Sew You Adjustable Dress Form

I have an extreme hourglass figure, so I make a lot of my own clothing since I have trouble finding manufactured clothes that fit properly. I have needed a dress form to test out muslins on, and given my unique measurements (42/29/40), an adjustable dress form seem to be the best bet. This one was good, but still needs considerable adjustments if you are busty like me. My overall bust measurement is 42 inches, but my underbust 34 inches. I wear a 34G bra. The dress form is a B cup at best. As a result, you cannot increase the bust size on this form without also increasing the underbust size. My advice, if you have weird measurements like mine with a large chest, is to adjust the bust on this form so that it equals your underbust measurement, and then pad out the breasts to get to your overall busy measurement. On mine, I put one of my older bras and stuffed it with pairs of pantyhose until I achieved the breast size I needed. This way, I have a more accurate bust on my form than the standard measurements. I have attached photos showing the unpadded form, and the form post-padding. Other than that, I like this form. It allows you to also adjust the torso length, which is not really an issue for me (I'm very short) but I know is concerning with other women who have issues getting waistlines on dresses to fit at their natural waist rather than inadvertently becoming an empire waist. I have small shoulders, and this form does not have adjustments for that, but that is not a deal breaker. As others have said, some of the dials may be hard to turn, but after a couple of turns, the rest of it went smoothly. It is a little bit flimsy, so you will probably want to avoid using heavy fabrics with it, but if you are using cottons or other standard dress fabrics, you should be fine. I think this is a good staple for any other gals who enjoy making their own clothing. You may still need to do some adjustments to get your exact body shape, but that is to be expected with any dress form. Good value!

very nice works great exactly what we wanted

If you want a heavy-duty dress form with infinite adjustment possibilities, this one's not for you. But if you plan to set it to your size and leave it there, and you plan to drape it with ordinary street clothes rather than heavy, 17th-century costumes, it's good value. The body is a lightweight plastic shell with a layer of pinnable padding on the outside, set atop a metal pole with plastic feet. It took only moments to set it up out of the box, and about 10 minutes to adjust it to my proportions. The rings controlling "vertical hold" (shout-out to fellow members of the analog club) do require a firm grip to keep the thing from sliding down, but the gears that adjust the torso's shape are plenty firm, and they stay put. Note that they're easier to adjust if you follow the directions and adjust all of the gears in small increments. Trying to expand, say, the bust (how the mighty have fallen) by turning only one of the multiple wheels will bind the other wheels, making a complete and efficient adjustment difficult. In short, I find the quality appropriate for the price point, as long as it holds up for at least a couple of years.

I was hesitant to buy this dress form as I was concerned that my budget was too little to buy anything of quality. For reference, I have previously owned two Singer dress forms in a similar adjustable style. I have found this form to be sturdy and easier to adjust than those forms. To be fair, both of my previous forms are several years old. I gave them away to family members during a lull in my sewing. My next concern was that it would look weird in my apartment. I don't have a lot of space and after owning two bright blue ones, I didn't want to add an eye sore. This green color sits perfectly in my room (I have a lot of dark wood furniture) and looks like it belongs. My partner loves to hang their jacket on it when they come over! In terms of practicality, beyond a good degree of sturdiness, I have found it really easy to pin fabric or attach loose pins to bare sections of the form. However, The foam pin cushion at the top is not useful for easy access as every time that I try to pull a pin out, the entire foam section lifts along with it. This could be a quick fix but I am not to fussed for right now. Pinning loose pins to the form is working well enough for me. Below is a quick, condensed overview. This is perfect for someone who: - sews occasionally, maybe working on 1-4 projects a month. - sews light-medium weight garments. Everyday garments. Nothing too heavy. - is on a budget but needs a form to help with draping. Pros: - Easy to assemble. - Not an eyesore. - Sturdier than older adjustable forms (in my opinion). Cons: - Faint smell of plastic and chemicals when you open the box (it goes away but is off-putting). - Not the neatest care and construction on the inside. I question it's long term durability after a few years. - A little bit challenging to adjust at first but if you read the instructions and are patient, it gets easier quickly. - Foam cushion = useless Bottom line: if you have excess money to spare, maybe look for a form of better quality. However, this does the job perfectly fine!

