Sewing with a Mannequin

I have a whole family of them! But I do work as a professional dressmaker. They are very useful, but NOT a substitute for a proper fitting. I like the Adjustaform ones best: my oldest is over 25 years old, well used, and still working well, though in need of a couple of minor repairs.

Do you send it to a body shop for that? *G,D,R*

It's ME I need to send there! Hehehehehe...

I too have always wanted one, but to buy one in my country that is actually a duplicate of my body would be prohibitively expensive. I have an adjustable dummy that started life as a very ratty cast off from someone else but even that I have found to be very useful. Clothes hang on it in a way that they don't on hangers and I can see things when it's on the dummy that I can't see if I hang it on a hanger or if I am up close. I would really like to do a duct tape dumy but dont' know If my friends and I could stand the faffing about involved with doing that.

I only sew for myself but have found that a digital camera and good mirrors are probably more useful than a dummy. I take multiple pics of myself in a garment with the camera pointing towards the mirror. The multiple pics allows for the fact that I don't always know where the camera is pointing and what result I will get. I get them onto the machine and that way I can see where the drag lines are etc.

I love your idea about the camera. The photos would also be really useful if you thought you wanted to make the garment again at some future date. It would really jog your mind about fitting problems.

Thanks! Jan

Thanks for replying, Kate. Do you have any that use dials for adjusting? If so, are they as easy to use as they say and do they produce accurate measurements? I am very interested in draping, which I find so hard to do on my own body.

Jan

Mine are all adjustable 8 part bodies: you can adjust waist length as well as girth of the torso. Some have screws and some have dials. Accuracy is OK, but as I'm sewing for customers, I tend to check with a tape anyway.

If you want to do draping, you need a duct-tape or paper-tape dummy modeled from the body of the person you want to create clothes for if you want it to look right on their body.

Agreed - I certainly do not have pointy plastic boobies!

I wanted a mannequin for historicals so I got a cheap old one that was too small off E-Bay and padded it up with an old corset so that it is teh right shape (I am VERY squishy)

Wendy Z