How to - create a dress form without sewing

Hi guys!

Well.. I can't sew.. let's just cut it short and be honest here... I have a really cute sewing machine standing on my desk here.. but all it does is collecting dust.. I tried! I tried really hard to make it work, it just doesn't.. The thread keeps breaking, I get frustrated, the thread disappears.. well just everything that can go wrong goes wrong and at the end I am left with what once was a beautiful layout, but now is pierced with holes that should be filled with thread. 

When we received our monthly scrapbook kit from Erica at yourscrapbookstash.com, there were 2 Maya Road mini spools in it and we had a special assignment to do something fun with them.. since I am not the very best at creating altered project I wanted to have this done before starting on layouts so i thought and searched hard to get an idea of what to do with them.

I always LOVE the dress form people create out of fabric and was instantly surprised that this cute idea popped into my head. Why not make an altered dress form and use the mini spools as a stand for it. Why not make this dress form out of polystyrene?! YES! Well.. we just bought a new tv, so there was MORE THEN ENOUGH polystyrene.. LOL I could have made 100! ;)

So after searching for a dressform silhouette in google images I found a cute one and resized it into 5 inches high and 2.5 inches wide.

After that I put the print on some polystyrene and cut it out with a craft knife. It does make a huge mess, so it is best to do it over some garbage can or something similar. 

Here is how it looks.

After that cut two of the same silhouettes out of your favorite paper. I used the Pink Paislee sweetness paper that was in my kit this month.

Glue these on both sides of the polystyrene dressform and voila. no sewing needed and a great base for your pins! LOL

To cover the polystyrene sides I added some gorgeous May arts lace.

So then all we need is something to have it stand on. A wooden craft stick is a great solution AND it fits perfectly in the wooden spools we will be using for the base.

Now lets concentrate on making it prettttty! Use some of your favorite embellishments to create a nice look for her. 

I used some Websters pages bloomers trim, some more May arts lace to create a bow, a vintage Jenni Bowlin button and some different pins from Maya Road to stuck in the sides of the dress form.

And ofcourse we need to embellish the other side too!

Also a vintage Jenni Bowlin button and some Jillibean Soup twine.

I also added 2 prima flowers to create a little extra dimension on the side. Stuck in some more pins... and called it done.

It was time to concentrate on the base.

I cut out a large circle (3.5 inches to be exactly) and a small circle (1.5 inch). On there I glued my 2 wooden spools and embellished them with the border stickers from the sweetness collection from Pink Paislee. I also added some sequin trim. On top of the wooden spools I glued a little netting from Websters Pages and the base I embellished using another vintage Jenni Bowlin button, some Jillibean Soup twine, a Bo Bunny flower and a Prima flower. I also loved these Prima crystals, so I added 2 of these too.

after that it is just a matter of putting some glue on the wooden craft stick on the bottom and stick it in. I am thinking of making a polystyrene base so it stands more secure, but it works fine without it too.

and here is the result:

It's super easy and FUN! And I  totally like how it looks on my desk. I am sticking in all the pins I have for some easy access and it makes me happy every time I look at it.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Please let me know if you have any comments or questions and if you have made a dressform, please show me!! I would love to see it!

Happy creating!!

xo Danielle