How to make your own custom sized dress form

I've tried several times to make myself a dress form in my measurements via the 'duct tape method' and found out the hard way that I am entirely too claustrophobic to have someone wrap me in duct tape. That didn't stop me from wanting a dress form in my size though. 

I happen to be lucky enough to have an amazing network of friends whom keep a watchful eye out for tools, opportunities and even dress forms that I can put to use- I don't know where I would be without these folks, other than working in a significantly less equipped sewing studio! One of these amazing people recently acquired me a store front mannequin and a sewing dress form, it just so happened that the sewing dress form had a waist the same as my tightlaced waist measurement and since it needed to be re covered anyway, I thought why not try and make myself that custome sized dress form I've been wanting?!

This is the shape she was in when I brought her home;

I set to work, first by removing her existing jersey covering, I used this later for a pattern for her new covering- it gavee the general shapes I needed, though I had to add a lot extra fabric to the bust and hip areas to accommodate my new padding. 

This is how she looked after removing her old cover; 

I filled in any dents, knicks and holes with filler, and measured her existing measures, compared to my own. 

I used an old bra to help get the breast shape I wanted, I padded this out with upholstery foam to ensure fullness; 

I quickly found that no matter how much I padded that, I couldn't get close enough to my existing measures to be satisfied. So I sacrificed a second old bra to the cause and padded that one out until I reached the measurement needed. I then glued this all in place with hot glue to prevent any shifting and/or gaping. 

For the next step I cut myself lengths of upholstery foam to pad out the hips, this took a significant amount of foam, over the course of several layers- my hips are nothing close to what this dress form originally had! 

I trimmed the foams edges as best I could to be smooth and flush rather than square as it typically is when cut. This process is time consuming and messy (little bits of foam get everywhere!). However, I wanted to make sure she didn't end up looking clumpy when completed. 

In the interest of further smoothing out the finished figure I also sacrificed an old tank top to the cause, and glued this in place;

I then cut and sewed a new covering fabric for her. When picking fabrics I picked an embossed jersey that is subtle but still gorgeous- I didn't want to go with anything too crazy, lest I get tired of it and find myself recovering again soon. 

This is the finished product, and while it's not perfectly my figure, it's the closest I've ever had and that's awesome to me!

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