My Custom Dressform....Part I

Guess "who" arrived on Monday???? My custom dressform finally made it to her new home. I was so nervous when I saw the huge box delivered by UPS on my porch. I've been anticipating this since my trip to NYC in February. If you recall I took a trip to Andy's Dressforms in NYC to get measured and pick out my form.  At first glance she looked great. I began to check my measurements and most were perfect. I was SO excited to see that my narrow and short back were adequately copied. The quality of the form is similar to the PGM size 10 form that I own. It has an durable cover you can pin into and all of the style lines one would need for draping fabric and drafting patterns. It also has collapsible shoulders and can be raised or lowered.  I'm thoroughly impressed with the quality:)


But upon further investigation I noticed 2 things were a bit off: the bust placement & butt fullness. The bust is drafted a bit low so it hangs alot lower than my own.  Actually only 2" but from this picture since it's shaped to point down instead of up it's very noticeable. Plus I'm a "C" cup so the bust isn't as full as it should be. And because it's so low it makes my bust to wait area look alot shorter than it really is.  The back was specially drafted to replicate my short waist. The back is drafted  perfectly, but the butt of the form isn't as full as it should be to mimic my high rear. Actually I knew that would be a tricky maneuver. My "high butt" is the reason why it's a bit of a challenge for me to make pants that fit.

(See how the bust hangs a bit low compared to my own.)

(I have a slightly fuller upper rear. That translates into a "high butt"---my Daddy's fault (got it from him) so the form just needs a bit more stuffing at the upper derriere.)

(She may not be exact but she's the closest I've come to having a clone:)

Despite the 2 errors this was a good place to start. The wonderful folks at Andy's dressform are working on making me a NEW form to correct the bust placement and to fill out my rear a bit. In the meantime I can use this one for some current projects and can just use one of my bras with a little filling to adjust my bust placement. In all reality I don't expect a perfect form--just one as close to it as possible:)  As we all know, making a 3D object from flat pattern measurements is quite the undertaking. For those of us who sew, we are met with that challenge with every project:)

It is my hope to not only use my custom dressform to fit muslins and garments I'm working on but I'd also like to get into drafting some of my own patterns and doing some draping. I've had some pattern drafting/ draping books & all of the drafting rulers I've been wanting to put to use for the last few years. I've used them for some things but not fully like I want to. I've been doing a little playing around with designing so I'm interested in bringing some of my own ideas to life:)

Hopefully the next dressform will be perfect---that was almost the case with this one. Please keep your fingers crossed. ....................................to be continued...................