Padding the Stand and Underwear

The first thing to do was to pad out the stand to the size I want to work with for the rest of the poject. I have chosen to make it a similar body shape to mine as then in future if I wish to make anything for myself using the patterns they will not need to be changed too muc, also my manniquin at home is larger so I should hopefully be able to cut some pieces at home also.

Padding the stand before putting a corst on it gave the manniquin a far realer and curvier shape that I thing will be intresting to work on. It is also a bigger size than I've worked on before with a large bust so I shall have to scale the Janet Arnold and Norah Waugh patterns up quite a bit as well as mannipulate them and change them to make them fit a larger body shape.

I hit the costume store this week also as to collect all the different underwear and under structures I will need for the dresses I am to make. I will have access to the costume store throughtout this project also if I need to try different undergarments or need to change the shilohette. It is very important to get the undergarments right, esp. in 19th century clothing, as, depending on what you use, they will form the basic shape of the dress/bodice/skirt and therefore, in most cases, they will create the whole look of a dress and will create the different styles throught the period. I know from past experience to use the actual undergarments you will use under the finale dress when cutting ( in this case it doesn't matter as they won't end up becoming dresses) as, again, changing the undergarments, even if it is of the same style, can dramatically change the shape and fit of the top garment.

The padded up stand below with the corset I used for all the toiles on -