Stunt double

I didn’t have much time to play this morning – I decided to bike to work, so I left early – but I did finish my dress form cover!  Here is my new stunt double:

This is a Uniquely You foam dress form (bought used from Craigslist) compressed into shape via a cover, tailored to be skin-tight.  Sharon fitted it to me while I stood still for about two hours; then a lot of tedious marking, unpinning, repinning, and restitching all the seams.  Finally I wrestled it over the dress form, compressed the foam severely, and pulled the zipper shut.  I did have to pad the stomach since the manufacturers of the dress form chivalrously assumed a flatter belly, but other than that, and a small adjustment still needed around the bust, it looks good.

I am hoping this is my last style of dress form.  I have arrived at this one by the simple method of trying every other possible type of dress form out there; Sharon assures me that this one is the best, though, and I sincerely hope so!  In my innocent youth I tried one of the standard dial-a-size dress forms (which doesn’t fit ANYONE; I don’t know why or how they sell them!); in my poverty-stricken grad school days I used a duct tape dummy; then I changed over to brown paper office tape; finally I cast my own dress form using plaster bandages and polyurethane foam.  But hopefully Ms. “Mighty Tigress” will be the last one!

Meanwhile, my projects are starting to pile up.  The yarn for the Handwoven article arrived today, but I can’t start warping it until the sample warp is off the loom.  However, I can’t remove the sample warp until the rolling temple is set up, because I need the half-woven fabric on the loom to test the temple once it’s installed.  I won’t be able to install the temple until Wednesday at earliest (the weekend is much more likely), so weaving-wise, I’m blocked for the next few days.

Which of course means it’s time to work on muslins and fittings.  I have adjusted the patterns for the shawl-collar jacket and the palazzo pants; tomorrow I’ll adjust the pattern for the kimono jacket and possibly (excitingly!) create a new coat pattern.  Now that Ms. Mighty Tigress has volunteered to be my stunt double, I can play around with draping more dramatic collars, asymmetrical fronts, etc.  Watch this space for wild ideas!