The Great British Sewing Bee - My recent passion

Have you all heard about this wonderful BBC2 production called  " The Great British Sewing Bee"

The first episode aired this week and although not available in the US I was able to find it on YouTube.  

I am completely smitten.

The show is a competition between "amateur" seamstress's, of various backgrounds, ages, and sexes who are given reasonable projects and tasks to complete within a tight but again reasonable time frame.

The contestants although nervous seem to have a normalcy about them we rarely see in American reality show. 

 Sew Refreshing

The judges watch their process and educate as they dissect and judge each task.  In this first episode they speak about balance, pattern matching, zippers, facings, bias, seam tension, darts and fabric choice. In between watching cautiously panicked stitchers problem solve under pressure and press each seam we see illustrations of patterns how they work and where the challenges will lie in execution.  Cleverly done and quite engaging.

Beautifully photographed and an inspiring work environment make it a joy to watch as well. 

&

I find the challenges make we want to challenge myself this week in a similar fashion.  

A-line skirt anyone?

Dress Form Evaluation - Customizing Uniquely You

For personal customization and value the Uniquely You form is a great choice.  

$215.00 at Sew True

At $215 I think its a great value, as you can have a working form within a day if you use the supplied cover.

It provides you with all of the important criteria

1. easy customization

2. proper seaming 

3. a firm pinnable surface

4. A stand - although this is its weakest element.

This form is made from a poly urethane foam which compresses to fit your sloper/cover

From Diary of a Renaissance Seamstress

I prefer to make my own cover rather then using the one they supply primarily because of the large neck and arm hole openings.  Dairy of a Renaissance Seamstress has a cover tutorial here

Be sure that when doing your fitting you elimate all ease and wrinkles.  Double check your measurements with the forms after covering as the cover can stretch out due to the inside pressure.  Try some garments on it that you know fit you well to check the balance as well.

I do recommend a center front seam on your cover.  If you do this you will not require the string which is meant to help maintain definition between your breasts.  Additionally I have seen many examples of people taking knifes to their forms...but have never found this necessary.  The cover is extremely difficult to get on and requires two people...one to compress the foam in sections..while the other struggles with getting it into position.  Its a little like a game of twister, but it can be done.  Once the form has been under compression for a while it becomes much easier to do.

They are available as a dress form or they also have a pant form for $15700.  

If you want to treat yourself though I can highly recommend purchasing both and morphing them into this...

morphed form $375.00

 I cut the skirt portion off slightly above the waistline so that the pant form would provide the center front to waist measurement I required. The above form was originally used for The Wonder Woman Replica Project.  Now that it is no longer needed for that...the pattern work being completed I was able to adapt it for my shape. 

Rather shocking I realize to see her like this but it does show how the pipe fitting is placed within the foam.

This is the Lynda Carter body double.  It did require adding bust pads from my Fabulous fit form to achieve  her fuller bust.  As you can see she had a narrow torso.

The pattern I drafted for this dressform was initially taken from my Fabulous Fit form and then graded down to fit.

If you opt for the standard dress form look for a princess seamed dress pattern using a woven fabric with preferably a jewel neckline for your custom sloper.

I realize this is rather difficult to see in the black, but this is my body using the same form as the Wonder Woman Project.  As mentioned previously I would prefer using a red edged linen to make the cover as it is strong, densely woven and has a slick finish to it, which makes it much easier to dress and undress.  

The arm is made using a sleeve sloper fitted to you.  By placing a circle of fabric at both the wrist and arm hole opening you can then stuff it firmly.  The triangle of fabric at the shoulder is basically a shoulder pad shape which allows you to pin it securely to your form.  This removable arm makes dressing your form much easier.

Fashion Patterns by Connie has a pattern for a arm you can purchase here for this little project.

 For more in this series see the links below:

Purpose & Cost

Assets of the Proffessional/Industrial form

Personal Fit

Duct Tape Form

I believe this brings us to the conclusion of the Dress form evaluation series...now back to our regulary scheduled programing...

Dress Form Evaluation - Duct Tape forms

Today we begin the discussion about customizing dress forms.  The elements that I find essential from professional forms which can/need to be applied to our customized forms are:

A firm pinnable surface

Correct seaming

A solid stand 

Duct tape form by Williams Studio 2

One of the traditional ways to achieve customization is to add batting to an existing form.  This requires that the form is smaller then you in circumference, but only by an inch or two.

You can see another example of this here

 When you pad a form out dramatically it becomes to soft.  By to soft I mean that your garment can actually distort the form underneath and you cannot stick a pin straight into the form and expect it to hold.

The only exception to this is cup size.  If your purchased form replicates you exactly except for the bust size, by all means put one of your old bras on the form, fill out the cups and dance a jig.  You are good to go:)

For most of us though it will be more complicated then that.  

The Duct Tape form is certainly an excellent way to achieve a custom form, but to really have a working form you need to follow thru on the process.  What do I mean by that?

Courtesy of Threads Magazine

 The above form does not have seams, a pinnable surface or a stand.

A duct tape form requires a good friend $100 dollars and a few hours to complete the mold which will become your working form.   Many people stop at this stage but a hollow form which hangs from the ceiling is certainly not ideal or very useful.  

Completed Duct Tape Form by Lynne Williams

Now this is more like it, don't you think.

When making your form take it a few steps further by filling the form with expandable foam (in stages, this is very important, because if you don't it will bloat out your mold distorting the final shape).  

Once the duct tape mold is filled  remove the the duct tape, add a thin layer of batting and then create a cover and a stand for it. the cover is what supplies you with your correct seaming and it looks nice.  This generally brings the supply list up to $150-250.   It takes 2-3 days to fill the mold with foam and another day to make a pattern and sew up a cover.  In addition you will want to make at least one arm for it.

A note about these forms....do not include your arms(which I see pictures of allover the Internet), replicate the look of a professional form because the arms are not on them for good reasons!!  Solid arms on a form will limit what you can actually put on the form.  Remember professional forms collapse at the shoulders (see previous post) to find out why. 

Custom Dress Form by Lynne Williams

 In Ateliers and costume departments they use a easily made detachable arm like the one you see here.

Dress Form Stand by Williams Studio 2

In addition you will want to add a sturdy base and there are lots of suggestions out there for this. PVC, an iv pole, plumbers pipe will all do the trick. The base above came from a plant stand which I fitted with plumbers pipe and then spray painted black.  You can set them into the form by drilling a 8" deep hole into the bottom of your form and setting it in place with more expandable foam.  It's not adjustable but could be made so if you required that.

I hope you are finding this series useful.  

Please leave comments and ask questions.

Next time we will discuss customizing the Uniquely You Form