IN various fields activities have to deal with artificial parts that imitate parts of the body or the full figure of a person. In the sewing business, clothing trade, and hairdressing, such “visual aids” are used as demonstration materials, and as tools or devices for ease of work. If you don't need a large number of models or you need to create a thing of specific proportions, you can make a mannequin with your own hands.
A little history
Mannequin - ancient invention person. The first were discovered in Egyptian tombs. similar products, repeating the figure of the ruler, complemented by a set of clothes. Similar imitations were used to practice wrestling techniques. The wooden dummy was widely used to forge armor for warriors. It became popular later as a display item for clothing in trade. Nowadays the use of mannequins is very widespread, and sometimes these " artificial people"not only have complete external similarity, but are also equipped with numerous sensors. They help in studying the consequences of possible injuries, developing security systems, etc.
Areas of use of mannequins and their types
As already indicated, these objects are used in many production and service areas of work. The most widely used and well-known are mannequins for clothing (demonstration and sewing). In any store that sells dresses, blouses, coats, several models are necessarily presented on a plastic model. This way the item looks more impressive and natural, however, such products, as a rule, have average proportions with long legs, and the suit will fit slightly differently on a real person.
A specific, but very popular among specialists is a dummy for boxing or other types of wrestling, which is used for practicing punches with both hands and feet. These objects can be either suspended in the form of a pear containing dense heavy filler, or they can be a humanoid structure fixed to a rigid base using a spring mechanism.
Hairdressers use a mannequin head for hairstyles when training and improving their skills. A realistic volumetric tool allows you to practice all operations - from styling and drying to creating complex compositions using special tools.
What types of clothing mannequins are there?
Classify these objects in terms of their appearance and who they represent. Based on the first criterion, the grouping is as follows:
- Natural.
- Stylized.
- Abstract.
The first ones involve full detailing of the body and face, the use of hair and eyelashes. The latter are performed in a simplified manner, without elaboration of small elements. Wigs are usually replaced with plastic hair made as one piece with the figure. Abstract ones are generally made even from geometric shapes with general preservation of human proportions. Each option can be a female, male or children's mannequin. Specialized figures of pregnant women and individual body elements (heads for hats, legs for displaying trousers) are also produced.
Any of the mannequins, especially naturalistic ones, can be used not only in retail outlets, but also at home as a hanger or an element of interior decor. Similar figures, very similar to living people, are used in cafes or restaurants as decoration.
Types of tailor's mannequins
The main task of these assistants is to ensure ease of use. They are used for fitting, fitting, ironing and steaming. finished goods. For individual tailoring and large productions may be required different kinds figures, both female and male, children's, teenagers.
The sliding mannequin is very convenient. It allows you to adjust the size individual elements within certain limits (chest circumference, height from shoulder to waist line, etc.). This option is good for small production. Enterprises often use non-sliding structures designed for sewing a specific size. There are also special trouser and skirt mannequins.
The structures are hard and soft. The latter are more convenient, as they allow you to work freely with pins, and top part neck is used as a pincushion. There are also differences in the support material. It can be metal, wooden, stationary or mobile. In a word, there is a large choice. Everyone should choose the appropriate option based on their own requirements.
The convenience of individual tailoring mannequins
If you sew to order or for a family, then you know that fitting is constantly required in the process of work, and some stages are best performed directly on the person. However, this is not always possible. One cannot be done on oneself, another takes too much time, and, for example, children generally cannot stand in one place for a long time.
If you specialize in tailoring clothes for women, then you should buy a mannequin. Sliding option will suit best way, if your clients do not differ much in proportions. However, if there is anyone with specific non-standard forms, it is worth either modifying an existing design or making a unique mannequin. The tailor's version should not only follow the contours of the model's body, but also be convenient for work. In the process of trying on a product, you have to use pins and secure the parts with basting thread, so the design must be both strong and soft at the same time.
If you work with a limited number of people, but everyone has absolutely different proportions, it is worth thinking about creating individual mannequins with your own hands. This is relevant for a dressmaker who sews for herself, her family or her closest friends. Buying professional sewing dummies will be quite expensive, but making one yourself is not too difficult and less expensive.
