Dress form advice??

[olive bleu]

I am finally moving to a house with enough space to set up a permament sewing room ( ok it will double as a spare room, but i come first) and the first thing i intend to buy is a dress form.Does anyone have any tips to share about what to buy...ie;brands, vintage vs. modern, things to avoid, etc. I have never even used one before.

 

[Vanessa]

I went with this dressform. (From that seller as well.) Once you get it fitted to your size, it's a dream to work with. And at $129, definitely budgetable.

 

[BettyValentine]

Depending on where you live, you may get lucky looking around online on sites like craigslist. I live in NY and a lot of the fashion schools make incoming students buy forms, and the big companies sometimes slough off old forms (or so I assume, because someone wrote "Lizsport" across the back of my hanging form's neck). Wolf forms (and Global) are almost indestructible, so a used one should be perfect and last forever. If it is in *really* bad condition you can just get it recovered with new muslin. I searched for "wolf" on craigslist every morning and after a week I had two perfect ones in just my size for $100 and $150 each, so I have a basket-bottom form for normal sewing, and a hanging one for pants and for painting. But it is definitely different here. I searched the Chicago and San Francisco craigslists and only found 2 posted in the past year.

I only searched for "wolf" because people can't agree on how to spell dressform. I found the real steal because the owner had it listed as a "Wolf form" so anyone searching for "Dress form" woudln't have found it. Searching at the beginning of the summer, when students are graduating, and the end of the summer when people are moving out of apartments helps.

Vintage stuff is great, but silhouettes do change depending on the year. Bust shape, bottom shape, and waist and hip shape can all vary depending on what was the style when the form was made.

Good luck! I really love forms. They totally changed the way I sew.
BV

 

[Honey Doll]

Is that the one....

I went with this dressform. (From that seller as well.) Once you get it fitted to your size, it's a dream to work with. And at $129, definitely budgetable.

Vanessa-- is that the one with the little pads to bring it to the right size? Do you get a reasonable approximation of your form with it? Can you increase or decrease your back waist length with it?

I've got a pile of duct tape and am considering my options before I suit up

Thanks!

Honey Doll

 

[olive bleu]

thanks a bunch for the tips, i feel like i have a good starting point.BETTY VALENTINE, i live in Canada,so I am not sure those used forms will be accessible to me. However, i do have family in Connecticut,and when i come down for a visit, I always go into new york , so it's not out of the question.

Vanessa, i love the one you showed me,and it's a great price!I am so excited about getting one and setting up my sewing room, i think i will sew i lot more than i have in years! that can only be a good thing!

 

[Lauren]

Hi Olive Bleu! You may want to check out this thread since one of the questions is what model dress form they use

http://thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=12329

 

[Vanessa]

Vanessa-- is that the one with the little pads to bring it to the right size? Do you get a reasonable approximation of your form with it? Can you increase or decrease your back waist length with it?

I've got a pile of duct tape and am considering my options before I suit up

Thanks!

Honey Doll

The one I linked to is a foam form - which usually is compressed by the cover that you buy in a size more closely to your measurements and then adjust further.
If you're like some of us, who are not as well endowed as the dress form, you might have to perform some minor surgery to accurately reflect how you look.