Dressmaking mannequin part the second - return of the Dummy (sorry)

There were various criteria to be considered when assembling the dummy. one of the most important ones was height above the ground. Sue is working on two delicate ballgowns so it was really important both to keep them off what is essentially very much a working farm kitchen floor!

In the words of Bertie Wooster 'quail high' seemed a good starting point. I also needed to make the dummy a good working height for trying out designs in situ.

For her first costume Sue was making a trompe l'oeil sarafan, which involved refashioning a silk shift dress and a beaded and embroidered cotton skirt. To make sure that she would get the effect she wanted, she needed to be able to pin the skirt pieces directly onto the dress.

 
 

She also was making a feathered collar so needed to be able to see how it would lie on the shoulders and fit around the neck.

For the Body Bits aka Vital Statistics

With the list of measurements to hand, I made a flexible guide equivalent to each dimension.

For each measurement I marked the length on a piece of electrical cable. By then making the cable form a circle and taping its free end to the measured mark I had a circle/oval whose circumference was that dimension. I then placed this pattern onto some 18mm(³/₄”)  laminated pine board, carefully ensuring a symmetrical shape and traced around the perimeter with a pencil, transferring the outline onto the board. 

The piece was then cut out from the board using a jigsaw and the dimension of the cut piece checked with a dressmaker’s tape. I found that I tended to achieve a slightly oversized value and this I modified by removing the surplus with a belt sander. This also helped to attain a smoother shape to the profile of the cut piece.

Each piece needed a clearance hole made in it to fit onto the pole. The position of the hole was central to the left and right edges but I decided to offset the front to rear position of the hole in the bust/chest part by about 30mm (1¹/₄”) this to give some shape to the mannequin more representative of the human form.

The ‘shoulders’ of the mannequin were made from two pieces of planed pallet wood glued together. The top piece was narrower than the lower and its edge was shaped with a plane and belt sander to form a well-radiused cross-section.. I started with pallet wood pieces 470mm x 90mm (18¹/₄” x 31/2”) for the lower and 470mm x 80mm (18¹/₄” x 3¹/₈”)for the upper. 

All of these forms had to be attached to the vertical pole so a wooden collar was glued to each one.

The collars were cut from 26mm (1”) thick pallet wood 70mm (2⁷/₈”) wide. The pieces were cut to 70mm long and a clearance hole for the pole (57mm diameter) was cut through the centre of each one. I used a fine-toothed pull saw to cut two opposite corners of each collar so as to furnish a flat face into which a clearance hole for the fixing screws could be drilled. A further couple of screw holes were drilled through the block on the upper face of the collar to provide temporary assembly screw holes. I tried it first with one flat face but decided to add two fixing screw points in the final version. 

The collars were attached to the oval forms and the shoulder form with PVA wood glue and secured in place whilst drying by two screws in the holes drilled in the block’s upper face. 

These screws were removed once the glue had set. The forms could then be assembled onto the pole. I found it essential to write on each form the character's name and the statistic to which the form related.

 

The forms for a specific character were then assembled onto the pole. The ‘shoulders’ were screwed near the top of the pole and the bust/chest, waist and hip forms were then oriented, positioned and screwed in place relative to them.

Test run

From the first time of use there has been no doubt that Sue has found the mannequin to be of paramount importance with the project to hand. The only drawback is that sometimes, especially at night, the dressed mannequin can take on a surprisingly human appearance and frequently demands a second look to determine there is no-one there...

Now if you'd like to, sit back and watch the film:

 

If you've enjoyed this article and found it useful please feel free to share it or to comment and/or make observations. All the very best and until next time,

Andy 

© Andy Colley 2015

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Pallet wood dressmaking and display dummy Part 1 The base and pole

Over the Christmas holidays, Sue was asked to make costumes for a new small independent film company started by her niece Emily. As the budget was tight and as Sue wanted to create a film wardrobe using the the best possible fabrics and accessories, she decided to use as much upcycled and refashioned textile and clothing as possible.