Execution technologies
You can make a mannequin for women, men or children different ways. The options are largely similar, but different materials and devices are used. It also takes different amounts of time to complete. The purpose of the work is the same for all methods - to obtain an exact copy of the model’s body. Two people will have to do the work. One can't do it alone. Two options will be discussed in detail below. In the first case, the sewing mannequin will be made from adhesive tape and a T-shirt using arbitrary filler; in the second option, plaster bandages and polyurethane foam are used.
To perform the fastening you will need: a hanger (hangers), a hook, a cardboard tube or a shovel handle, a rigid base, for example, a cross for a Christmas tree or Bottom part from office chair, then the mannequin will also be convenient to move. When choosing a manufacturing method, focus on the available materials or ease of use from your point of view.
Precautionary measures
Before you start making a mannequin with your own hands, you should seriously prepare yourself or the model for this process. The work may take several hours, and most of the time will have to be spent in a tight-fitting “shell” and in a relatively motionless position, that is, you will not be able to sit or lie down. In addition, the body will be wrapped in adhesive tape or cling film, which means that air access to the skin will be limited, making it difficult to breathe full breasts will also prove problematic, so it is worth working in a cool, ventilated area, and wrapping from the bottom up, so that the lungs, heart and neck are under the “shell” for less time.
If you are going to make a mannequin of a girl or a guy, you can choose any manufacturing method. For children or older people, the option with a T-shirt is better, since plaster bandages take a long time to dry (harden), and their weight is very noticeable on the body, especially if you put them in several layers.
Materials and tools
To make a sewing mannequin, you will need the following:
- Cling film or large plastic bags.
- T-shirt or plaster bandages from the pharmacy.
- Scotch tape (stationery or construction tape).
- Plumb or level for marking.
- Scissors or knife.
- Wire matching the perimeter of the mannequin's bottom.
- Marker.
- Thick cardboard (corrugated) for making the bottom.
- Paraffin (candle) in the version of working with plaster bandages.
- A hanger or hook from a hanger.
- A pipe from a roll of fabric (you can ask at the store) or a handle from a shovel.
- A cross piece, like for a Christmas tree, or the bottom of an office chair.
- Filler (holofiber or polyurethane foam).
- Construction foam gun and foam cleaner.
- Sandpaper and putty to smooth the surface of the foam mannequin.
- Paper and PVA glue.
- Synthetic padding or batting to cover the workpiece and possibly adjust the shape.
- Stretch knitwear as a finishing cover.
As you can see, there is nothing complicated. Most people already have everything at home, if the woman sews, and the man has to deal with renovations in the apartment. The option with a T-shirt and filling is easier to complete. It will require less materials and time, but a mannequin made of foam in a plaster mold will be stronger and of better quality. Any of the methods will be cheaper than buying a ready-made mannequin, and most importantly, it will be an ideal copy of a specific person.
DIY clothing mannequin made from adhesive tape
So let's start with more simple option, made using a regular cotton T-shirt. Use the old unnecessary one, as the fabric will remain “walled up”, acting as a base.
As for the length, it can be up to the hips, but it is better to take a longer one so that it can be connected with a pin between the legs. This will secure the fabric to the body. It will also prevent it from moving upward during operation.
To make clothing mannequins using the first method, you need to complete the following steps:
Now you can attach the structure to the crosspiece and start using it.
Manufacturing technology from polyurethane foam
If you decide to make a mannequin with your own hands using the second method, the stages of work are largely similar, so the recommendations here will be briefer. So, you need to do this as follows:
You have learned how to make a mannequin in two ways. Choose the option you like. Both methods are easy. You can supplement any of them and improve the technology at your discretion.
Fighting partner
The simplest boxing dummy can be easily built at your dacha. To do this, it is enough to firmly fix the base with a spring from a car shock absorber in the ground. Place a stick in it (part of the handle from a shovel), and on top build a semblance of a human torso from a bag or something similar, filled, for example, with sawdust. This option will not only be easy to manufacture, but also convenient to use.
Children's hairstyle mannequin: play and learning
Every little princess loves to play with dolls and braid their hair. Nowadays there are a lot of opportunities for children's creativity: you can buy books or download instructions for performing various hairstyles. This activity is useful not only from an aesthetic point of view. It helps to develop fine motor skills, which has a beneficial effect on the development of the child. To prevent mom’s hair or expensive dolls from suffering during this game, you can make a special mannequin for hairstyles. In this case, the girl will be able to weave her beauties as many times as she wants, and if the manual is damaged, it is easy to make it again. Even the process of making a mannequin can be easily turned into a fun and entertaining process.
