Making the "Uniquely You" dress form actually "Uniquely Me"

For Christmas of 2012, Eamon got me a "Uniquely You" dress form. I was really excited about it, but the name turned out to be quite the misnomer, mostly because it had these ginormous, 1940s bullet bra pointy BEWBS:

Yes, they really were that bizarre. It was a bit of a shock taking it out of the packaging.

The idea behind this type of dress form, unlike the hard plastic ones, is that it's made of a squishable foam. One benefit of the material is that it allows you to pin directly into it, for the purposes of draping a garment from scratch or making alterations. It is also supposed to be moldable to one's exact measurements and shape so that you truly have a double of your own body. It comes with a cover that you put on and rip seams and pin as necessary, then take it off, make the needed adjustments, and squish it down over the form. I haven't tried to do that part yet, but I have read a lot about how people have made other, much more dramatic changes to the form.

Several costume bloggers (like this one: American Duchess) have removed their dress form's boobs all together, and deployed a neat trick so that it has boobs that act like boobs. You put beans, rice or lentils into the feet of stockings and hang them around the neck of the dress form, to create a naturally shaped and naturally behaving bust that can be manipulated in stays and corsets. Pretty cool!

As I mentioned, Eamon gave me this dress form in December of 2012. Those of you who remember dates really, really well will note that in January of 2013, I got pregnant! So, as my body become dramatically less similar to the dress form over the next few months, the whole project came to a standstill. My body still has not fully returned to its pre-pregnancy shape (which I'm mostly okay with, for the record), so this poor gal has just kind of stood vigil in my sewing room, waiting to be put to use. I don't think I ever even named her!

Now that I have a ton of sewing projects in the pipeline that are specific to my Abigail Adams persona and therefore limited to a set range of years, it's really time to get this dress form into shape - literally! I want to be able to use her for draping and fitting for mid-18th century to early 19th, and I honestly don't do that much other sewing that would require a more modern shape, so I am going to mold her to my measurements in 18th century stays.

I started the process last night, shaving down the bust so that it is almost completely flat. Perhaps this wasn't the best task to undertake while bawling my eyes out watching the "Call the Midwife" Holiday Special, but I think I did okay. It just looks a little hacked up because I used a serrated knife.

Next will be to confirm my measurements in 18th century stays. A sewing friend of mine is actually working on a "moulage" for me (a fabric sheath, also made to my exact measurements in stays) that I'll be able to use as the starting point for 18th century gown bodices. So with the dress form and the moulage, I'll have everything I need to be able to make gowns precisely to my shape, check the fit of garments, and use historical sewing techniques for things like setting the sleeves and pleating the backs of the gowns.

I hope to have made more progress on the dress form in a day or two!