Project Tuesday

I have a lot of projects going on in my life as of late....refinishing and refurbishing the apartment, decorating, paper arts, sewing things, and helping coworkers and friends with their projects.  Tuesdays are going be dedicated to a little blurb or update about what I've accomplished, what I'm still in the stages of working on, or what else I've decided to add to my already unfinishable list of desirables.

Technically, this should have been posted yesterday - Tuesday - but my friend Alexandra and I were having way too much fun talking and getting gooey until the late hours of the night, so instead you'll just get a double post today. :)

Project: Make your own custom dress form.

Last night was the first step in a multi-phase project - in cahoots with Alexandra - to make our own custom fit dress forms.  I've been looking for a dress form in my size for the last few years and have sadly come to the conclusion that it just doesn't exist.  I need one for a couple of the custom sewing projects that I have been anxious to start, but have delayed beginning as the prospect of fitting, draping, and pinning the patterns to myself seem awkwardly impossible if not very uncomfortable and possibly painful. Last year I found a "how to" about making a duck tape dress form, but that never happened as 1) coordination with someone to wrap me in duck tape never quite worked out, and 2) there were still several problems with that technique that kept the form form being truly accurate and useful.

Then, I found a "how to" for making a custom dress form with soft paper insulation from a plaster cast mold, and a friend who was willing to tackle the ambitious project with me. :)

Step 1: Make a plaster cast mold of your body.  

Alexandra graciously - and messily - took on the task of wrapping my spandex and saran wrap clad body in gooey, wet plaster cast gauze last night.  It was entertaining to say the least.  The wrapping and the waiting to dry (about 1 hour total) wasn't so bad, but the cutting me out was another story!  The angles, leverage, maneuvers, and faces we made while trying to cut the plaster, without cutting me or breaking the cast scissors was epic! As was the incredibly ingenious and outright hilarious method I had to come up with simply to walk and move around while bound in a rock hard body cast as we were trying to figure all of this out.

I wish I had more pictures. In fact, I wish I had live video of what went on in my living room last night, but alas, our hands were too gooey, and our minds were too busy, to think of bringing out the camera during the process.  So, here is the one photo you get of my removed (and still somewhat curing) body cast.

(Note: That's three layers of plaster gauze - thick and rock hard! Also, like the rib impression sticking out at the bottom of my chest? That's from taking a big deep breath so I would have room to breath - about an extra inch+ inside - and not suffocate while the plaster hardened.)

Coming soon: Step 2: Filling the mold.