This has to be one of my proudest sewing accomplishments.

 

A friend of mine got caught up in an auction frenzy and purchased Betty without looking under her dress. Imagine her surprise when she discovered that dear Betty had been left to rot with severe water damage and essentially - no butt!

 

 

Initially we stuffed her with batting and wrapped her with duct tape because everyone knows that duct tape fixes anything. I don’t have pics of this fix because she was all sad and lumpy. Duct tape is not forgiving!

 

We decided that this was beyond our expertise and we should see what an upholsterer could do for her. So we abandoned Betty and went out for sushi.

 

Upon seeing Betty in our studio, my daughter decided that she was SCARY! And she was.

 

So the next day, I cruised ebay to see what JR Bauman, Natural Form Dress Forms, Inc were selling for. I could only find one in much better condition that had sold for $400. Although there are places in NY that refurb forms, it just seemed too expensive an endeavor.

 

“Can’t” is not one of my favorite words. “Won’t” is fine (as long as it is coming out of my mouth ;-) So I decided to tackle Betty once again.

 

I removed her duct tape.

This time I over-stuffed her with batting.

Then, I wrapped her with sheetrock patch tape (you know the kind that looks like yellow screen and is slightly sticky?)

Finally, I wrapped her bottom with strips of Warm & Natural cotton batting.

 

She looked like a semi-mummy and the contrast between the top and bottom was going to prove difficult to cover with a standard muslin.

Argh! So I made a pattern directly on the form like the lovely Anna Carlson taught me to do in her draping workshop.

 

I cut the first cover from Hobbs wool batting. Luckily this stuff is forgiving so it helped me test my muslin pattern. I stitched the sheath together then on Betty. Still too much of a top/bottom contrast for a muslin cover.

 

Soooo, I raided my stash and came up with exactly 1 yd of Moda’s Vintage Reserve Washed Wool. I cut and stitched the wool and hand sewed the sides with upholstery thread.

 

I turned and stitched the neckline. Finally I removed the cage and stapled under the form and under the shoulder plates.

 

Wa-la!