How to make a head model for girls to do braids
The simplest option is to make a flat profile with yarn hair. To do this you will need the following:
- Thick cardboard or plastic.
- Pencil.
- Stationery knife or scissors.
- Awl.
- Threads.
The mannequin head for hairstyles is done like this:
- Draw the profile of the head on the cardboard base. If you are afraid of making a mistake with the proportions and getting a completely unrealistic image, print the finished picture in the scale you need and trace the outline of the cut out profile on your base.
- Cut out the resulting part.
- Along the line of the head where the hair will be, use an awl to make holes at a short distance from the edge. You can do them in one row or several. Choose at your own discretion.
- Take the yarn and cut it into threads of the same length that suits you. Keep in mind that the threads will be folded in half, so you will have to prepare pieces of double size. To do this step quickly, take a rectangular piece of cardboard and wrap yarn around it, then cut along one side. The preparations are completed.
- Take a bunch of threads and thread them through the first hole. To secure them, make a knot or thread them immediately folded in half, and then thread one end through the loop formed on the other edge.
- Fill all holes using the same method.
- If you want, you can decorate the resulting head with eyes, lips, and give the model “makeup.”
All is ready. The girl will calmly do braiding. For greater realism, the blank can be easily made from cardboard, painted in a color to match the skin tone. Or even make embossed details from papier-mâché.
So, you have learned how to easily and quickly make a mannequin with your own hands. Now you can easily do fittings in the absence of a model, keep a girl busy with braiding, or make a wrestling partner for a boy.
Many girls who prefer not to buy ready-made clothes, but to sew them to order, sooner or later realize the need for a mannequin. Of course, the easiest way is to buy a ready-made mannequin, but this is not always possible, and sometimes the prices are very steep. How then? That's right, make it yourself! Here is a short photo report on making a mannequin with your own hands at home
I’ll explain for those who don’t understand:
I personally need a mannequin so as not to waste time on trips to try on my dressmaker. The fact is that I don’t buy ready-made clothes for myself and sew everything individually to order. And this is very burdensome in terms of time, considering the degree of my employment. Therefore, by agreement with my dressmaker, we decided that I would provide her with an exact copy of myself, and she would not pull me out of work for fittings and adjustments.
But in addition to its direct purpose, a mannequin can also be beautiful object interior and even be a convenient device, for example, in the reception area or personal wardrobe.
A mannequin is indispensable in cases where you need to iron something that is impossible to iron on an ironing board, but on a mannequin with the help of a steamer this can be done once or twice.
You can, of course, go and buy a ready-made mannequin, but it has standard sizes and does not match the features of your figure. Yes, and it costs 6,500-7,000 rubles, and ours cost about 1,000 rubles. The savings are noticeable.
I convinced my Sun of the necessity and usefulness of this device and we began to create (Roden nervously somersaults in his grave...)
The main goal of my work will be to create an exact copy of my figure. To do this, we first need to take control measures by which we will be guided in the future.
For my work I needed a diligent, creative and cheerful assistant. He's a photographer. This is my Sun.
At the very beginning, we take cling film and carefully, without squeezing the body, wrap it around the body, securing the edges with pieces of tape. You can use large plastic garbage bags by cutting them. What you wrap the figure with is not so important; use whatever is available.
Now you need to cover the entire body covered with film with tape. Glue carefully, without squeezing or pulling away the natural convexities of the figure. It is best to take small pieces of tape from 5 to 20 cm and sequentially stick them on the body with a slight overlap. The more textured the convexity, the smaller pieces need to take it.
In the end we have this look. I took colored tape so that it could be seen better in the photo.
Now that preparatory stage The work is finished, let's proceed to the most interesting and very important event - we will make a plaster cast of the figure. Medical plaster bandages, which are sold in pharmacies, are best suited for this. We begin to apply the soaked bandages from the back to the front, under the chest, across the shoulders, cross to cross.
This is necessary so that wet plaster bandages do not slide down the smooth surface of the tape under their own weight.
Gradually cover the entire surface of the body with bandages to the waist, and then to the hips.
In order for our cast to have the necessary hardness and hold the desired shape well, we applied three layers of plaster bandages. It would be possible to do more, but it is very difficult to physically endure.
