Corinne Leigh: Hey, everyone and welcome to ThreadBanger Projects, your weekly dose of fashion DIY Style.
Rob Czar: Alright! So a couple of years ago in our show, we featured Anda from Etsy. We talked about her Duct Tape Body Form she made.
Anda: You are going to need three things; a large expandable t-shirt, a bunch of duct tape and a buddy.
Rob Czar: Over on the forums, Lori, hechopormi and electrickitty626, all requested a tutorial on how to make a body form.
Corinne Leigh: But instead of going the duct tape route, we are going to use water activated packing tape.
Rob Czar: Check it out!
Corinne Leigh: Okay, so you are not going to be able to do this project alone; you need a friend. You also need a large garbage bag, scissors, water, a sponge, water activated packaging tape and a blow dryer.
Start by opening the bottom of the bag and making two slits for arms. Put it on your topless model covering the neck, shoulders and torso. Tape up so to keep it where you want it. Now cut a long strip of packing tape, wet it with your sponge and wrap it around your model's mid section just below the boob area.
Cut some tape in half-length wise and start shaping the bust like so. Take your time here because you want it to be as accurate of a form as possible. Continue wrapping and shaping the upper body. Use your hands to smooth out the tape as much as you can. It's pretty pliable stuff, make it work for you. And remember to periodically checking with your model to make sure you are not wrapping her too tight. Breathing is good.
Once you have the top done, begin wrapping the lower body. Go down as far as you want. You are done when you have two or three layers of tape on all parts. Use a blow dryer to speed up the drying process and when it's dry enough to keep it's shape, cut the form off the model with scissors. Go slow; no one wants to go to the hospital wearing a paper body form.
Okay, now slowly remove it from the model and take the back together with the few pieces of masking tape. Then cut a long strip of packing tape and add it to the back covering the slit. Do another layer of packing tape up the entire back and if you wet the tape too muck like I did, the form will look all peely like this. Just cover it up with more packing tape, wetting it way less and sticking it on as quickly as possible.
I will use scraps from past projects. It's going to be the insides. The intestines if you will. Fill in the neck in shoulder holes but it's not ready to be stuffed all the way yet. When we return, I am going to show you how to make a stand for your body form. Don't go anywhere.
Rob Czar: Hey what's up ThreadBangers? Alright, so if you don't know yet, we have an awesome promotion going on with two of our favorite companies. You see we have got the ThreadBanger Janome Sewing Machine over here. What really, what's a sewing machine without the thread.
Corinne Leigh: Our good friends over at Coats and Clark Thread Company are hooking you up with 50 spools of Dual Duty XP thread to get you started with your new machine.
Rob Czar: The rules are simple. Buy yourself a ThreadBanger Janome Sewing Machine. Send us the receipt. I don't care how you get it us. Scan it, send it snail mail, and then bam, you are walking away with 50 spools of thread.
Corinne Leigh: For all the details head on over to the ThreadBanger blog and check it out.
Male speaker: You are watching ThreadBanger.
Corinne Leigh: Hey, welcome back. Alright, so to make our body form stand, we are going to use an under appreciative member of society, an old Christmas tree trunk.
I will remember you.
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by.
Don't worry my little friends; I won't let you go to waste. Yeah, so when I adopted this tree last Christmas, it already had most of the branches cut off of it but there is still a lot of purport that needs to be done before a fabric comes anywhere near this thing. So we are here in the Indy Mogul workshop using some tools to get rid of as many branch stubs as we can and to make it a tad shorter. After you get out all the branches off, wrap it in some scrap fabric and yarn.
Cut the bottom of an old plastic bottle, stuff it with some scraps, put it on top of the tree, stuff it with more scraps and tape it on. Next you need a tree stand. I borrowed one from a friend. Hook the tree in the stand and place the form over the tree. Continue to stuff it with more scraps. When the front is nice and stuffed, lay it flat and finish stuffing.
Now take the bottom shut. Use some more packing tape to cover the bottom and close up the arm holes. You now have a body form that is your measurements, won't stretch over time, doesn't move in your scissors when cutting it off, is recyclable and doesn't smell like duct tape. And when the holidays roll back around, just take the form out and lean it against the wall so your friend can use the stand again.
If you don't have an old Christmas tree, just lay in around like I did. Check out this article in Thread's magazine for a great swiveling stand plan and a molded paper my shape body form tutorial.
Rob Czar: And if you don't have many fabric scraps, try using expandable foam like clockwork dragonfly, I suggest. Just make sure you leave enough vent holes.
Corinne Leigh: Well that's it for this week. Thanks for watching and participating. We really appreciate it.
Rob Czar: Make sure you are following us on Twitter, subscribing to us on You Tube and leaving comments below. It's that easy.
Corinne Leigh: See you next time.
Male Speaker: That's how you cut wood.
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