Thursday, November 19, 2009

How to make over a dress form, in case you were wondering!

In Prep for our Urban Knitfits Craft shows, I wanted a dress form for our booth- something that would act as a display and as an element that would transform our booth into a shop.
So I posted an ad on craigslist and the above dress form is the result. I knew that an authentic vintage form would run me $150+++ So I settled for this $40 one and I decided I would transform it myself. Here's a how to! (in case you ever find yourself in the same situation!)

I had a bunch of Canvas fabric around from a pillow project, so I dyed it in our tub with loads of generic tea bags. (I took pictures of the process and I might use these images in an art project down the road.)
I felt that the leg definition- or crotch, was a lot of things- unauthentic to the vintage version, visually distracting as a result and too mall mannequin. So I used some epoxy glue and adhered cardboard to the form.
Once the fabric was dry and ironed, I sewed seems and darts along the larger pieces with my machine, before using some sturdy fabric glue to ultimately glue it in place. Originally I planned on hand sewing the canvas to the form but soon realized I was insane and with some helpful motherly advice, I bought some fabric glue. -Above- is a picture of how I would glue the fabric and then keep it in place by pining it to the form until it dried.


Here is the final picture. I still have one or two things left to do- for example, I might take some sand paper to a few edges and fray the fabric as well as take fabric paint and stencils and add letters and numbers along the neck- to mimic the vintage forms. I decided not to put the wooden top back on, since even if I aged it, it still wouldn't look authentic. I'm not too jazzed about seeing the cardboard so clearly through the fabric, but ultimately I think it's fine. It's finally done to the point that we have been using it for pictures for our etsy shop and we might hang or write "Urban Knitfits" on it to act as another sign for our booth, as well as necklaces or scarves. We are making our banner for our booth this sat, I'll post pics once that's done!

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