Yes!! I gained a lot of weight and my dress model only goes up to 20 inches smaller than I am. Made me feel pretty bad about myself at first, but this video helps so much. Thank you !!
Depends on the form. There are multiple sizes of form you can buy but they get expensive fast. I am a curvy lady myself and decided to use my moms old form and I might try this technique to make it more my size.
That’s so cool!! I’m very petite so it’s always been impossible finding a dress form that’s affordable and customizable enough to work for me. Now I’m tempted to buy a child sized one and just pad it up 🤔
I'm very short-waisted, so the measurement between the underarm and waist is a crucial one. (Same if you are long-waisted.) I also have high hips, so the measurement between the waist and the hips is also crucial. I had to add hip padding to a dummy that was my size just because the width of the hips was not in the right place.
@@kaddaw4497 I haven't ever needed to steam something on it, but I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem. It's a foam dummy with a cloth covering. The padding I used was batting and scraps of a heavy fabric.
Thank you so much! I just did this with my iron and here are some things I learned. General tip: check with your local Buy Nothing or Free Cycle groups. A lot of people buy dress forms then never use them. I got the form and batting for free. If you do this remember to check that your form can handle steam. Tips for working with an iron: Don't work directly with the batting, it will stick to your iron. I used and old shirt to cover mine as I worked. That said, sometimes the batting will stick to the shirt. Just put it it back on the form and try again. Work in layers/strips and get that stuck then smaller pieces for finer details. It made it easier for me to iron each piece down since it has to be covered. Plus, if you use pins they need to be iron-safe/heat tolerant. I'm ballin' on a budget so I just wrapped the batting instead. Keep water close. I had to fill my iron a TON of times. Hope that helps!
I’m trying to pad up my cheap dress form and I am making a cover for it out of a large knit t-shirt. I am going to use this method! Thanks April for this awesome vid. 👍🥰❤️
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! As a new sewer I was advised to get a dress form, easily done, but…I am a big girl and had no idea how to make the form work for me, until I found your video. Now I have an eerily accurate form that I can use for my sewing adventures and….perhaps use it as motivation to loose a few pounds. ❤❤❤😊
Great tutorial! I got a dressform that's smaller than me and with very different measurements, that's kind of just collecting dust now. Would be great to have it at least close to my hip-to-chest measurements to drape dresses on :)
Wish there was a way you could take the padding and remove it from the form but still have it in tact so you can remove and put it back up at a later date. Kinda like regular removable padding. It’ll be cool if you maybe used some adhesive then added some fabric to keep it in place so you’ll always have removable dressforms lol. This was still pretty cool and maybe I should try for my own dressform since it’s significantly smaller than me and her bust is really freaking big for her size!! (Makes draping weird)
Omg you have saved me!! I found this adjustable dressform at goodwill super cheap! But it's just a bit too small! Now I can adjust it for me thank you so so so much!
FWIW, a heat gun seems to work pretty well too for the shaping, just tried it out. It also allows to stiffen the material if needed by melting it ever so slightly. Somewhat of a bruteforce/risky approach though, probably much less gentle than steaming ... (I needed to layer a dress form to specific real measurements a few months ago and didn't think of using heat, so I secured the batting with tape. It worked out ok but it was somewhat annoying to do, so this will make the next one much faster and easier to make :) If anything i can imagine using this to make temporary shapes to drape things over. Thanks for the useful video !)
I literally...just got a dress form as a birthday present and was thinking on how to alter it so that I could shape it to my size.... Thank you so much!!
Thanks for this great tutorial on how you padded your dress form! I need to do something similar for a client for a wedding gown, so this is really great info!
I believe the high bust measurement gives a better fit. So much easier to pad the rest of the body as necessary. I have narrow, sloping shoulders, but it also works for high or wide shoulders.
If you wanted a permanent dressform, you can look into « Bootstrap Fashion ». They make patterns to your measurements for dressforms. It’s not free, but I mean it’s really cool.
April, you are phenomenal ❤ As a plus size, I will be trying this. I loved watching you working on this and seeing how much gratification you got seeing it come together ! U R the BEST ❣
I appreciate you taking us I. Your journey and sharing what you learned. I was wondering if you had a bra that fit the figure we're shaping for , would stuffing up to the size would go faster
I have done basically the same process with my dress form but I wish it were a little firmer, not having as much give. Does using the steam give it denser layers?
That was awesome. I have one of the dress forms that will open but I think I would like to increase the measurements this way instead. Do you think this would work on that particular dress form?
