Today’s question is…
What kind of dressform do you have?
My dressform’s name is BooBooHead. I don’t know why, for some reason mom and I started calling her that when we first got her.
But I’m guessing you probably didn’t want to know her name. She’s a Prym-Dritz My Double dressform. I got her in 2004. I like her ok (and I apologize in advance for calling it a “her” throughout this post, it feels weird to say “it”).
That being said, would I recommend the brand to other people? Maybe. I don’t really know.
Somewhere along the way the plastic inside got really brittle and started breaking. I can’t adjust the sizes anymore – she’s stuck a little bit smaller than I currently am. That doesn’t bother me so much as that the top of the pole that holds the whole thing also broke – so she’s constantly at some kind of angle which makes pinning a hem really difficult on the dressform.
I’ve also sewed stuff to her by mistake. AND… being the lazyass that I AM… I just cut the fabric on the form off instead of picking out the thread.
The pin cushion at the top never stayed in place. I don’t know if the glue came right up or it’s supposed to be like that but I never did glue it back. I just stick pins all over the form instead, which causes them to get knocked off when I take something off the form, leading to me stepping on pins.
And the metal legs are rusty.
I’m not saying anything is the fault of the maker though. Not at all. You do not know what BooBooHead has been through – besides my own rough treatment of her, she has, multiple times, been wrapped up in garbage bags and had dye and water sprayed at her (while trying to dye something else, obviously). I’m sure those garbage bags weren’t completely water tight. Who knows how much water got through and messed up the plastic inside? I know it’s the cause of the rust.
But she’s a soldier and I couldn’t do without her. Seriously, it would make making costumes 500x harder without it. I’ve very grateful to have her, cracked plastic and all.
There’s a lot of tutorials out there for making your own dressform, in case you don’t want to spend so much money on one or a commercial one doesn’t meet your needs. Dig around on a site like pinterest and you’ll find a ton of links to tutorials on making your own.
While I’ve never made my own dressform, I do have a bodycast.
My husband made it back in 2009, and we’ve since used it for sculpting my Wonder Woman and Hippolyta chestpieces, and my Magik armor. I also have casts of my arms, legs and head for making stuff. It’s kinda weird to have copies of my bodypieces lining our garage shelves.
As of Christmas 2014, I have a new dressform! No pics yet. But I am excited.
(Do you have a costume or convention question you’d like to ask me? Ask on my facebook page, twitter, or my contact page here, and I’ll see about answering it for FAQ Friday!)