The Sewing Place

Vintage dress form

Manuela

Vintage dress form
« on: June 08, 2017, 14:00:33 PM »
I seems that I found a new indulgence.  :devil:
Accompanying my vintage machines will soon be a vintage dress from. I found a wire Dritz My Body Double adjustable dressform from the 50-60s.

Vegegrow

Re: Vintage dress form
« Reply #1 on: June 08, 2017, 14:04:16 PM »
That's fab... wonder why they didn't carry on making them?  or do they?
"The only place where housework comes before needlework is in the dictionary." ~Mary Kurtz

Manuela

Re: Vintage dress form
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2017, 14:17:27 PM »
Their new dressforms still have the same name, but are your run-of-the-mill adjustable ones. I have a Singer one quite like the new Dritz ones, only because it is as short waisted as I am, so ideal for adjusting and padding up with bra and shoulderpads.
I can imagine that it became too expensive to make those wire forms, they are incredibly well made, no sharp edges, little marvels of mechanical engineering - same faith the Featherweights suffered...
i got this one for our place in Thailand. Bella, my little pink Featherweight is residing there, I needed a dressform as well for my new sewing area there...

b15erk

Re: Vintage dress form
« Reply #3 on: June 08, 2017, 16:06:07 PM »
What a lovely dressform!  I wish the modern ones weren't quite so 'functional' looking.  I'm afraid mine is a glorified coat hanger... :|

Jessie
Jessie, who is very happy to be here!!  :),  but who has far too many sewing machines to be healthy, and a fabric stash which is becoming embarrassing.

Surest1tch

Re: Vintage dress form
« Reply #4 on: June 08, 2017, 22:48:08 PM »
I used to have one like that many years ago, I lent it to a "friend" for a costume display they were having to raise funds for her church and never got it back  :'(. It seems it disappeared!  I got profuse appologies but no offer of replacing it

Marniesews

Re: Vintage dress form
« Reply #5 on: June 09, 2017, 02:43:13 AM »
My mum had one like this, it seemed a great idea but didn't live up to its promise, as I recalled. You had to push the wires into the shape of your body which wasn't easy to get anything like a smooth outline when you put the dress onto it, the fabric often dimpled across the surface which, after all, was just a series of holes. I wasn't impressed and she went out long ago with no second thoughts I'm afraid.  :S
Hopefully back more regularly! Ballroom sewing may be permanently paused but bag making is the current focus.

Iminei

Re: Vintage dress form
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2017, 06:36:14 AM »
Looks like some instrument of torture !!! and I would worry about the wires ripping, catching the fabric ...Do you cover it with a 'skin' or use as is ?

Also in the wonderous advert (25.98 !! what a lot of money in those days ...'50's?) there seems to be a head on the form or is that the woman being measured up ??

If the second, will you be entering the 'Cage of Doom' too ???
The Imperfect Perfectionist sews again

Manuela

Re: Vintage dress form
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2017, 10:38:32 AM »
Lol Imenei, that's definitely a women getting her friens to make the form fit  :D
It should arrive next week, then I'll see how exactly I'll use it. I rather like the industrial look of the wires, and hope I can use it without a cover.

Marniesews

Re: Vintage dress form
« Reply #8 on: June 09, 2017, 12:26:12 PM »
Sorry to be so negative about it, Manuela, you may well do a better job with it than we did.

It did some with a stockinette cover which tended to shift across the wire form but, now I think about it, if you make a tighter one out of something with more substance like scuba, that might make a difference.
Hopefully back more regularly! Ballroom sewing may be permanently paused but bag making is the current focus.