Now that the entire torso is packed in a plaster capsule, the most unpleasant and dreary part comes - you need to wait for the plaster to set and harden. At this moment, I, shackled by a plaster shell, understand my defenselessness, and my assistant Suns constantly cackles comparing me to an Egyptian mummy. All I can do is stick my tongue out at him, because I can’t laugh or even take a deep breath. You also need to stand maintaining your natural posture. This, I tell you, is not to crack seeds. But both are in a good mood and Solnts supports me with a glass of strong and hot tea.
Try drinking hot tea through a straw in your spare time. An unforgettable experience.
The plaster cocoon has frozen. Now you need to remove it from the body. But first you need to apply control marks on the sides and shoulders; they will be needed to align the parts during assembly. We also draw a horizontal line below the hips and vertical lines on the sides. We will need these lines later. We use a laser level for this. If someone doesn't have laser level, then I can explain how to do it in another way.
We cut the plaster cast along the sides and shoulders. The suns cut sharp knife. This must be done carefully, slowly, carefully so as not to injure the body or accidentally cut out the appendix.
The two halves of the plaster cast are easily separated from the tape and this is what we got as a result.
I cover the inner surface of the cast with a thin layer of putty to smooth out the resulting unevenness.
After drying, I cover the entire surface inside the cast with melted paraffin from a regular candle. It took two candles.
Now you need to fill the inside polyurethane foam. To prevent the foam from tightly gripping the plaster mold, we used a paraffin layer.
We fill both halves of the molds with foam gradually layer by layer, waiting time for each layer of foam to harden.
We put a hanger in the back half. We did this for the strength of the structure, because the main load will fall on the mannequin’s shoulders. And the hook will be useful for convenience during further work.
We apply last layer foam onto both halves of the mold and put everything together, aligning the two parts along the control marks and fastening the resulting mummy with tape. Now it takes time for the foam to solidify inside. I had urgent work and I conscientiously forgot about my mummy for almost a week.
It was very interesting to look at the results of our joint work and my torment. Before the opening began, Solnts sawed off the excess from the bottom along the horizontal mark with an ordinary hacksaw.
Removed the tape. Both halves were well separated from the foamed insides and my cloned figure was revealed to our eyes.
In some places there is paraffin left and we carefully scrape it off with a knife. Using the same laser level, we apply horizontal markings of the shoulders-chest-waist-hips and the middle of the front and back and the side line. This is how we check ourselves to see if there are any distortions. We don't have them.
My daughter is now studying at the academy to become a technologist. clothing production and they were given a task - to create a mini-collection (each student has their own theme) of three things and demonstrate it on large-scale mannequins (scale 1: 2.5). But.... the mannequins were not given out. Well, they don’t have that many mannequins in their household. There is one plasticine mold from which it was necessary to remove a double from papier-mâché. But... there is only one for everyone, papier-mâché in the amount of 3 pieces for each face takes a long time.... in general... time was already running out, but my daughter and I were not able to grab the plasticine woman. She still walks around from hand to hand. And then I have a long-standing fixed idea - to get a large-scale mannequin! I matured for a long time, I kept going over the topics of our craftswomen and collecting experience in creating mannequins. And then the stars aligned and there was nowhere else to retreat. Mom scratched the back of her head and got down to business. It turned out that creating mini-mannequins is such a fun activity! First I'll show you what happened, and then I'll post it detailed process creations in pictures. For those who want to repeat “Gastello’s feat” I will post “patterns” of mini-mannequins in two scales (1:2 and 1:2.5).
So, meet the “striped swimsuit group”!
The very first question (and I was simply stupefied at this point :-))) - where to get patterns on which to then cut the isolon? Once I tried to build them simply by taking a table standard sizes, but... it didn’t look at all like the “figure” of a mannequin :-(. And here is a brilliant idea from Lybcha-1965! We need to remove the skin from the mannequin! I have a standard mannequin of size 46 (Russian) on my farm. My daughter and I just needed a size 46 in scale! Can you imagine what a coincidence!?
