I Recovered My Adjustable Dress Form

I love all dress forms and mannequins.

I have been very blessed with some of my dress forms as 

gifts from sewists who no longer needed them.

That was the case with my beloved adjustable dress form.

A dear friend from Grass Valley handed her dress form to me

when she was no longer sewing as often as she liked. 

She knew I sewed nearly every day, between garments

for my daughters and myself, custom creations for clients,

and alterations, especially bridal gowns.

This year, I have been quite busy with making

aprons and pillows for custom orders,

as well as many, many alterations.

I have altered several bridal gowns this year,

but none needed to be worked on while on the dress form.

So, I had not noticed how sad my form had become.

Her cover was literally crumbling off her!

I am currently working on a Vera Wang bridal gown alteration

and I could not bear to put that gorgeous gown 

on my poor sad dress form. 

So, it was time to clean her up and recover her.

Now this was a daunting job, but last year I recovered my sofa,

so I knew I could do it!

I just pulled a little and all of the old fabric came off easily.

I started to take apart the pieces by unscrewing the adjustable wheels

that held together the pieces of the form. 

I am sure there is a name for them but I have no clue what they are called.

 

These are the adjustable wheels that held together the form body parts.

They were specific to the bust, waist and hip so I labeled them.

As I got the form pieces apart, I realized that the cover and old glue 

needed to be removed and the form parts needed a good washing.

This is the pole that held the form.

I gave them a good scrubbing with Dawn Dish soap 

because I am convinced that it holds the secret to all things.

I let the pieces dry.

I tried to use the old fabric as a pattern but it was pretty stretched out,

however I was able to use the width and length as a general idea.

I chose a cotton lycra fabric with a moderate stretch, 

so that it would conform to the shape of the body pieces.

I used Aleene's Tacky Spray.

It would probably work as well with a different glue

brushed on the inside edge of the body pieces.

I worked one part at a time, spraying each piece,

then carefully covering the part with the fabric.

I probably made my job harder by choosing a stripe,

but I really liked how fresh it looked.

Once I sprayed the glue onto the outside of the plastic,

I worked from the bottom up, smoothing the fabric onto the part,

and carefully adjusting the stripes.

Here are the hip pieces all ready to assemble.

 

 I reattached each adjustment wheel by screwing the tiny screws directly through

the fabric. I had to feel around for the little holes.

The fabric kind of puckered a little bit but it was so much nicer than before.

So I decided to just leave it.

As we attached each hip piece, there was a metal piece that had to be

screwed back to the pole. This was tricky with only my two hands.

So Ahnalin offered her hands to hold the pieces

while I screwed them in place.

 

Here is the lower half hip area of the dress form all attached,

and ready for the upper torso pieces to be attached.

 

I followed the same "spray and smooth" method on the upper torso pieces.

I took special care to stretch the fabric over the "Fronts"

as Millie calls them in "Thoroughly Modern Millie",

which was playing on the DVD player while I was working.

This is where the need for a moderate stretch in a fabric

really shows it's importance!

 

I should have shown this earlier, but this is how I fixed the 

inside of the body pieces.

I sprayed along the inside edge and pulled the fabric

snuggly from the edge.

 

And then I trimmed off the excess.

I probably should have trimmed it more

evenly but at this point, my hands were really sticky

from the spray adhesive.

 

This is how the inside of one of the upper torso

pieces looked after it was all glued and covered.

There was a little metal hook piece on the right and left

side of the bottom that slipped onto the waist of

each hip piece.

 

After the torso pieces dried,

I slipped each piece over the waist

of the hip pieces.

 

Then I reattached the adjustable wheel pieces for the upper torso pieces.

This is how the inside of the dress form looked.

I normally want the insides of the things I create 

to be just as lovely and perfect as the outside.

But to be honest, I was just ready to get this done,

so I could get back to the bridal gown alterations!

Not a great excuse, but it is the truth.

