Wednesday, March 21, 2012

A New Dress Form for 2012

Last year I decided to make a dress form cover, but this year I decided it would be a good idea to make a new dress form altogether. I find even though in most instances my current dress form is fine, for corsetry it really fails to show the shape correctly. Mostly because the corset makes no reduction to the waist of the mannequin, which of course it does on a real person. So with that in mind I ordered one of Atelier Sylphe Corsets hand drafted 'Victorian Mannequin' patterns from ETSY ('there is no need to reinvent the wheel').


I decided to use some old scrap leather in a lovely buttery skin colour which I was given a long time ago. I also already had some dacron from a previous holiday project so not only did it come together quickly and but it cost very little also (think fabric from your stash and recycled materials, plastic bags etc for filling).


I was pretty pleased with the out come, though maybe next time I'll use something other then leather so I can get cleaner lines and neater points on the darts - but not bad for a first go!


I  decided to enhanced the breast shape by using an old bra and then covered it with one of my dress form covers so I could test it out. I only had a few corsets here that would fit - nothing really heavily boned but even so.......

.....check out that lovely shape!

Why have this?

When you can have this?

4 comments:

Ruth @ Camellia Rose said...

That is really cool Abbey, and it really enhances the shape of the corsets. Must be one of the more satisfying things you've made recently? PS Does your dress form have a name? :)

Abbey said...

:) Hey Ruth - yes indeed...this was both fun and practical (which can't be said for everything i make.
PS The movies was awesome thanks for taking me xox

Unknown said...

I made her edwardian dressform out of vinyl wich was a little difficult,turned out nice,stuffed with platic bags.need a victorian and retro one now.

Abbey said...

Awesome - it's definitely great to beable to make your own isn't it!!