The Sewing Place

My dress stand

Elnnina

My dress stand
« on: December 12, 2018, 16:12:45 PM »
I have spent months upon months working on  a princess line sloper, made more toiles than I care to admit to, and with the last efforts, have now padded my dress form out so that she fills the sloper – so no wiggle room – this is deliberate so that I can pin securely into her to get the fit right – oh she is not a pretty sight!!!!

My husband came into my room with a cup of tea and saw what I was doing on the stand and made a comment, why had I not mentioned what I have done on TSP.  So here goes.  On top of my original double made from brown paper parcel tape and moulded to my body – well I have also put on some weight unfortunately, I have several layers of  M&S men’s thermal vests, and in between I have some wadding stitched through to a layer underneath and then covered with a final vest.  As these vests are ribbed, it is easy enough to get a good CB and CF line tacked in place and over this tacking line I have sewn some lead curtain string weights, and left the end dangling but weighted – so these are my plumb lines and I have also got them positioned from the underarms as well – each one carries an extra weight at the  end.  The reason for using these leaded string weights and having them sewn on to the stand is that I can feel the ridges through whatever I am trying to fit.  I have run out of this leaded curtain weight, but intend to get some more and then I will sew these on where the shoulder princess seam is both back and front and also along the shoulder line and probably around the armholes as well

crafter

Re: My dress stand
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2018, 09:09:34 AM »
Would love to see a picture of her.

Surest1tch

Re: My dress stand
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2018, 21:29:55 PM »
Me too please  :)

Tamnymore

Re: My dress stand
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2018, 21:43:35 PM »
Wow. Fantastically clever stuff @Elnnina !
'One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.' Oscar Wilde

Elnnina

Re: My dress stand
« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2018, 20:19:44 PM »
Oh 'Matilda' is very shy, and as I have said earlier not exactly a pretty shape at all.  However I will try and oblige, but I need to get the camera  charged up.

'Matilda' herself is positioned over an ancient dress stand that was closed right down and then padded out sufficiently so that when 'Matilda' was slipped on she would not move around - I put a plastic dry cleaners bag over the wadding so it would be easy to slide the paper mache moulding on and off if necessary.  I felt I needed to close the original stand right down as the wadding could easily have been pushed through the gaps.

sewingj

Re: My dress stand
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2018, 11:17:36 AM »
@Elnnina  - my dress form is such a depressing shape that she has to be kept clothed in something loose fitting!

Elnnina

Re: My dress stand
« Reply #6 on: December 15, 2018, 14:32:44 PM »
Oh sewingj I know that feeling only too well.  I try and keep ‘Matilda’ covered up with clothing or a toile and if not then I have a huge flimsy scarf that  I can throw over her which hides the lumps and bumps.

I have a displaced  pelvis as a result  of giving birth to my first child many years ago, only this was not found until much later and the result now is I cannot walk far at all nor stand too long, and when I try the pain I get in my lower back is excruciating and if I ignore this pain it goes into a spasm and then locks and I cannot move at all.  Hence not being able to exercise much at all I have put on a colossal amount of weight.  I now go to hydrotherapy once a week to try and get me moving and I walk more in the pool than I do all week.

This displaced pelvis showed up very clearly on the original brown paper moulding of ‘Matilda’, but now I have padded her out perhaps it is not so obvious – I shall have to wait and see.

I am hoping that now I have padded ‘Matilda’ out more and she is filling a calico toile quite snugly that I can now sort of tissue fit/pin fit toiles on her knowing that they will then fit me – that is the theory!!!  However I am thinking about making a shoulder princess toile in some quilting batting and flat locking the seams and then stitching my lead string weights to the seams, but for now the thermal vests with the lead string weighting will do.  I am finding the ridge that the lead string weights give is extremely useful.