I had a blast at my sister's yesterday! After our Easter dinner, my sister Lori helped me make a dress-maker's dummy for myself. The materials included 3 rolls of duct tape (2 silver and 1 white), plus an old T-shirt. The process involved my donning the old T-shirt and then having Lori cover my torso in several layers of duct tape. That's the piebald finished product above. You can see the hemline of the T-shirt at the bottom. You can't tell in the picture, but it's like wearing a body cast. I could barely move, and I certainly couldn't bend at the waist or raise my arms. Oh, how we laughed as we applied layer upon layer of tape while my brother-in-law just shook his head. And hot? My gosh, I got so hot inside my duct tape prison that we had to finish the job outdoors on my sister's cold and breezy back deck.I found the duct tape idea on the Internet when I was pricing dressmaker's dummies and discovered they were beyond my budget. I printed out the instructions, and then Lori taped me from my neck down to upper thigh. It took about 2 hours, and thank goodness I had enough presence of mind to visit the bathroom before we started! Once finished, Lori used a sturdy pair of scissors to cut the back open along the spine, from neck to butt. I carefully pulled the form off my body and was thrilled to see that it maintained my plump little dumpling shape. *g*
I'd been fortunate enough to find the torso of a male mannequin at Goodwill the week before, so I bought it, figuring once I made my duct tape dummy and wriggled out of it, I could place it over the store mannequin torso, tape up the back, and then pad it out with wadded up paper and plastic bags. It worked perfectly, and I'm amazed at how sturdy my new dressmaker's dummy is! Now, instead of having to put on a garment dozens of times as I make it, then struggling back out of it without getting stuck by pins, I can use my new dressmaker's dummy! And all it cost me was the price of a few rolls of duct tape and a few hours of my time. Here's the dummy after I stuffed it with tons of plastic bags and a few old towels.
