Pin-Up Girl

For the most part, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about my own silhouette. Reality came as a shock. This was a few years ago when, one fun Friday night, Bill helped me make a packing tape dress form.

Notice the artfully draped tape measures and my careful choice of the angle at which this photo was taken? There's no way I'm posting a side view on the internet.

I made that dress form, complete with the little Frankenstein dowels installed as anchor aids, as a tool for constructing garments using looping techniques. And it worked, sort of. But I realized quickly that it would be much easier to work on a form I could pin into.

Brigitte, my garage sale dress form, is easier to work with. But she's also a couple sizes too small and has none of my unique figure flaws. So I ran into a little roadblock on the freeform looping vest project I began in February.

Two sizes is a lot of difference. Plus, despite her age, Brigitte's boobs still perk, her belly is flat, and if she had arms they wouldn't be as heavy as mine are now.

I thought I could get away with the size difference in a vest project. And, in the the words of Tim Gunn, I'm "making it work." But I had to take a time-out one afternoon and slap together a quick craft-felt model.

After pinning the looping to the felt, it was much easier to try it on to check the fit.

The front overlap is significantly different when the garment is on me than when it's on Brigitte. I've decided to work the underlap in the darker blue to show off more open, lacy motifs on the overlap to their best advantage. We'll see how this works out.

In the meantime, despite her flaws I'm happy to be working with my pin-up girl. But I'd sure like to take a class that would help me remodel Brigitte to match my shape. And since it doesn't hurt to be specific in your prayers, I'd like to take that class from the fabulous Daryl Lancaster at the fabulous Sievers School of Fiber Arts. If that gets scheduled for 2012, you can expect to see me in that class. Maybe you'll join me there.

I promise not to take any side view pictures if you'll do the same.