I'm a professional seamstress, so I needed something very very adjustable that spins and pins. I used to work in a shop that had a Matilda from the turn of the century. She was a size 12, her height was adjustable but not her size, and you could pin to your heart's content and never worry that you would break her. Admittedly that Matilda had ugly fabric on her, but we used to have fun dressing her up with new slip covers. Ever since I left the shop I have been dreaming about buying a Matilda (or something similar), but they are very expensive and I just can't wait any longer. So I shopped around quite a bit and decided on this one. It's very nearly perfect. She spins, (I would argue that she does not pin), she's lightweight (Matilda was NOT), she's a lovey shade of emerald, and her feet do not scratch my wood floors. Pros: Very adjustable, cranked in she's roughly a size 2-4, cranked out she's close to an 18. Her height is also adjustable. Yesterday I dropped her all the way down, and beaded the bodice on a wedding gown while sitting comfortably in a chair. Then I cranked her all the way up and trimmed a tulle hem while sitting in the same chair. Lightweight, I can easily pick her up and set her on the table so I can work on a complicated hem without having to sit or lay on the floor, which is awesome because I have bad knees and do not get up off the floor quickly or gracefully. She was very affordable, enough so that I'm thinking about buying a large model too. The other ones I've been looking at would have cost me $400 each and I would have needed one in each size to cover my client base. Where would I put all that and how would I PAY for it? Expanding neck, which Matilda did not have at all. She spins and spins easily (which is critical for me as I can run hems through the sewing machine while the weight of the dress is held up and not falling off the sewing table). Cons: She's mostly plastic, which might not hold up long term especially with my workload (yesterday she had 3 different wedding gowns on her, today will be worse). I get that the torso has to be plastic, but I wish the feet and adjustment gears were metal. The skirt marker isn't long enough for wedding gowns and/or full skirts. She's rather flat chested (although I suppose it's easier to add than subtract). She's really isn't pin-able. I'm going to make a couple of padded sleeves to pull down over her, so the gaping holes don't offend my (larger than a size 2) brides and I can pin fabric to her. But how hard would it be to add some padding in the manufacturing process and charge me an extra $10-20 for that? Not too hard I bet. She has dials all over, I think she would be vastly improved if she had fewer dials that operated multiple openings with a readable dimension on the dial. So if I has a customer that measured 38, 25, 39, I could adjust one dial for each dimension and be done. I also wish that there was a way to adjust the height to a specific measurement. I can adjust the height yes, but I can't adjust it to exactly 5'-2". I have to guess at it, then measure and adjust, over and over until it's just so. I wish she had wheels, because I move her around all the time, and I have to be careful not to drag her because the torso pulls off the pole rather easily. I'm thinking about buying a scooter and fixing her base to it. But again, how hard would it be to add the wheels to the manufacturing process? Not too hard I bet.

This mannequin has everything you need to sew clothes of different sizes, it is easily adjustable although it does not hold the adjustment exactly. It is light and functional. Unfortunately for me it does not work because the smaller sizes are not compatible with mine, the mannequin is a little too big to sew clothes of my size. Easily assembled. Good value for money.

Good value for the money. I got the dress form to fit my bust and hips, and since I have not much of a waist I had to pad the waist and boobs because the dress form adjustments don’t perfectly mesh. (If I expand the waist, it impacts the ribcage/underbust area, which then is too large. And the breasts on the form are about an A cup, and if I expand the bust to match my measurements, the underbust is 2” too big.) This isn’t a heavy duty dress form that a pro seamstress is going to repeatedly adjust for every project. This is a lightweight form that a home sewist will adjust and leave. I have adjusted mine and want to also use painter’s tape to mark where my shoulder seams and waistband should sit, which will make it easier for me to drape unsewn fabric to make a sloper. Now that it is harder to get patterns, I will have to make my own or alter ones I already have. So far I have used it to fit several straight skirts and it has worked out really well. Now I am kicking myself for not getting one 30 years ago. There are others on Amazon that cost nearly twice what this one did, and I am thrilled to get this one. I am also happy that I can stick it with pins, which you can’t do with many of them without damaging the underlying form. I got the matching Dritz dress form cover so that I could cover the waist padding and the stuffed bra I put on the form. Now it looks really nice and smooth.

Easy to adjust and holds clothes well. And the subtle green color is easy to see as you are working on any garment on the form.