Dressing Mannequins.
costume | Creativity | dressing | fitting | historic dressing | mannequins | museums
Wow…I haven’t written a post since before Christmas! I have so many things I love to share but have been sick, lazy or snowed in…then doing my taxes…to actually log in and post. Here is something that came over my email today from www.atlasobscura.com and as someone who has done theatre costume work and loves historic costume, I found this very interesting.
I have a copy of an article (somewhere in my files) from Threads years ago on how to make your own mannequin. It involves getting together with another sewing friend, an old Tshirt and either brown wrapping tape or duct tape. with your best undergarments on and that old T you wrap yourself in the tape then cut up the back (where a zip would be) and take it off. Now you have your shape replicated…stuff it, mount it on an old lamp stand and you have your own dress form to help with fitting an designing your own clothes. I bought a dress form years ago at a yard sale (saving $$$!) and she’s all foam but covered with a basic cotton sloper cover. I can stick pins in her when fitting…I’ve changed a little and my clients are all different sizes but she’s still great to pin my pieces on when working up a custom order.
This article shows how mannequins are sized, adjusted and altered to suit fashions from different eras. We’ve had bustle bottoms, corseted bosoms, tiny waists and straight up and down ‘boy’ shapes over the centuries.
Look at the different busts from this mannequin maker KCI Mannequin. Demonstrating corseted, pre bra, older, younger shapes.
This article is an interesting, useful and fun read….and do go to all the links and go deep.
I had a job in a clothing store in my early days of work and trust me, the toughest job there was to perfectly make the mannequin ready by getting them in proper clothes. Wooshh, that really took a lot of time.