Jan 18, 2011

Homemade Dress Form

Lately, I've been thinking about making aprons to sell online through Esty. I figured I needed a way to display them, such as a dress form. I started looking around, but I'm not very patient. I did find a vintage one at an antique store, but even on sale it was $230. I found another one on craigslist, but it was too small. I searched online, but they were too expensive also. So, I thought to myself, why not make one? I picked up an old floor lamp with a chunky base from St. Vinnies for $18. A couple of wire baskets, wooden bowls, and a wire candle holder were purchased from another thrift shop. We had some scrap wire mesh in the shop, and I purchased a can of black spray paint. Some old sheet music, flour, and water, and I was in business. All together, it was about $30 in supplies.


I haven't decided yet if I'm going to use the heavy black bars shown in the picture. I was making an oval shape out of two of them that would hang by small chains from the bottom of the form. This would give more "fullness" to the aprons. The jury is still out on that thought. Also, not shown, is a wire candle holder that, when cut in two, became the "arms" of the form.


At this point, I figured paper mache would be a good way to go. I had purchased some old music books at a garage sale for .10 cents a book. They were perfect!


She looks pretty curvy from this angle with her
skinny little waist and full bust line.


The finished project...what should I name her?


This is what she looks like sporting a new apron.

11 comments:

  1. If only we could all be that curvy! :P Really though, it turned out great! You are so creative! I really love the "arms". They make her look even more feminine. And the music sheets don't distract from the apron at all. You really should put somewhere on your apron listings that you made the dress form from second hand items, too!

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  2. You are so so cool! I love this! She is soooooo cute! haha- love the curves! You must have been laughing when you made her chest. ha. Oh she is so darling and cute! So I have a funny confession- if I could some how make it work- some how in a future house- I want to display my wedding dress because I love it so much. So I wanted to get some kind of a cool dress form for it. I have no idea how or where I would put it in my house to make it seem not strange- but if I can, I want to! I love love love this dress form, she is just darling! And I love your blog title, when I read teh title before clicking on it, I thought "second chances...." I wonder why she chose that, and then I clicked on it- and I thought "BRILLIANT! SECOND CHANCE!!!!! so creative.

    OK- my cricut- yes I did the mutli-cut 4 times, new deep cut blade, new mat, tried all diff. functions. oh well. it got pretty far into the chipboard, so if I'm depserate for something, I can do the rest with an exacto knife. It sure would be fun to be neighbors! SO good to hear from you!

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  3. and that lamp base is AWESOME!- you have inspired me to go out and look for a cool lamp base

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  4. This dress form is amazing! I think it looks so much better than any vintage, store-bought dress form could look. It truly shows off your crafty talent. Nice job! Visiting from SomethingCreatedEveryday.blogspot.com and a new Follower.

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  5. I poked around your blog after seeing your entry on Someday Crafts. I love what you are doing and have become a follower. How about popping over to my blog and see if you like what you see and maybe follow back. I love this dress form BTW. I always wanted one. http://tru-featsandaccomplishments.blogspot.com/

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  6. OMG!! What size is she? She looks like me, LOL!! Except I lost that skinny waist after the first kid ;-) What a great job on this, I want to make my own dress form, I just never knew how to go about it.....

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  7. Love it! It turned out great. I have been checking these out as well.

    Newest follower from Beyond the picket fence linky party.

    Makalani
    www.MakazHome.com

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  8. How did you put 'the pieces' together. Can you make a tutorial?

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  9. i came over from the polkadotcloset.com where you posted on her dress forms...yours is ADORABLE! i love the little wire arms/sleeves...and that lamp base was an amazing find, for sure! nice job!

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Thanks for taking the time to comment. I appreciate the feedback and always look forward to reading what you have to say! Susan