My Own Custom Made Dress Form

So, after struggling for quite a while with fitting patterns on myself, I decided to do some research on doing a custom made dress form.  Of course there are companies out there who do this for you but it's very expensive.  I thought I'd try to do it on my own.

I ordered a bunch of plaster gauze strips from a medical supply store, it's the same stuff they use to cast a broken bone.  Then I talked Steve into plastering my body one Saturday afternoon.  It took about 3 hours, and I was freezing because my clothes underneath the plaster got wet.  Plus, I'd never had to stay still for that long.  It was an interesting experience.

After the plaster had completely dried, we cut it off me, going up the front and back.  Then I painted this "ease release agent" inside all over the mold.  It's supposed to make it so that the foam you fill it with doesn't stick to the mold.  Then I put both pieces back together with duck tape and cloth strips.  If you do this yourself, use something a lot stronger.

Here it is upside down.  The guy I bought the foam from said it'd be best to close off the neck and arms and pour from the bottom.

So this is it.  Rigid liquid polyurethane foam.  I looked everywhere for this stuff and finally found a place here in Chicago that sold it.  It comes in two parts, the blue bottles and yellow bottles.  You pour and mix the two for 20 seconds, then this stuff instantly starts foaming like lava.  

Well....I made quite a mess because the neck and arm holes weren't quite sealed.  Oops.

Here I am trying to get the mold off the cured foam now.  The ease release agent didn't do too much good because it was HARD!  My fingers were so sore afterwards.

Here I am sawing with a knife trying to get this stupid plaster off.  There was foam and plaster dust flying around so I tied a piece of my fabric over my face.  Cute huh?!

Here is the dress form finally...and the mess I made from tearing off the plaster cast.

These pictures don't do the mess justice.  It was bad!

I tried to sand down the foam to make it smooth, but this foam stuff is tough!  So, that's why it sort of looks bumpy in places.

I bought some double knit in a cream color to cover the foam with.  I just whip stitched it together along both sides.  I think it looks pretty dang good and I'm so glad it's over with!  A part of me would like to try it again because there are so many things I know now to do better, but maybe not for a while!  If you want to try this yourself, let me know and I'll give you all the tips.