Things I Can't Sew Without: In Praise Of The Dress Form

I had a mildly erotic dream about my dress form last week. This is probably due to the inordinate amount of time I've spent over the last few weeks with my arms wrapped around it, draping yards of fabrics for a Broadway opening (*not mine*). Lofty silk organza shot with hard metallic swaths, crisply whispering Italian brocade, and a velvet infused viscose...all of which had to be fondled. Hell, it was absolutely begging for some heavy petting.

I MEAN. YUM. I told Ruggy about the dream, PG 13 at best, but still, he immediately deemed it Unsuitable For Blogging. And I always listen to Ruggy. HOWEVER. My sleeping mind illustrates a point I daydream about constantly: I truly love my Wolfie girl. Far more than her poorly thought out moniker shows. She holds a high and revered (if slightly inappropriate) place on the list of Things I Can't Sew Without.

Even before she landed generously in my lap, I knew I wanted a proper dress form, but having only used a badly shaped and rage inducing "Uniquely You," I had no idea how much I'd adore the real thing. Initially, I thought she was just for draping, but she's really my sewing assistant. Instead of standing in front of a mirror, wrangling fabric around my body to get an idea of print placement, wishing I had eight arms, I can do this:

AND THEN I CAN LAUGH OUT LOUD AND GO FOR IT ANYWAY.

Speaking of eight arms, I have at least four when I'm working with my Wolfie girl. She's helped me hem a 200 pound heavyweight denim skirt, and that bias cut silk organza that brought on fever dreams...

ACK THAT SKIRT. I've been knee deep in that draped skirt for 10 days!

Since she's padded out to be my double, I fit patterns directly on her using swedish tracing paper. She's wonderfully helpful when using a pattern! Even taking a step back during construction is eye opening. Standing across the room beats standing in front of a mirror for perspective. Say, when you realize that dress is meant to be worn dangerously open, to make room for tatas...

If memory serves, Sewing on The Edge made a great point about using your seam roll to train your fabric to be successful in its new life as a shirt or dress or whathaveyou. (Or maybe she said dress form? Cannot specifically find the exact point, hope I'm quoting the right source, but even if I'm not, her blog is FULL of awesome and you ought to just dive in.) It struck me that I've been doing that for years with Wolfie, just by dressing her up in whatever I'm in the middle of creating, and leaving it be until I return. I love the idea of my half made garment settling in to its new life as it waits patiently for me to continue creating.

But I think my favorite part is lifting her up high enough so that I can see underneath her skirts, copping a squat on our hardwood floors, and quietly evening out a hemline by eye. It's one of the most calming things on the face of the planet.

Peeps have asked me what equipment is worth the investment. Looking back on what I use the most, my shortlist would be: sewing machine, scissors, iron, dressform. Of course, a Wolf is not in my current budget--or my past budget! I was lucky to have a super generous friend who just happened to have one collecting dust. Still, the best you can afford is better than nothing! As much as I hated my first dressform, I had great fun with it. You can find a dial-a-size job for around a hundred, but for a bit more, PGM & Roxy Display carry models from $200 up. I've only seen the PGM forms in person (when I lived in Lala land), and I thought they looked pretty damn good. Alas, this was during my "Uniquely You" phase, and having already plunked down 200 bucks for that sucker (I WAS THE SUCKER), I couldn't bring myself to part with more dough. Especially when I could have had a decent, sturdy form for the same price in the first place. So impulsive!! Don't get me started on the bullet breasts I had to hack off.

No angled weapons here! Oh, my Wolfie has such beautifully rounded breasts. So supple! EGADS ENOUGH ABOUT TATAS! Lest I talk myself into another night of very strange sleep!

So, is there a dressform in your arsenal? If not... have I seduced you?