New Dress Form Fun!

This was my Mother's Day gift to myself:  a professional dress form.  Project Runway eat your heart out!  She needs a name which I'm not settled on yet.  All name suggestions welcomed! As long as you are okay with them being disregarded if they suck.

It may look like I've already spilled cabernet on her, but no.  That red tinge across the bust is just the bad lighting.  

Isn't she lovely?  Not having a head is very slimming.

I can add an arm later if I want.  Build-a-lady!

I poked around and considered a bunch of different options.  The entry-level adjustable models (Dritz, Singer, etc.) that you can pick up at Joann's and other chain stores just didn't look very well made to me.  Plus, I couldn't get over the spacing that goes down the middle.  What if you have to fit something there?  The real deciding factor was the wheels.  I'm going to have to be moving her around a lot since I sew in my dining room. Her rolling base is a solid 25 lbs of metal and real, not plastic, casters. SOLD!

I have no idea what the cage is really for, only that it's considered better then not having one.  Feel free to fill me in if you know the why.  

Plus, she isn't an ugly color, just a neutral linen.  Which I realize shouldn't be an issue.  That said, who wants a red dress form?  It would be a distraction to me and I'd hate it clashing with my decor, even when I'm the only one looking at it.

There are some small issues.  She was a total bitch to put together even with my husband's help.  In fact, I doubt she's assembled correctly.  Technically she is height adjustable, but since I'm 5 feet that's hardly an issue.  At her lowest setting she's still a bit taller then me.  I'll just imagine I'm wearing heels.


Gratuitous new shoe photo-  their cork!  I live in a vineyard!  Yes?  No?  Well, I was amused.

And they were on sale!  Thank you Macy's!  Maybe I should sew in them.

The other issue is the sizing.  She matches up pretty well with some slight problems:  the hip to waist ratio is off a bit, but I'm an oddball so that isn't surprising.  I don't wear form fitting outfits anyway.  The bust measurements are great on paper but I realize now that a goodly portion of my inches are on the front and nearly half of hers are across the back.  I'm not sure how much that matters if you are doing a full-bust adjustment on most patterns anyway (which I am), but we'll see.  Mostly I want to use her for draping.

That is some serious princess seaming.

Because she isn't adjustable if I lose more then, say, 15 lbs I'll be sized out.  Which since it took me a year to lose 42 lbs I'll not be holding my breath.  I figure I'll just sell her on Craigslist and reward myself with a new one when that (glorious) day comes.

A name, an after-use review, and some dressed photos coming to the blog soon!