Well I am still here, just haven't been able to put even a semblance of a blog post together. My middle boy came down with Chicken Pox, then unfortunately shared it with his baby brother :( Poor little mite is covered in red spots. Needless to say not a lot of sleep has been had around here! Anyway I think we are over the worst of it now, so I have been able to squeeze in a bit of crafting. I also took advantage of being 'housebound' by sitting cuddled up to my little boys and doing lots of party-planning - pinteresting, researching, blog stalking, bookmarking, budgeting and a lot of other words beginning with 'ing' lol!
As previously mentioned my daughter's party has gone to a whole new level - this year she told me she wanted a 'proper' party, not that she doesn't love my handmade specials, just that she wants it in a hall, not the house so she can invite all her friends!!!
So I resigned myself to hiring a hall, some entertainment and setting out plates of sandwiches. But THEN the wheels starting turning in my head, (a bit rusty to start with), and I thought I could make a 'few' things, such as table decor, my kid's costumes etc. So my handmade party specials are about to be unleashed in the real world! Stay tuned for further posts.
Anyway, I have long admired the pretty fabric dress forms seen in the shops and I have always wanted one - and if I am to make my daughter's dream dress then I really need one to set the dress on whilst tweaking etc but I can't really justify the cost, so I thought if I can't buy one then I will make one!
...a bit lop sided maybe, but I am really pleased with how it turned out!
I took an old cushion, a child's hanger, (one of the square-ish shaped ones that come with outfits in shops), the tube from a wrapping paper roll, tea towel, piece of felt, ribbon, hot glue, newspaper, paint, tin can, wooden chopping board and embellishments to make it pretty.
Here is a run down if you want to Make-It-Yourself...
Cut a hole in your cushion pad on the top seam, remove half of the stuffing, then insert the hanger and push the remainder of the stuffing around the hanger, glue the corners of the cushion pad down to create 'shoulders' and 'hips'...
...tie a piece of ribbon around the 'waist' portion of the hanger, then move the stuffing around until you are happy with the proportions.
Cover and glue the hanging hook with a piece of neutral coloured felt to create a 'neck'...
...then glue on a piece of neutral coloured fabric, (I used an unused tea towel), tucking and gluing to the shape of the cushion...
...I tied another piece of ribbon to cinch in the 'waist' again.
I added a piece of wide lace to the neck join to cover it and some pretty buttons on some thin gold ribbon...
I Took a tube from the inside of a wrapping paper roll and packed it tightly with old newspaper to make it sturdy (you can also place a thinner tube inside for more stability then stuff.) I then painted it and left to dry. I chose gold acrylic as I already had it and I wanted it to look like it was metal...
I then cut a hole in the base of the fabric covered cushion pad and inserted the now dry tube halfway into it. I packed a bit of the stuffing around the tube to hold in place. You can then run a line of glue around where the tube meets the hole if you like.
For the stand I used a tin can glued onto a round wooden chopping board. You may remember I used this for my oldest boy's trail mix station...
...it was covered in twine. I then removed the twine, covered the tin can in red paper and painted the chopping board blue to use in my middle boy's cupcake decorating station...
...and now I have upturned it and painted the chopping board gold, covered the tin can in gold satin fabric and added a few fabric and lace rosettes...
(you can also add a piece of felt or felt pads to the bottom to stop it scratching any surfaces).
...I inserted the painted tube into the tin can and again packed tightly with paper and glued the end of the gold satin fabric into it.
Voilà a Make-It-Yourself dress form, which cost nothing as I recycled / re-purposed and used stuff from my stash!
And yes, it really does work - it is obviously not correctly sized, but for holding a dress or top for display purposes or for freeing up your hands it is perfect! What do you think? Me, I love it!
Hope you are all well!
Back soon
xx