The sheet was quickly cut and the skin was removed from the large mannequin using the pinning method :-). I removed the tape only from half of the mannequin, because... I have it with different shoulders (apparently it was modeled from a living person :-))), and then I simply mirrored it so that the mannequins turned out symmetrical. She took the tracing paper off the sheet. That is, I transferred the contours of the “pattern” drawn in pencil on the sheet onto tracing paper. For what? I just thought that when I start cutting the sheet into A4 pieces, the fabric might just move, but tracing paper is paper, it won’t move and there will be practically no distortion. Now we need to somehow scan all this stuff ;-). I had no desire to draw A4 size “squares” on tracing paper, because... You can miss the size and again this threatens to distort the patterns in the end. Then I took sheets of printer paper and glued them together with paper tape, joint to joint, into a strip of 4 sheets (for me, half the front and half the back each fit on 4 A4 sheets!). I carefully traced the contours of the patterns on the tracing paper with a soft pencil, turned the tracing paper “face down” onto a strip of glued sheets and traced the contours of the patterns again from the “wrong side” of the tracing paper. The drawing was imprinted on the sheets as if from a carbon copy. I drew it again more boldly, now on paper, put all the alignment marks and cut the tape. That's it, now you can scan without problems :-). I scanned it and reduced it to the required scale in FS. Then I printed it out and connected it according to the marks. The result was a set of mannequin patterns on a scale of 1:2.5.
Patterns on a scale of 1:2.5
Before
Back
Rack
patterns in scale 1:2
Bottom
Before 1
Before 2
Silhouette 1 left
Silhouette 1 right
Silhouette 2 left
Silhouette 2 right
Backrest 1
Back 2
Rack
To print the pattern in original size In the printer settings, when printing, you need to check the “Page Fill” box and print without borders.
I started having problems with isolon from the very beginning, that is, at the stage of gluing the interlining. Well, it didn’t want to stick. Then, after joining the seams, the chest somehow pressed inward and... well, it’s not really a coat at all. I was saddened and sat down to think about how to enlarge my breasts. Thoughts flowed in the direction of pressed synthetic padding (as I do on quilted cups) and then... urrrrrrr... the thought came: “Why not make the whole mannequin according to the principle of quilted cups?!” After all, iron-pressed and quilted stytepon is a very shape-resistant and at the same time plastic material! No sooner said than done! And the work began to boil. Each mannequin used 1.5 m of padding polyester 1.5 m wide. I pressed it into 6 layers using a wet iron. The result was a sheet 0.5m x 0.75m. From it I cut out pattern parts without allowances. You need to trace the patterns very accurately!
Then we take a piece of calico or chintz and glue it with knitted sheepskin. Like this
We cut out pattern parts from calico with allowances around the perimeter of 1 cm
We put padding polyester parts on them, stitch them around the perimeter at a distance of 1mm from the edge (of padding polyester) and machine stitch the entire part. The distance between stitching lines should not exceed 3mm!
All the details were quilted. Then we cut off all the allowances flush with the contours of the padding polyester. We also cut out the dart solution. We put marks for connecting the parts (they are on the patterns) and hand-sew all the parts end to end. First darts, and then “relief” seams. We iron them a little, using an iron to form the smooth lines of the future mannequin (especially the chest). I ironed the chest on a small foam ball ;-). And we close the seams with strips of adhesive interlining. I did this not to hide the threads of the seams, but so that when the mannequin is arched around the circumference of the hips and waist, the seams do not become an angle, but lie in a smooth arc.
So I assemble the back separately and the front separately. And I also sew it seam to seam with handles to the “tie” - the silhouette. This is what happens.
Then, again, I manually connect the front and back along the sides and shoulders. For convenience, I first connected the halves of the mannequin with an elastic band along the waist line. Then, after connecting, I removed the elastic band.
In the photo you can see that I made one mannequin with pieces of handles (like on my big mannequin), and the other two without handles at all. The patterns in the links are given with handles, but if someone wants to make them without them, they can simply be cut off along the armhole lines that are on the patterns. The silhouette pattern will also need to be slightly corrected, removing the bulges of the arms.
After connecting the halves of the mannequin, we insert the tie between the central parts wooden stick- future stand. My sticks have a diameter of 1.2 mm. I bought it at a construction supermarket (across the road from the house ;-)). Stand height for scale 1:2.5 is 64cm. For scale 1:2 - 80cm.
The stick was inserted, placed at the bottom of the mannequin in the middle and secured with several stitches on both sides.
You don’t have to fix the stick in the neck area, because there is a very small distance and it is clamped quite tightly between the ties.
Now we fill our mannequins with ordinary medical cotton wool. You can use small scraps of fabric or padding polyester. But cotton wool turned out to be the most convenient for me. Each mannequin took 300g of cotton wool (3 packs of 100g each).
