Dave’s cousin Megan is a Senior in High School this year, and prom is fast approaching. Rather than opt for a typical prom dress (to which she’d probably have to add sleeves) we talked about designing and making a custom dress for her. The idea took flight, and about a month ago we gathered design ideas and headed to the fabric store. Because the dress is totally one-of-a-kind, I started mostly from scratch, using one pattern as a guideline to modify to create my own pattern, to then cut and sew out of muslin, do a fitting, mark and re-cut into a fitted pattern, use to cut the fabric, piece together and (after another fitting) hopefully emerge with an incredible dress! More than once during the first few work sessions, I wished I had my mom’s Singer dress form. I mentioned this to Missy, who sent me this link about duct tape dress forms. At first it looked like sort of a joke to me, but after a little research, and using this as a guide, we did it!!
My form after layer two of vertical duct tape
it’s really amazing how exact the form can get!
Here’s Miss Megan in her finished duct tape dress form! After cutting it up the back, you can pull out of it as if it were a shell…
Emily thought she’d try on being 17!
Once taped up the back, stuffed with a down pillow and batting for the contours (I tried foam first, but the pillow works better!), I almost have Megan at home with me!
Her vintage-inspired prom dress is coming to life! The only pieces actually pieced together at this point are the strapless silk bodice and the sleeved lace bodice. The skirt and waistband are simply pinned in place for the photo. What do you think Megan? We’ll do an in-person fitting this weekend, then I’ll be able to piece the rest together and finish it up! Details on the whole prom dress project forthcoming…
