Xena, Warrior Dress Form

Yesterday Scott and I made a paper-tape dress form.

I got the directions from this Threads article about a year ago. I had read about duct-tape dress forms, but decided on the paper-tape one because it sounded like it would hold its shape better. We went to two or three office supply stores before we found the paper-tape, the kind you wet to activate the glue. The only kind we could get was reinforced, but we didn't think it would make a difference so we bought it. And it bounced between the office and the sewing room for a year, waiting until we were ready (ha!).

We started with one of Scott's old t-shirts, which I cut down and sewed up the sides to get a snug fit on myself. With a sinkful of water, a sponge, an old sheet on the kitchen floor, the roll of tape and a pair of scissors, we got to work. We had no idea if the tape would adhere to the shirt, to itself, or even be sticky at all. In fact, it was very sticky and clung to the shirt better than it did to itself. The first hour or so was fun experimentation, cracking jokes while figuring out what would work to get around my curves. The second hour I stopped micromanaging, since I couldn't really see what was going on, anyway. Going into the third hour, as you can see from the photo below, I was not a happy camper.

I was tired of standing on bare feet on the kitchen floor (probably should have worn shoes) and my upper back ached from being held in a single posture by the stiffening tape (after it was over we both soaked in a nice, hot bath!). Instead of giving in to crankiness and snapping at Scott, I grew very, very quiet. In another one of his occasional moments of husbandly sainthood, he responded with concern, asking if I was okay and encouraging me while working as quickly as possible. When I stopped giving directions, he took over and proved more than competent for the task. He came up with two ingenious ways to go over the bust area, the latter of which I thought was rather pretty and, along with the armor-like feel of the tape at this point, inspired me to dub the form "Xena".

When he thought there were enough tape layers to make the form reasonably stiff, Scott hit me with the blow-dryer, which was wonderfully warm after all that clammy wet tape. Then he added some masking tape to loose ends and places that he thought might crack apart when we cut the form off my body. After he eased me out of the shell, we hung it on a hanger wrapped with batting (to support the shoulders) and taped over the cut. We're thinking about filling the hollow form with batting or foam to support the shell, and I'll either decoupage or cover it with another old t-shirt.

A day and a half later, Xena has dried nicely and is sufficiently stiff/sturdy enough to wear my clothing. I tried the Imperial officer jacket on her and also one of the tops I made a few months ago (next to a picture of me for comparison):

Her measurements are slightly larger than mine, partially due to all the layers of tape, and probably because we didn't wrap very tightly. Dressed, she looks big (life-sized?). But the proportions, body shape and posture look so much like me that it's freaky. I think we goofed a little on the right hip; the tape there wasn't as snug, the shape of the hip is more rounded and garments that fit my real body twist a little on Xena's back right side, going over the hip. We weren't precise with the neck and armholes, so I'm marking shoulder seams/necklines where they fall when the garment is hanging properly from the shoulders.

But for our first try, I'm pretty pleased. She'll be useful for pin-fitting and preliminary adjustments, so I can get some garments cut and partially constructed before I need a buddy to check the fit on my real body.