Does the batting have adhesive on the back? I don't understand how it sticks to the dress form and to itself. The steam wouldn't make batting sticky, would it? I'm not sure I understand why you used steam.
Love! I recently did this to make my missies 16 into a true 18W...HOWEVER two things I cannot get to work, the pins, they seem to not hold properly through all the batting...and the tape, it constantly falls off, any suggestions? I do have a full body stocking on the batting...D:)
Do you think the batting can be re-used afterwards? Im wondering if after each person I could take it apart and reuse it for another person without having to get more batting?
Hey i cant imagine removing the pins from the cotton stuffing, is that a long process afterwards or do you buy pins in bulk for that? i feel like i would prick myself a millions times taking them out.
what other materials apart from that batting could you use? I tried getting it but they don't ship to where I live, would vliesline work? or something else?
Hello! Just wanna ask if steaming the batting will affect the original mannequin too much (like gets too fused to the mannequin, damage, etc.)? I haven't worked with it before so I don't really know how it will behave
Use a smaller size form that way you can cover the curves. Maybe you should start elongating from the torso up and extend the neck/shoulders. Seems better than working with the hips/butt.
If you have a really low budget (a cheap one for new is about $120 on sale), then you need to watch her video on making a duct tape dummy/double. That just costs you an old t-shirt, a roll or two of duct tape, some stuffing, and a broom handle and a Christmas tree stand if you want to make it stand up (some people like to hang theirs from the ceiling instead).
@@kayladrake4183 child dress forms have very different proportions. I can certainly pad hips and breast areas, but their waists are still a lot wider than mine and I don’t know how to fix that.
Thank you so much! This was so helpful. As a plus size woman who’s new to sewing, I can’t tell you how hard it is to find helpful content like this! 💜
❤️
I agree!
@@robynwilliams460 grdesz
Yes!! I gained a lot of weight and my dress model only goes up to 20 inches smaller than I am. Made me feel pretty bad about myself at first, but this video helps so much. Thank you !!
I'm a bigger girl and dress forms in store obviously don't come in my size this makes sense. Thanks!
Depends on the form. There are multiple sizes of form you can buy but they get expensive fast. I am a curvy lady myself and decided to use my moms old form and I might try this technique to make it more my size.
That’s so cool!! I’m very petite so it’s always been impossible finding a dress form that’s affordable and customizable enough to work for me. Now I’m tempted to buy a child sized one and just pad it up 🤔
Hey, if you can find one with approximately the right torso length, then go for it!
ruclips.net/video/eOXT0nq19y0/видео.html
I'm very short-waisted, so the measurement between the underarm and waist is a crucial one. (Same if you are long-waisted.) I also have high hips, so the measurement between the waist and the hips is also crucial. I had to add hip padding to a dummy that was my size just because the width of the hips was not in the right place.
Does your dummy handle steam well? Or did you do it without?
@@kaddaw4497 I haven't ever needed to steam something on it, but I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem. It's a foam dummy with a cloth covering. The padding I used was batting and scraps of a heavy fabric.
Thank you so much! I just did this with my iron and here are some things I learned.
General tip: check with your local Buy Nothing or Free Cycle groups. A lot of people buy dress forms then never use them. I got the form and batting for free. If you do this remember to check that your form can handle steam.
Tips for working with an iron:
Don't work directly with the batting, it will stick to your iron. I used and old shirt to cover mine as I worked. That said, sometimes the batting will stick to the shirt. Just put it it back on the form and try again.
Work in layers/strips and get that stuck then smaller pieces for finer details. It made it easier for me to iron each piece down since it has to be covered. Plus, if you use pins they need to be iron-safe/heat tolerant. I'm ballin' on a budget so I just wrapped the batting instead.
Keep water close. I had to fill my iron a TON of times.
Hope that helps!
I’m trying to pad up my cheap dress form and I am making a cover for it out of a large knit t-shirt. I am going to use this method! Thanks April for this awesome vid. 👍🥰❤️
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
As a new sewer I was advised to get a dress form, easily done, but…I am a big girl and had no idea how to make the form work for me, until I found your video.
Now I have an eerily accurate form that I can use for my sewing adventures and….perhaps use it as motivation to loose a few pounds. ❤❤❤😊
Can’t believe I never even thought of this before, great idea!! ❤️
Oh my gosh this is the tutorial I needed! Thank you!
Me too! Thank you so much!
