My dress form--tutorial

So I have been seeing people online have been making their own dress forms out of all sorts of things.  After finding this out, I decided to give it a try.  I won't really know how it worked til I make some clothes.  However, I think it looks alright.  Well, I decided to do my own tutorial. Hopefully this will help anyone out there who, like me, is in need for a dress form but is poorer than poor.

THIS is where I got the idea!

Make sure you do a couple things first.....where a bra and a "tight" under shirt.  

So lets get started.  You need to start with materials.  You need a shirt that is too large for you, for me I got a men's XXL T-Shirt from walmart (on sale for $3).  You also need some duct tape.  Depending on your size you shouldn't need more than 2 rolls.  I bought 3 just in case.  I only used 1 on the form and part of one for the end of the project.  You also need some cardboard for stabilizing and some stuffing......

 This is my shirt and tape.

You also need your trusty helper.....can't wrap yourself in duct tape.  I chose my husband!

For cardboard.....I went and got some from work (walmart).  and the stuffing came from old pillows that aren't being used.

Start wrapping the duct tape from.  Start and the lowest point you want the form.  I have a big butt so I started there.  You can start lower or higher, depends on your shape.

When you get to the chest, start wrapping the tape up and down instead of around.  The up and down wrapping helps form the chest better.  I tried going around, but it made the chest look flat.....up and down is definitely best.

Keep doing the up and down wrapping over your chest, shoulders and upper back.

While doing this, form the neckline you want and the arm holes.

When you get it wrapped to your satisfaction, draw and line down the center and and horizontal lines where you want them.  I did one across the center of the chest, under the boobs, and across my belly button.

Very carefully, cut the form off on the back.  Make sure not to cut the shirt or bra when you are cutting this.  After you cut slip the form off very carefully and, without overlapping, carefully tap over the cut to finish your form.

Cut out the cardboard to fit the bottom of the form and tape it to the form (sorry no pics of this). then stuff your form from the top.  You can also put card board in the arm holes to help those keep shape.  Where this is my first form I was getting tired so I didn't do that part.

When you are done with your form it should look a little like this. 

You can stick a hanger in the top to hang it....which is what I plan. I am going to put a hook in the ceiling and hang it from that when using and putting it in the closet when I'm not.  OR, you can make a pole out of cardboard or whatever and afix your form to that.  I'm not that handy so you can figure that out.





I hope my dress form works out for me.  I'm going to be making my first item using it tomorrow!  I'm going to be making a jumper so look out for another tutorial.  It'll be great if this works.  I am looking at getting a dress form from amazon at some point.....one of those adjustable ones.  But for now, this should work.  Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and hope it helps you make your own dress form!