Any Experience with Dress Forms? Experienced at Sewing Clothes?
 

I would like to buy a dress form that truly does adjust to my size, or rather shape. I'm medium size, but I have a sway back and hunched shoulders so I have a really hard time sewing clothes that fit.

I made a duct tape dress form that really was my size, or rather shape, it was incredible -- till I ruined it trying to smooth the wrinkles with a hair dryer.

The fumes made me nauseated so I'm wondering if I can purchase a dress form and really adjust it to my shape, rather than making another one. I do have a magazine about sewing a fitted pad for the dress form, so I guess I'm really wondering which one would adjust the best as a starting point.

I don't do clothes but I do know I'd need one like a rain barrel. Good luck!!

I think you would be more satisfied with another made to your shape form.

For those of us that have serious fitting issues, I d not think most of the readily available dress forms will be much hrlp.

I have a dress form that I use but it is very old and can't see a name on it. It is foam not the adjustable plastic kind - had one of those and didn't like it. The foam is giving and I've adjusted the muslin cover over it to fix my body and the foam fills it in. I don't think it would be much effort to add more form in areas if needed. You know there are several pattern making software programs out there that work great. You add your specific measurements and they produce a pattern for just you. That might be something that would work too. Good luck.

i'm thinking this type might suit you well http://www.relique.com/oddities/mold...sh-dress-form/

When I was a kid my aunt had one, she always called it "Horrible Hannah". When I did make clothes I was in Jr. & Sr. high, never needed a dress form. Every time I think about going back to clothes sewing I think of needing a Horrible Hannah because no one I know would be able to help me get the hem straight or anything else either.

what about doing a duct tape dress form?

There are a ton of tutorials and you don't have to deal with fumes, or try to smooth the wrinkles out.

http://craftlog.org/craftlog/?p=2699
http://so-sew-easy.com/diy-duct-tape-dress-form/

I have a dress form that wasn't very "me". Not too long ago, Craftsy offered a class showing you how to customize your dress form to make it you much more like yourself.
i found the class was very helpful with making the changes and you end up with a better fitting dress form. My dress form now has the same measurements that I do. ( poor thing! ) I wish this class would have been available long ago, but am glad they have the class now. You might want to check out the class.

I think the only way you can get a really good one for your situation is to make it yourself. However, duct tape isn't the only way to do it. Threads magazine has shown something like 7 different methods over the years:
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/...tom-dress-form

Water-activated paper tape shouldn't have the fumes problem you encountered, and there are several Youtube videos that show how to do it. Here's one of the better ones I found:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNkp4zLUuRE
She ends up smoothing it out with Mod Podge, and says she used less than a roll of packing tape (300 ft) to make it. The portion with the model in the form took about 1 and 1/2 hours.

I was always taught to adjust the dress form down a size from the person you are measuring, then add batting in strips and pieces to fine tune it to their actual shape. Takes a bit of time, but if you are setting the form up for one person, it's well worth it.