My New Dress Dummy

Many years ago, I bought an adjustable dress dummy that was on sale at one of the big box stores to use. It was useful, but it had its issues. I could only really use it for hemming skirts or pants, but nothing for the upper body as it was not particularly wide enough along the shoulders & back, no matter how much I adjusted it.

I finally decided to actually get one that was a bitter fit for my actually measurements, so I ordered the Uniquely You dress dummy in October 2014. It's made of high density foam and comes with a dress cover that you modify to your specific measurements, which then goes over the foam dummy. Theoretically, if you ever change sizes, you can remake the dress cover appropriately.

I FINALLY got around to altering the dress cover (yes, it took this long). It required some help from my Viking to help me mark the alterations on the dress cover whilst I was wearing it.  We had to coordinate around his work travel schedule, the holidays, and some illnesses (like the flu).

When we eventually got around to making alterations, the dress cover fit relatively well. It only required minor alterations along the back side seams and shoulder seams to take in extra fabric.

Now, getting the dress cover OVER the foam dress dummy took myself & the Viking to accomplish, but we eventually got there. It took several attempts, and my Viking climbing ontop of it to help compress the foam.

There were several adjustments that had to be made because of the nature of the compressed foam -- we had to take the cover off the dummy twice.  According to the instructions, once you initially put on the cover, the foam might overly stretch out the dress cover so you need to make further adjustments.

In my case, the dress cover fit me, but when placed on the dress dummy, the foam expanded over nearly TWO inches over my measurements. I had to take in both side seams by one inch to compensate for the expanding foam. There was also the matter of getting the bust measurements correct and moving the foam around into the proper locations.

However, it's a lot closer to my measurements than the older dummy. The difference between the two is pretty significant.

I can use her to drape out more patterns, as well as check for a better fit on mockups.

Now, I just need to settle on a name for her....