wrap, begin taping, starting with a band of tape around the top of the thighs. I find that if you start taping the torso and waist without this band in place then the clingwrap (or fabric) tends to creep upwards while you are working and bunch up at the waist.

 

Continued taping as per the duct tape mannequin tutorial, then carefully cut open the shoulders and down the back of the mould, being very careful not to catch any clothing or skin.

Gently tape the incisions closed again. The closed mould will hold its shape pretty well, but tends to sag flat over time, and the bust and bum will cave in if you didn’t support the weight of the mould. Don’t worry too much about this as you can just push the mould back into shape, but do try to fill it sooner rather than later.

(I went through this process with two models, one very petite and one more voluptuous. The petite mould used around 50m of tape, and the voluptuous one used 75m.)

 

Filling the Mannequin

Filling my forms was definitely and education! I used two variations – expanding insulation foam and balled up newspaper. I liked the idea of the instant gratification that I imagined would come with the expanding foam (how very wrong I turned out to be!) but it is rather expensive, so I decided to have a go with the newspaper for one of the examples.

In both cases I cheated a bit by using these nifty packaging bags that my partner brings home from work. They are basically super quick setting expanding foam in a bag. They are really great, but not good for all the filling as they are difficult to control, so I just inflated a few inside the forms to take up space and then used the insulation foam or balled up newspaper around them.

 

I got started with the voluptuous mould, inflating a few foam bags, and then excitedly cracking open my can of insulation foam. What a mess! The foam is extremely sticky when it is wet, and once I started spraying it wouldn’t stop bubbling out of the can until it was finished, leaving me frantically trying to get it to the right places without messing on the outside of the cast or on myself.

 

The foam is quite fascinating to watch, but I was quite disappointed with the result, and the end product is lying in my bath looking lumpy and misshapen. And in many places is still soft, even after several days. To be fair, I don’t think this is entirely the foam’s fault…

The foam does not expand with sufficient force to push outwards against the tape mould, which I had hoped would help to get the shape right by popping out some of the dents and hollows that form in the mould when you take it off its body. I think this foam would be fine in a rigid mould, but it doesn’t give a good result with a softer mould. Even if you are very careful, it is difficult to support the soft mould in the right shape, with no dents or dimples, while the foam fills it.

I had far greater success with the balled up newspaper and recommend using this method if you are making a duct tape form.

Use newspaper to fill up the form, being aware of the proportions – you don’t want to fill the form so that it is the right depth and width, not just a round tube. You can use your polystyrene packaging to fill up some of the space inside – just break it into chunks that fit into your skin and fit around with newspaper.  Stuff all the gaps and hollows firmly - you can use a steel ruler to help nudge the paper towards hard-to-reach places.

Keep at it until you have filled all the free space, closing up apertures at arm and neck as you go.

 

 

When you get to the base, make a template of the shape you want the base to have, and cut the shape out of hardboard. If you don’t have woodworking tools at home you should be able to have this done at a hardware store.

 

I also cut a disk to attach to the neck, to give it a neat finish. This you can stick straight on with tape, slashing and spreading the tape to avoid wrinkles and bulges

 

Before you attach this piece of hardboard to the base of your form, you need to attach the bracket that will hold your form on its stand.

 

Making the Stand

To attach the mannequin to a stand I re-purposed some adjustable furniture legs that I found at the hardware store. I removed the rubber footplate, which left a hole just the right size for a sturdy dowel. I used two of these furniture legs, one attached to the hardboard base of the mannequin, and the other attached to a round piece of chip board to form the base plate of the stand (you can get this round piece of chip board cut at the same time as your hardboard base for the form).

 

Mark and drill holes on your two boards to attach the furniture legs and then bolt one of the legs to the hardboard.

 

Firmly tape this hardboard to the base of your mannequin.

 

I chose to cover the base of my stand with the same fabric I used to cover the form, but you could also paint it, or cover it in decorative paper, or leave it plain. Once you have dressed the base of the stand, line up your second furniture leg and screw it to the stand base.

 

Now you can slot your dowel into both of the furniture legs and stand your form in front of you. Tada!