The actors and actresses are all in Scotland and as we are here in France, there was no possibility for fittings nor for making tee shirt and duct tape type DIY mannequins. So Sue had an idea that we could make dummies for all of the characters out of pallet wood. These would be constructed in a similar style to the wire dress forms which just cover the basic measurements viz shoulders, bust/chest, waist and hips. Once Emily had given us all the vital statistics we then went about sourcing a central pole on which to thread them. We are fortunate to have friends who own an organic shop, not only for the discarded vegetables for our poultry but also for pallets, shipping cases and from time to time old product display stands. A few weeks ago the latter came our way in the form of a 2 metre long wooden pole

Design

The most difficult part of the design, once we had gathered all the materials together, was in working out the distances between the key measurements but we eventually pieced together bits from several websites (included below). It was also really interesting to find how many variables there are in ‘standard’ sizes of clothing and how much better off we were tailoring the costumes to exact measurements rather than looking at labels. Below shows the diagram we worked from to ‘standardise’ our basic dummy measurements. As we were given the measurements individually and the ones we found on the web used different units we had quite a mix! However, as Sue was incorporating some vintage clothing into her designs, we did end up finding it useful to have both SI and imperial units.

Another useful measurement tip we picked up surfing around the net was that the bust to high shoulder measurement and the centre bust to waist line are variable according to dress size. Thus in the UK, for example, the bust to high shoulder length at size 8 is fixed at 10½" with an extra ¼" for each size above. So depending on the sizes you are dealing with and the units you are using - it is worth working this out before starting to assemble the dummy. Unless of course you want to measure everyone individually, which in the case of petite or very tall subjects you may need to do.

The great advantages of this type of dummy are:

• it can be stored away in a very small space once not in use,

• it is at a great height for working on and trying out designs.

• you can create any size for both men, woman and children on the same mannequin.
• it can even be made in stiff card if you have no wood available to make   the form,

• by stretching a tee shirt over the form and/or padding it out with fabric you can make a great display stand for yard sales, craft fairs or for photographing items for sale on etsy or ebay

• if you are only going to use it once, you can recycle the materials into  something else, even if it is just firewood and a curtain pole!

If you are wanting a dummy with more contour to it rather than just key measurements then you can make a padded fabric jacket to go over it or even just simply, a stretched tee shirt would work. This dummy could also be practical and decorative for someone selling home-made or vintage clothing and/or jewellery. As a display stand, it can be easily taken down and packed into the back of a car, in fact it will be going with us on an Upcycling Exhibition in April.

The key sizes of each actor were reproduced as ‘ovals’ in wood, which could then be positioned on the central pole at the appropriate positions.

 

Fabrication

The wooden pole had a diameter of 55mm, which was fortunate as I had a hole saw capable of cutting a hole 57mm in diameter. One end was slightly larger (61mm) for 200mm of the pole’s length, this was to be where the base was attached.

The Base

This was made from a pallet ‘stretcher’ 60mm(2³/₈”)x 45mm(1³/₄”) cut in half resulting in a length of 525mm (20⁵/₈”) for each one. I wanted the base to have ‘feet’ so that the entire length of the wood wasn’t touching the floor. I therefore used the circular saw to cut away 10mm from the bottom of each length leaving the last 64mm(2¹/₂") at each end uncut.

To create the ‘X’ shape for the base the two pieces were assembled using a halving joint at the mid-point of each piece. 

I used a 125mm (5”) long piece of M15 threaded rod to join the two pieces together. It was my intention to use the threaded rod to attach the base to the pole. Although the pitch of the thread on the rod was quite fine I believed it would be good enough to anchor itself into the wooden pole.

I needed to ‘help’ the rod make its path into the drilled hole in the pole and I did this using a tip my father showed me many years ago. By cutting one or more slots in the one end of the rod one effectively creates a crude tap, the slots make a cutting edge for forming the thread. Dad showed me this as a means of cleaning the threaded holes for spark plugs in a motorcycle cylinder head – he used an old spark plug as the ‘tap’.

Prior to drilling the through hole in the base, a 25mm diameter wood bit was used to make the rebate for the nut.

I used a chisel to cut this to the hexagonal shape for the nut.

This was to ensure there was a clearance between the nut and the floor.

Attaching the Pole

Once the hole had been drilled, I made the thread in the pole (pictured above). I then used a router to create a recess in the pole’s bottom face as clearance for the M15 nut and washer. This done, the pole was screwed to the base. 

Part Two also includes a film of the whole process.

If you've enjoyed this article and found it useful please feel free to share it or to comment and/or make observations.
All the very best and until next time,

Andy 

© Andy Colley 2015

RETURN TO GREEN LEVER CONTENTS PAGE FOR MORE ARTICLES  

Some Useful Links for Sizing

In-House Patterns - Fitting Bust, Waist & Hip Position

Craft Yarn Council - Standard Sizing Men, Women and Children
Craft Yarn Council - Women's Size Charts
Long Tall Sally - International Measurements for Tall Women