Know Thyself

A few months back, I found this tutorial for a Duct Tape Dummy. (There are more out there, actually, but this one looked the best.) I really, really love little dresses, and as an old college friend recently punned it, I have trouble buying off the rack. Add that to a fondness for fabric, and TA-DA! You have a woman with an urgent need for a dressmaker's form.

Since we've gotten boatloads (seriously, 3 1/2 feet in the last week) of snow, I thought this would be a fun project for the days when we couldn't go out. We did the wrapping phase on Wednesday (we did take a picture of that, but it didn't really turn out to be right for teh internets), and last night Mr. M and I stuffed it. This was trickier than expected, because without a skeleton, stuffed duct tape tends to go round rather than oblong (like a real person). We futzed with fake ribs and a few other options until I decided to put a dress on it, just to see whether the exact shape would really matter (for things like darts).

I couldn't zip up the dress.

We looked at the dummy. We looked at me. I took my shirt off. We looked at the dummy, looked at me. Finally, I grabbed a tape measure.

The dummy's waist was 2 1/2 inches bigger than mine. (I had kind of thought she looked bigger than me, but she also had one hip rounder than the other, and that was totally accurate...)

Oops.

See, the taping process itself takes a really long time, and I'm... um... REALLY, REALLY sort of claustrophopic. So, I was moving around a little, wiggling to make sure I had enough room to breathe. *sigh*

I'm pretty disappointed, but it helps to be able to say, "Of course! Of course, that's what I did! If I'd let that become duct tape spanx, I would have freaked the #%$@ out!" Sometimes, knowing oneself is a comfort.

(She can wear my stretchy dresses, but that's not really going to help me as a seamstress.)