meet agnes

I have been getting a lot of use out of my sewing machine. Ever since that dress I made for Jenn’s wedding, I have been inspired to sew and complete more projects. The list grows. Right now I have a top secret project that I am trying to complete (more details to come), my mother in law put in a request for some pretty dresses by auntie jean for my two nieces, there’s a fun and swanky top that I saw somewhere that I’d like to make for myself. And a suit. I want to make a suit for my husband. Ideally it would be completed in time for his cousin Carolyn’s wedding this July, but I am not going to set myself up for failure by trying to meet deadlines. If it happens by then, grand. If not, he’ll always need a nice suit. I’m sure we’ll have plenty more weddings to attend in our near future.

So this weekend, I convinced my friend Janet to come and help me make a dressform. A dressform (for those of you not in the know) is a dressmaker’s dummy. A mannequin of sorts that tailors use to, … um, well, tailor clothing with. A dressform (I didn’t know we needed to be PC with tailoring terminology) is helpful particularly for making my own clothes since I can’t swivel around and pin and mark myself for those oh-so-difficult places to fit (i.e., the boobs. I can’t begin to tell you what a trial it was to get the boobs right. And I’m still not 100% thrilled with the boobs. Then again… okay, I won’t get into it.) I’ve wanted to buy a dressform but that’s like hundreds of dollars and I’ve heard mixed reviews about the ones that are out there in the market and it’s not personalized to the shape of my body, etc. etc. After doing some research, I found that I could make my own!

Janet helped tape and shape me. Then I hauled her off to JoAnn’s to buy the stuffing and stuffed my twin. I am calling her agnes.

I probably should have bought more than 4 bags of polyfill, agnes’s butt is a little squishy. And upon further reflection, I have decided to make a stand and cover agnes with some muslin so she doesn’t look quite so naked. But here she is folks, my twin agnes:

And a few shots from the making of:

I kind of look like I am wearing some sort of an Amazon armor or something don’t I? And there’s my shy friend Janet.