Great tutorial! I got a dressform that's smaller than me and with very different measurements, that's kind of just collecting dust now. Would be great to have it at least close to my hip-to-chest measurements to drape dresses on :)
Wish there was a way you could take the padding and remove it from the form but still have it in tact so you can remove and put it back up at a later date. Kinda like regular removable padding. It’ll be cool if you maybe used some adhesive then added some fabric to keep it in place so you’ll always have removable dressforms lol. This was still pretty cool and maybe I should try for my own dressform since it’s significantly smaller than me and her bust is really freaking big for her size!! (Makes draping weird)
This definitely beats trying it on a bazillion times to make sure it fits. Definitely going to be on the search for a dress form now thank you
Omg you have saved me!!
I found this adjustable dressform at goodwill super cheap! But it's just a bit too small! Now I can adjust it for me thank you so so so much!
FWIW, a heat gun seems to work pretty well too for the shaping, just tried it out. It also allows to stiffen the material if needed by melting it ever so slightly. Somewhat of a bruteforce/risky approach though, probably much less gentle than steaming ...
(I needed to layer a dress form to specific real measurements a few months ago and didn't think of using heat, so I secured the batting with tape. It worked out ok but it was somewhat annoying to do, so this will make the next one much faster and easier to make :) If anything i can imagine using this to make temporary shapes to drape things over. Thanks for the useful video !)
This is very helpful now I know it doesn't matter what size the dress form is. I could make it my size with the batting.
Thanks for the helpful tip.
What a fantastic idea! My dress form never did fit my true shape. This is just what I need to do. Thank You!
May I ask how you managed to create your own clothes? Did you just changed up the size in the flat patterns?
This is by far the simplest method I’ve seen! And the end result looks great! Thanks for sharing!
I literally...just got a dress form as a birthday present and was thinking on how to alter it so that I could shape it to my size.... Thank you so much!!
I first started watching your videos 10 years ago and am so glad you're still uploading ❤
Need this for my plus sized mama! She is a seamstress but she hardly makes anything for herself because she wishes she had a dress form.
I am SHOOK. This is truly amazing
Love that you shared this first experience upsizing! I've just bought a dress form and I'm just starting so this helped! Thank you!!
This was incredibly helpful...I was all but hopeless at ever being able to find a dress form even remotely near my shape. thank you so much!
This is awesome, I never added steam. That helped me a lot. Thank you
I love the creativity ! Super cool. It’s really great to know that this is an option :0
Thanks for this great tutorial on how you padded your dress form! I need to do something similar for a client for a wedding gown, so this is really great info!
Literally needed this - I’m pregnant and need to draft something for when I’m more pregnant 😆
I believe the high bust measurement gives a better fit. So much easier to pad the rest of the body as necessary. I have narrow, sloping shoulders, but it also works for high or wide shoulders.
This is brilliant. You’re a genius. Love your “ go for it” attitude. I think the regular steaming gave it a more pro compressed and smooth look. ❣️
If you wanted a permanent dressform, you can look into « Bootstrap Fashion ». They make patterns to your measurements for dressforms. It’s not free, but I mean it’s really cool.
This is awesome! I had no idea. I am definitely going to do it to my dress form to match my own body.
I just did this on my dress form and it worked great!!! Thank you for sharing this method.
That’s nice 😊. Thanks for sharing this girl.
This is really cool! I must try this!
Is it possible to remove it by cutting it up in the back and be able to put it back on again?
I've always wanted to know how to do this 😃 thanks so much for this tutorial 👍
So cool! The steaming is a trick I didn't know about
April, you are phenomenal ❤ As a plus size, I will be trying this. I loved watching you working on this and seeing how much gratification you got seeing it come together ! U R the BEST ❣
Looks a bit like me now 😂 lovely work April!
Please do some more THRIFTED TRANSFORMATIONS soon! They are a favourite!👍 🇦🇺
Oh yes, I will be doing this and if it's a video you will be of course THE SOURCE & shoutout! 💕 Turned out bomb !
i'm broke and have no money for a custom fit dress form, now with this i think i can buy a cheap used one and pad it to my measurements 🥰
I appreciate you taking us I. Your journey and sharing what you learned. I was wondering if you had a bra that fit the figure we're shaping for , would stuffing up to the size would go faster
I love this video. Very hands on and informative.
I have done basically the same process with my dress form but I wish it were a little firmer, not having as much give. Does using the steam give it denser layers?
Yes it does!