At the very top of the adjustable dress form, 

there is a little knob that screws into the neck plate.

This knob is then turned to adjust the back waist length

of the torso. 

But it also acts as a pincushion.

To cover it, I cut a small circle of the fabric

and stuffed the edges into the rim using a butter knife.

The neck piece attached to the upper torso 

pieces with four tiny clips, which were slid 

into grooves at the top of the pole.

One of the four clips must have been lost

in one of our many moves,

so one of the torso pieces didn't fit snugly onto the neck.

I will need to find a fix for that. 

But for now, I tied a piece of fold-over-elastic

around the neck to hold it in place.

By this point, my hands were a sticky gooey mess!

That Tacky Spray is sticky stuff that does not

want to just wash off!

The answer for me was coconut oil!

 

I put about a teaspoon into my palm and rubbed it all over my hands.

The oil was very effective in breaking down the glue so it 

washed off my hands, without having to use something toxic.

 

At this point, I was ready to show off my lovely "new" dress form!

However, the wind was blowing so strong that she blew right over!

Yes! The wind was blowing 21 MPH!

So Ahnalin helped me out again by holding her up!

 

All in all, I am pretty pleased with how the dress form turned out.

Now, back to my alterations!

Happy Sewing!

Sivje

New Throw Pillows To Match My Tuffet- A Tutorial

So after I recovered my tuffet,

I decided that the throw pillows on the sofa

and chairs were looking old and dull.

I measured my pillows and cut the pieces I needed,

allowing an extra inch all the way around,

for a 1/2" seam allowance.

These pillows were about 17" square.

So I cut two pieces of 18"x18" for each pillow.

 

I pulled out some of the leftover piping

I had from when I made my new sofa slipcover.

You can read all about my sofa slipcover and how I made the piping

HERE.

I pinned it along the outside edge of one

side of the pillow fabric.

I snipped into the seam allowance of the piping

so it would curve around the pillow corner.

I cut the piping a bit long where it meets up.

I cut off the excess piping cord to reduce bulk.

Folding the edge of one side of the piping under,

I wrap it around the other side.

Then I just pin it and sew it down.

I am using my piping foot on my Janome

machine but I usually use my zipper foot

on my Bernina for large piping.

This is what it looks like with the piping all pinned in place.

Next, I pulled out a long zipper

from my stash so I could make the new

pillow cover removeable.

Using my zipper foot,

I sew the zipper onto the piping,

wrong side up. 

If I sew it right side up, I will not

be able to open up the zipper when it is on the pillow.

Next, I lay the back piece of the pillow

on to of the front piece, 

right sides together,

matching up the sides,

and pin the seam allowances to the other side of the zipper.

I sew the zipper in place.

After the zipper is sew in place,

I can lay open it up and see that it is ready

to sew the rest of the pillow sides together.

This is how it looks from the back side.

Make sure that you have unzipped the zipper several

inches so you can get into the pillow cover

after the sides are all sewn.

 

Match up your sides and pin all the way around.

Using your zipper or piping foot,

sew as close to your piping edge as you can.

You can follow the line of stitching you used

when you sewed the piping on, 

or move your needle position 1 or 2 clicks

further away from your foot.

Go slow and careful around the corners.

You can see that I am sewing over the extra length

of the zipper end. 

 

 

When you finish sewing, 

you can trim the corners or not.

I usually do not for piped corners

as the extra fabric kind of fills out

the corner nicely.

 

The zipper is snug against the piping and makes it very easy

to remove the pillow cover for washing,

or just when you decide you need a change.

This was actually an old zipper that I reused.

All finished and pretty.

Because of the placement of the print on the fabric,

and because I didn't want to waste any

of my beloved fabric,

I was not able to center the floral motif on each pillow.

But I love them anyway.

I am glad I finally cut into this fabric.

And pillows are a great way to add 

color using just a little bit of a favorite fabric.

Happy Sewing!