At first I thought not to stuff the mannequin, but then I tried it and it turned out that it holds its shape better, the “chest” doesn’t sink in and the shoulders on the back become round and beautiful :-). Here is a photo to compare the stuffed mannequin and the unstuffed one. A! The not yet stuffed mannequin strives to take the shape of a circle from below. But our body is not round, but oval in cross section! :-)) In general, when the mannequin was stuffed with cotton wool, it became very similar to a large real mannequin
After stuffing, we close the mannequin with the bottom, which is also made of compressed and quilted padding polyester. Attention! At the same time, DO NOT remove the wand from the mannequin, because then it will no longer be possible to push it through the bottom of the mannequin due to the very small hole in the bottom (we simply won’t be able to move the ties apart in such a small hole)! And we can only put a mannequin on a stand with a stand already attached from below.
Now you need to cover the mannequins with supplex (bi-elastic material from which swimsuits are usually made). We cut it out in 2 layers according to the silhouette screed pattern with an allowance of 1 cm around the perimeter and 3 cm at the bottom.
We sew along the sides and shoulders along the markings with an elastic stitch (I use a back-and-forth stitch, but you can also stitch it with a narrow zig zag), leaving an unsewn hole in the neck for the stand. We cut the allowances to a width of 2.5-3mm (no need to make any gaps), turn them inside out, stretch them onto the mannequin and... we understand that adjustments are needed. We remove and make changes. It turns out that for a good fit you need to round off all the sharp corners in the area of the shoulders and arms. And on a mannequin with handles, also reduce these same handles by 1 cm on each side. (bottom photo on the right)
We sew along new lines, cut off the allowances, turn them inside out and again stretch them onto the mannequin. Hooray! Everything worked out!
Now you need to pull the supplex onto a thread from the bottom of the mannequin.
And this is what happened:
The mannequins are currently put on auxiliary sticks.
Now let's move on to the stands and stands.
The stand was made from planks purchased at the same construction supermarket. We bought 2 planks measuring 50 x 20 cm and my husband sawed them for me into 4 pieces 20 x 20 cm with a thickness of 1.8 cm. I used a drill to make a hole in the middle with a diameter slightly smaller than the diameter of the sticks. I sharpened the sticks on one side with a knife like a pencil. I coated them with Moment-gel glue and coated the holes inside with this glue as well. And she hammered the sticks into the holes. It turned out very strong and reliable. On the bottom, on the base of the stands, I glued 4 squares of leather in the corners so that the stands would not slide on the table.
When the glue on the stands had dried, I smeared the pieces of sticks on the sides with it, put the mannequins on the stands, pushing the auxiliary sticks up (thus taking them out of the mannequins) and turned the mannequins 90 degrees around their axis so that the glue strips came into contact with the details of the silhouette screed. That's it, the mannequins are firmly glued to the stands!
Now a little reasoning. I think such a mannequin can be made life-size, because... It turns out to be quite light, but holds its shape well. Pins can easily be stuck into it and you can even iron on it.
You can use a pattern of adhesive as a template. A silhouette screed can be made using the margo_kt method, but with minor amendments.
What exactly are the amendments? When I started tracing the shadow of the mannequin, and then took a control measurement of the bottom, it turned out that the error in width was about 3.5 cm. That is, the width of the shadow turned out to be 3.5 cm larger than the real silhouette.
First, I did everything as indicated by margo_kt. But there were errors not only in the width but also in the height of the silhouette. Then I decided to outline the shadow in 3 stages. First, I placed the lamp at waist level and outlined a piece of shadow. Then she placed the lamp at chest level and again traced a piece of shadow, trying to connect the lines with those obtained at waist level. Then she again moved the lamp, only now to the level of the hips, and again outlined the shadow, connecting with the lines obtained in the waist area. The main thing is to install the lamp exactly in the middle of the mannequin each time ( vertical axis). After all these manipulations, a fairly accurate outline in height was obtained. And in terms of width, I simply removed the extra centimeters in accordance with the bottom measurement, under the ruler. That is, it was narrowed by 1.75 cm on each side.
A mannequin is the real dream of every needlewoman. With its help, you can create unique things, because it ensures a perfect fit of clothes to your figure. In the store, the price of a mannequin starts from 3,000 rubles, which is significantly affordable. That is why many girls wonder - how to make a mannequin with your own hands? The technique for making the product is simple, interesting and requires minimal investment.