I actually really needed this video. My mannequin is a little bit smaller than I am which is annoying but now I can fix that 😁
That was awesome. I have one of the dress forms that will open but I think I would like to increase the measurements this way instead. Do you think this would work on that particular dress form?
This is really cool idea!
This is great! Would love to see how you use it :)
Coorlipa I wanna be like you and have such amazing talent you inspire me alot
Beat video for sizing up your dress form 😊 Thanks 😉
I can’t afford a new dress form and the one I have is tiny and ancient! I can’t want to try this thank you so much!!
Super awesome! I had no idea you could do this
I really need this colour tape, going to buy it :)
I want to see how the dress fits after modifying the dress form.
I was size 36 and then I got weight.. Now I'm a plus size, around 44, I was so sad about my former dress form. Thank you so much.
So this is like fitting someone thats not there, but they are... mind blown :D
Social distanced fitting 👍😉
Yesssss!😊
Does the batting have adhesive on the back? I don't understand how it sticks to the dress form and to itself. The steam wouldn't make batting sticky, would it? I'm not sure I understand why you used steam.
Thank you thank you thank you.. this is very important lesson
This is an amazing tutorial! Do you have any tips for someone with a B-belly/ hanging belly?
Thanks so much i tried this before but i dud not think to use steam.
thats so clever. thank you for this.
Love! I recently did this to make my missies 16 into a true 18W...HOWEVER two things I cannot get to work, the pins, they seem to not hold properly through all the batting...and the tape, it constantly falls off, any suggestions? I do have a full body stocking on the batting...D:)
Thanks. Can the wadding/ padding be reused?
Thank you so much for sharing this tip.
Love this. Super awesome
This is so AWESOME! THANKS.
Do you think the batting can be re-used afterwards? Im wondering if after each person I could take it apart and reuse it for another person without having to get more batting?
She did say that you could reuse it.
Love this! Very helpful
That's so helpful. Thank you!
Love your videosssss. You are amazing♥️
Congratulations on being the first to comment
Can you provide the link for the mannequin you used? I looked online but they mannequins look much thinner on the RD website
Как называется материал с которым вы работали?
This is so helpful!!!!
How would your go about making the stretch cover for the form??
Hey i cant imagine removing the pins from the cotton stuffing, is that a long process afterwards or do you buy pins in bulk for that? i feel like i would prick myself a millions times taking them out.
Is it a specific kind of batting? Or just any polyester based one? I'm wondering how the steaming part works
Well done!
thank you!!
Great job!
Awe... you are sweet to do this.
Can I ask if these paddings can be removed after for a new client?
THIS IS AMAZING
what other materials apart from that batting could you use? I tried getting it but they don't ship to where I live, would vliesline work? or something else?
This is so cool!!!
Hello! Just wanna ask if steaming the batting will affect the original mannequin too much (like gets too fused to the mannequin, damage, etc.)? I haven't worked with it before so I don't really know how it will behave
What if your/your models torso is way longer/shorter than the dressforms torso?
Use a smaller size form that way you can cover the curves. Maybe you should start elongating from the torso up and extend the neck/shoulders. Seems better than working with the hips/butt.
What type of batting is it? This looks to be a great way to pad my othwr self
Can I take these measurements of myself without them being distorted?
This is really helpful
It looks so nice to hug 💕
Would it be an option to get this bootstrap pattern put it over a dressform and then filling the padding where needed? Would that work?
Where do you recommend I buy one for a super low budget? I’m also super small and cant figure out where to get a petite one?
If you have a really low budget (a cheap one for new is about $120 on sale), then you need to watch her video on making a duct tape dummy/double. That just costs you an old t-shirt, a roll or two of duct tape, some stuffing, and a broom handle and a Christmas tree stand if you want to make it stand up (some people like to hang theirs from the ceiling instead).
@@kerim.peardon5551 ah ok thanks so much!!!
ruclips.net/video/voFRL-BSvwY/видео.html This is the link to her video.
Yessss padding that's more than a few layers thick lol
Awesome 👍👍❤❤❤
I wish there was a way to shrink any dress form to fit my tiny size
you can buy a dress form for an older child and pad it up to your size
@@kayladrake4183 child dress forms have very different proportions. I can certainly pad hips and breast areas, but their waists are still a lot wider than mine and I don’t know how to fix that.
The video I didn’t now I needed 😩
Does it have to be polyester, or can you do this with cotton batting?
Cotton won’t melt with heat so I would imagine not
Show us how you take it off!
Sculpting with batting 😀.
Good job!
I posted a similar video.
Love your dressform.