 

Covering the Mannequin

Get out your felt, spray adhesive and second- or third-best scissors, and lay the form down on a flat surface. Cut a piece of felt big enough to easily cover half of your form. Spray your form with 20-30cm square areas of adhesive at a time, and wait for it to dry a bit (read the instructions on your adhesive packaging to determine this) and then lay the felt on top and smooth it down.

 

Cut into the felt strategically so that you can stick it down flat around the curves of your form. You will find you have gaps left open and you will need to cut more felt away where it overlaps. Keep cutting and gluing, filling the gaps in with scraps as you go. Think of this as a 3D fabric puzzle, and don’t worry if it’s not very neat – this layer is just here to hold your pins and will not be visible once you are finished covering the form.

Once you have finished the front, turn the form over and cover the back. Cut a disk to fit over the neck, and slash the extra fabric at the base into tabs, then use big stitches to hold the tabs flat to the base. This will also be covered, so don’t worry if it looks messy.

 

Felt layer done! Now for the outer fabric cover.

I used grey bonbon, which is an elasticated knit with a four-way stretch. You want a very stretchy fabric so that you don’t have to drape and sew a cover – just stretch the fabric across the front half of the form using pins to hold it in place (look how the pins work – hurrah!) and tack it to the felt, trimming the excess fabric off as you go.

 

Now turn the form over, and repeat. Try to line up your stitches with where the side seam of a garment would be – that way when you cover the seam with tape in the next step you will not only hide the seam, but create a guide for draping! In order to do this, you can pin a strip of fabric tape in place, judging by eye where it should run, and run a pen gently under the tape to create a guide for your stitches.

 

Once you have stitched down the cover (don’t forget to sew a disk of fabric over the neck of your form!) trim away any excess fabric and stick or sew a strip of tape over your seams.

To finish off the bottom of the form, thread a needle with a long, doubled piece of thread and run a line of tacking stitches along the bottom edge of the fabric cover. Once you have tacked all the way around, pull on the thread to gather the excess fabric towards the centre of the base, and tie a permanent knot.

 

Next, cut a circle of felt using the base template that you traced earlier. Measure and cut a hole for the stand bracket to slip through, and then stitch or glue (I used a hot glue gun) the felt in place over the base of your form.

You can add strips of tape horizontally to mark waist, bust and hip lines and vertically to mark the centre front and back.

Now put your form back on the stand and sit back to admire the finished product!

 

Summary

As you can see from the pictures of my finished form, there are many asymmetries in my model’s body. When I first finished the form I looked at it and thought “Oh my goodness – it’s all wonky and I’ll have to start again!” But then I sat quietly with my reference pictures and thought about how these asymmetries may have come about.

My model is an old friend so I know quite a lot about her lifestyle, and when I thought about it, it was clear to me that many of these asymmetries are actually accurate. You will have noticed that one shoulder is slightly higher and that the breast on that side is also higher. This is not an accident of my process.

My model, Gen, runs a pole dancing studio and is incredibly strong, but suffered a major shoulder injury eighteen months ago. She can now hang upside-down with either arm again, but in the pictures you can clearly see the way her uninjured shoulder has developed more through constant and exclusive use while she was recovering from her injury. I think that the breast on that side is higher for the same reason – the pectoral muscle has been used far more often and is more developed, raising the breast tissue.

These are things I have never been aware of when looking at Gen in real life, but make perfect sense in the circumstances.

Given the fact that no part of the body works in isolation and that pole dancing requires a lot of full body movement, it makes sense that Gen has noticeably more muscle on her ‘strong’ side, accounting for much of the left-to-right asymmetry.

These are really interesting observations and will make a big difference to my ability to fit costumes for Gen. I am astounded that I have never noticed these things before, and I think it would be very useful to make one of myself to see what unnoticed idiosyncrasies my own body is hiding.

On a business level, I won’t be making one for every client as it is a fair amount of work (although not to much if you are making one for yourself) and I wouldn’t want to be finding storage space for every one. For clients I will try out the traditional couturier’s method of padding a dress form with batting, but that is much more temporary as I don’t think batting will hold its shape well over time. Fine for making one garment, but not if you are a sewing fiend whipping up numerous treasures for your own closet.

I definitely think that if you make clothes of any kind for yourself you could benefit from making one of these. I hope you will find this useful and would love to know about your versions if you decide to make one – please do post pics in the comments or on the Foundations Revealed Facebook page.

Happy stitching!

 

 

 

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