No costume entry this time but something else I have been working with for a while.
I have dreamed of a dressing-form for some while already, and not just A dress-form but one that would be my own shape and size(I have a tad longer back and larger bosom than what a standard dressform would have). I've been fantasizing about how much easier it would be to make patterns especially for the backside, because you know, it's not very easy to try to draft a pattern on yourself with the help of a mirror... So I decided to try to make one myself.
The net is full of tutorials of how to make a duct tape form, and that's what I tried first too. But duct tape is rather soft, it doesn't hold it's shape very well and with time, it will start to droop. It also ended up way bigger than what I am and was pretty useless to tell the truth. My next plan was to make a plaster mold and use it for a glassfiberform. This didn't really work either because the plaster wouldn't harden, and after three hours of standing up covered in plaster strips I had to call it quits. (We tried twice with two different types of plaster). After some research I found a third method which has worked the best so far, and that's using papertape. Papertape(or cardboardtape) is a lot stiffer than duct tape, and will hold it's shape a lot better.
The papertape form was pretty successful, it's not perfect and it would've probably been a bit better if I didn't have to mutilate it a bit in the filling part, but it's rather close to my size and shape. Some of the measurements are exactly the same, some are 1-2cm~ smaller(hips for example), so I need to remember to add ease to my patterns.
Here's how I made my form in case someone is interested :)
I have dreamed of a dressing-form for some while already, and not just A dress-form but one that would be my own shape and size(I have a tad longer back and larger bosom than what a standard dressform would have). I've been fantasizing about how much easier it would be to make patterns especially for the backside, because you know, it's not very easy to try to draft a pattern on yourself with the help of a mirror... So I decided to try to make one myself.
The net is full of tutorials of how to make a duct tape form, and that's what I tried first too. But duct tape is rather soft, it doesn't hold it's shape very well and with time, it will start to droop. It also ended up way bigger than what I am and was pretty useless to tell the truth. My next plan was to make a plaster mold and use it for a glassfiberform. This didn't really work either because the plaster wouldn't harden, and after three hours of standing up covered in plaster strips I had to call it quits. (We tried twice with two different types of plaster). After some research I found a third method which has worked the best so far, and that's using papertape. Papertape(or cardboardtape) is a lot stiffer than duct tape, and will hold it's shape a lot better.
The papertape form was pretty successful, it's not perfect and it would've probably been a bit better if I didn't have to mutilate it a bit in the filling part, but it's rather close to my size and shape. Some of the measurements are exactly the same, some are 1-2cm~ smaller(hips for example), so I need to remember to add ease to my patterns.
Here's how I made my form in case someone is interested :)