DIY sewing mannequin
You will need:
- Metallized tape;
- Scissors;
- Cylinders with construction foam;
- Long T-shirt or stretch film.
Instructions for performing the mannequin:
- Put a long unnecessary T-shirt on your friend or wrap it around your torso stretch film. Cut the tape into 15 cm long pieces. Apply the tape to the chest from bottom to top to ensure the correct chest height.
- Glue the strips in 2-3 layers in different directions so that there are no empty areas left. When you finish gluing the torso, make a straight cut line on the back and remove the blank. Cut off the excess tape and seal the cut.
- Cut the neck straight. From a piece of cardboard, cut a circle with the diameter of the neck. Glue the circle to the neck with construction tape. If you plan to hang your mannequin, you can make a hole in the circle for a hanger.
- Cover the holes from your hands with cardboard circles, securing them with tape. Place the piece on a flat surface covered with newspaper and trace around the bottom. Using the blank, cut out a piece from cardboard - this will be the bottom of the mannequin.
- Fill the blank with construction foam. To save money, you can alternate between foam and crumpled newspapers. Before stuffing the mannequin with newspapers, you should wait until the foam dries. Once you have completely stuffed the mannequin, attach the bottom using tape.
- The mannequin can be left as is, or you can sew a cover from synthetic knitwear. To be able to insert pins without effort, cover the product with thin padding polyester and put on a cover.
Your sewing mannequin is ready! It can be used for its intended purpose, to create beautiful outfits for yourself and clients.
DIY mannequin: master class
You will need:
- Food or construction film;
- Construction and metallized tape;
- Scissors;
- Plaster bandages;
- Polyurethane foam;
- Toilet paper;
- Water;
- Glue;
- Batting;
- Biflex;
- Mannequin stand.
Instructions for making a mannequin with your own hands:
- In the process of creating a mannequin, you will need help, because you will not wrap yourself with tape and film on your own.
- Put on your underwear. The film is wrapped in several layers over the linen, maintaining a loose fit. The body is wrapped from mid-thigh to chin and arm to elbow. When the film is completely applied, wrap it in two layers of metallic tape. Make the third layer from construction tape. Glue the layers of tape without tightening the body. It is recommended to fix it in small pieces, carefully following the curves of the body.
- When you form a dummy, you need to measure the same distance to the bottom line of the workpiece. Draw a line. Using a plumb line, mark the line of the middle of the back. Draw several transverse lines.
- Cut the workpiece in the middle of the back and carefully remove. Glue the cut area with several layers of tape. Remove the inner film without damaging the integrity of the workpiece. From cardboard, cut out the bottom of the mannequin.
- When the workpiece is completely ready, you can begin plastering. The plastering process must be carried out from the bottom up, and spacers must be placed inside the mannequin in the area of the arms, hips and chest. Plastering must be carried out carefully so as not to spoil the workpiece.
- Wait for the plaster to dry completely. Now you can fill the foam from the inside. Before filling the mannequin with foam, spray the inside with water using a spray bottle. To reduce foam consumption, add polystyrene foam. While the foam is still wet, stick the stand into the mannequin and leave it to dry for a day. After hardening, carefully trim the foam around the edge.
- Now comes the most crucial moment - you need to remove the plaster. Construction knife cut the plaster along the side and shoulder lines. Afterwards, cut the tape. Pull out the foam blank and adjust it using papier-mâché.
- To create papier-mâché, use toilet paper And hot water. 10 minutes after steaming, squeeze out the water and knead the paper. Add PVA glue to the mixture and dilute to the desired consistency. Paste the finished papier-mâché onto a mannequin, forming a figure. Adjustments to the mannequin can take up to a week, so please be patient.
- The papier-mâché mold turns out to be quite hard, so the soft layer of the mannequin is made from batting or padding polyester. Sew a cover from batting that follows the shape of the mannequin. It is better to sew parts of the batting end to end so that the seams are not visible.
- To give your mannequin an aesthetic look, sew a top cover from supplex. Place both covers on the mannequin. Ready! Now you can sew beautiful and fashionable outfits for yourself and your friends.
A DIY mannequin is a great way to save money, but not time. To create it, you will spend more than one hour, so be patient. Using a mannequin you can sew beautiful dresses, sweaters and skirts. You will be able to dress yourself without any effort, because the standard of your figure will always be at hand.