DIY dress form

[winecat]

Has anyone made one of these? 

www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3630/quick-and-easy-duct-tape-dress-form

I'm meeting up with someone on Nextdoor to make one tomorrow.  It seems easy enough but that's what usually gets me in trouble with crafts. lol  

I'm excited to make my own yoga tanks.  There's nothing cute in my size that fits AND covers my industrial sports bra so I wear t-shirts which can get hot.  

[mala]

Funny enough I'm going to try to attend a demo tomorrow (at the comic convention!) about making dress forms (the demo is geared to cosplayers- because AwesomeCon). I'll report back if you do the same!

[mala]

I'm in the middle of the demo, and the order they do this is slightly different and sounds like it will work better. I'll give you a better play by play later

[mala]

winecat,
So this is what I got from the demo:
You can use a trash bag as the base, if you don't want to waste a tshirt.
Make sure there's something between tape and you.
You can use any tape, but some are better than others. Brown packing tape (paper style, self adhesive) seems to be best. Clear or brown plastic is ok but can be hard to get to conform properly. Duct tape works well, but get the stuff from the hardware store, the cheap stuff from the dollar store isn't going to hold up, nor will the fashion duct tape from the craft store/target/walmart. (though the craft stuff will be stretchier). The paper packing tape with the fibers that has to be moistened with water to activate the adhesive works well if you need something very sturdy, usually for the base of cosplay armor/weapons.
Filling can be anything. They recommended packing peanuts, fabric scraps, scrunched up newspaper, or fiberfill (but fiberfill/batting can be more expensive)

If you use a trash bag, cut a slit in the bottom to get your head through. Put it on, then look at the slope of the shoulders for where to cut arm holes. Stick arms through

No matter if using trash bag or shirt, wrap the following way:
Wrap all the way around just under the bust. Make it thight, but breathable. Use long/unbroken strips if possible.
If on a person with boobs, use long peices of tape, make an x over the bust to the back. Start at the under-bust tape line, basically where the gore of the bra is, then go over the oposite shoulder to the bust line in back, do the other side the same way.
Continue criss-crosing the tape in this way until you hit the shoulder seam, and in to the neck.
For non-busted people just go up and over hte shoulders like overalls.
Then do the waist, wrapping tight but breathable over the waist and down the hips, use long strips.
Fill in gaps and do contours with short pieces of tape.
DO it all again, try to overlap your seams, and going in different directions. Make at least three layers of tape
Draw marks on the back to make it easier to line up again later.
Cut carefully.
Tape up arm holes and neck holes.
Stuff, tape up bottom.

[winecat]

mala- OMG! So this took us forever yesterday! We only got my form taped before I had to leave. It took us over 2.5 hours to do it. I didn't see your post before we started but it's not done so I can go back if needed. Thank you for the info.

Did they say why to do 3 layers of tape? I found a long t-shirt at Goodwill to use at a base. It was so heavy with what we did. I can't imagine using 3 layers of duct tape based on the time and weight.

Our method was similar. The first boob looked okay and then we did the second one a bit differently and it looked much better so we had to redo it. I have a lot of "contours" so we ended up doing more shorter pieces. We also started at the bottom which was a great idea because I couldn't imagine spending all 2.5 hours with the tape around my chest. I could breathe comfortably but the weight made it uncomfortable after a while. We used plastic wrap to extend the form up around the neck in case we want to make collared shirts.

For the base, arms, and neck we're going to try to cut some plywood with a jigsaw so that it's got a firm base. Did they put it on a stand at the demo?

[mala]

The first layer of tape will be really bumpy, but 3 layers seems to smooth out and become stiff enough to work well. The demo only took an hour and a half for one model. One girl got really claustrophobic and had to but cut out fast, so I will be sure to keep that in mind when I do mine. No stand at the demo, but it's a great idea to use plywood. They said they sometimes insert hangers to hang them up. The people running the demo do cosplay and costume work and said they do all their own dress forms this way, so they've gotten really fast at it.

[calico]

This sounds both intriguing and hard as fuck to do.

How durable do you think this method would be?

[nursecramer]

Jun 20, 2017 8:46:43 GMT -5 calico said:

This sounds both intriguing and hard as fuck to do.

How durable do you think this method would be?

I did this about four years ago and it has held up well to moderate use and an interstate move. 


A few things from my experience: I used a salvage coat rack as a stand for a base for a more decorative look.

The foam was a bit of a disaster. I didn't know how much to fill and over did it. curing took longer than I expected and so 2 days  later, The foam burst through in a few places and dropped into my rug, hardening on the carpet fibers.

Finally, I don't usually feel claustrophobic, but being wrapped up for so long ( it took a couple hours for us too) made me feel pretty anxious toward the end.

[winecat]

Jun 19, 2017 11:08:22 GMT -5 mala said:

The first layer of tape will be really bumpy, but 3 layers seems to smooth out and become stiff enough to work well. The demo only took an hour and a half for one model. One girl got really claustrophobic and had to but cut out fast, so I will be sure to keep that in mind when I do mine. No stand at the demo, but it's a great idea to use plywood. They said they sometimes insert hangers to hang them up. The people running the demo do cosplay and costume work and said they do all their own dress forms this way, so they've gotten really fast at it.

That's a good point about making it stiffer. Hopefully I can put mine back on and add more layers. 

[winecat]

nursecramer- you used expanding foam?

[nursecramer]

Jun 20, 2017 15:14:39 GMT -5 winecat said:

nursecramer - you used expanding foam?

Yes. Sorry, I didn't notice these instructions used batting! I used polyurethane foam.

[mala]

Jun 20, 2017 8:46:43 GMT -5 calico said:

This sounds both intriguing and hard as fuck to do.

How durable do you think this method would be?

I asked, they said they've been using some of the same forms for years.

[winecat]

Jun 20, 2017 8:46:43 GMT -5 calico said:

This sounds both intriguing and hard as fuck to do.

How durable do you think this method would be?

It's not really hard to do.  It just takes time and patience.