Any beginning seamstress sooner or later feels a huge need for a tailor's dummy. With its help, the process of cutting products is greatly simplified. However, such a device is quite expensive, so not everyone who wants it can buy it. There is a way out of this situation - try to make mannequins with your own hands. What is needed for this and how to cope with the task, we will tell in our article.
Preparatory stage
Before starting work, decide on the size of the mannequin. If most of the items made belong to the children's category, then it is better to dwell on small options. To create such a texture of the human body, the participation of a child of the appropriate age will be necessary.
Do-it-yourself standard mannequins are easier to do, but it also requires the participation of one assistant. The height of the structure depends on the growth of the seamstress. On sale there are mainly devices of average sizes, with a height of 146 to 179 centimeters.
Plaster mannequin: materials for manufacturing
Before you think about how to make a mannequin with your own hands, you need to decide for what purposes a human model is created. If he is needed for tailoring clothes for an individual client, then such a device should repeat all the subtleties and features of his figure. In such cases, it is better to give preference to gypsum products.
If the design should only figuratively repeat the bends of the human body, you can make it from ordinary adhesive tape and food foil. To imagine how one and the other process look like, we will consider both ways of making mannequins with our own hands.
Making the layout of a specific person: the necessary materials
It will take a lot of strength and patience to create the exact layout of a person’s figure, but the result will justify all these sacrifices. During the work, the following materials and devices will be used:
- cling film roll;
- Scotch;
- gypsum mixture;
- polyurethane foam (about 2 cylinders);
- sandpaper;
- paraffin;
- putty;
- medical bandages;
- coat hanger;
- synthetic winterizer or batting.
To apply the lines of the chest, waist and hips to the layout, the laser level is useful. But if such a device is not available, you can make a tailor's dummy without it.
Create the basis of the dummy
If you have acquired all the necessary materials and you have enough free time, then you can get to work. To begin with, the assistant (whose layout will be created) should change into clothes that you will not mind stain.
Further work is performed in the following sequence:
- The human body must be carefully covered with cling film. It is very important not to squeeze the figure and not to tighten the polyethylene too much. If the film was not at hand, you can wrap the figure in large packets, cut along.
- Fix the edges of the film on the figure with adhesive tape.
- Further, the whole body covered with roll material must be pasted with tape. This must be done as carefully as possible so that the material does not squeeze all the natural convexities of the figure. It is more convenient to use small tapes of adhesive tape with a length of not more than 20 cm. They need to be glued to the body with a small overlap. Small and textured bulges are better to paste over with 5 cm pieces.
At this stage, the preparatory stage for creating the tailor's dummy is over. Here you can relax a bit and start kneading the gypsum mixture. The following actions are performed:
- Medical plaster bandages or cut gauze should be moistened in the prepared solution and begin to impose strips on the figure. First of all, ribbons are applied, starting from the back, over the shoulder and under the chest.
- In the area of the blades, we arrange the material crosswise. This is necessary so that the wet bandages do not slip on a slippery base.
- Gradually, gypsum pads cover the entire surface of the body to the hips. In order for the mannequin shape to be strong enough, at least three layers of bandage must be applied. A larger number will physically withstand very difficult.
On this, the manufacture of a mold for creating mannequins with your own hands can be considered finished.
It remains only to wait until the gypsum solution hardens. At this time, it is worth making as few movements as possible so that the frame does not deform.
How to make a mannequin at home: filling the form
After the solution has hardened sufficiently, the resulting form must be removed from the person. Before that, control strips should be drawn on the surface of the gypsum figure , which will serve as a guide when folding the two parts.
Starting from the axillary region, a plaster cast is cut on both sides. This is done with a sharp knife so as not to injure the person inside.
At this stage, it is no longer difficult to guess how to make a mannequin with your own hands, because the foam filling mold is already ready. Next, do the following:
- To smooth out all the irregularities of the plaster cast, it is necessary to coat its inner surface with putty.
- After the mixture has solidified, a layer of paraffin is applied on top. For these purposes, a pair of ordinary candles is suitable.
- Now the empty space of the first and second halves is filled with polyurethane foam. This is best done in layers. So the composition hardens much faster.
- In one of the forms you need to put a hanger-shoulders. She will give the layout extra strength.
- At the end, one of the halves is applied to the last layer of foam, after which both parts are tightly pressed against each other. For reliability, it is better to fasten them tightly with tape and leave until the foam dries completely.
After the composition has hardened, the adhesive tape is cut off, and the gypsum molds can easily be removed from the finished mold.
Finishing work
So we figured out how to make a mannequin of a person who will accurately reflect all the features of his figure. However, it will be difficult to use the hardened foam form as a working material, so now we need to proceed to the final processing.
If paraffin remains on the walls of the layout, it must be removed. This is best done with a sharp knife.
Since it is difficult to create a smooth surface with mounting foam, the figure must be sanded with fine-grained emery paper. At the same time, you can not press hard. It is enough to remove the large hillocks.
Next, the surface of the figure must be treated with gypsum putty. For full smoothness of the dummy, two thin layers are sufficient. This allows you to smooth small pits and protect the foam from mechanical damage.
Now you need to make a mannequin for sewing. No matter how beautiful the white and smooth layout looks, it is rather inconvenient in work, since it is impossible to stick needles into it. To eliminate this drawback, you need to use a thin synthetic winterizer or batting. They need to paste over the entire surface of the figure.
The dummy is now ready for use. The cost of materials for its manufacture is approximately 1000 rubles, which is 5 times less than the price of the finished layout.
Papier-mâché dummy materials
If you are not ready to spend a lot of time using the previous method, then you can make simpler mannequins with your own hands. Of course, in this case it will not be possible to convey the smallest bends of a person’s figure, but working with such an option is quite possible.
For work you will need:
- 4 skeins of adhesive tape;
- unnecessary t-shirt;
- scissors;
- synthetic winterizer or foam rubber.
In the process of work, an assistant will also be required, since it will be very difficult to independently carry out the work.
Layout manufacturing process
The beginning of creating a layout in this variant is similar to the previous method. Over the old T-shirt, you should also wrap the cling film and fix it with tape. Layer by layer, you must carefully cover the entire surface of the film and use up a full 4 skeins of adhesive tape. In the chest area, short sections of tape should be used.
When the cocoon of tape is fully formed, you need to mark the middle of the back. It is noted on the cervical vertebrae. For this purpose, it is more convenient to use a plumb line. Also, you immediately need to put the transverse lines, which will indicate how to properly glue the base for the mannequin.
On the drawn line you need to cut the resulting shape. The bottom edge of the layout is aligned with scissors. The resulting form should stand on the table on its own. The layout is ready. Now you can start filling and finishing it.
Final stages
Before making a papier-mâché dummy, we considered the option of filling with foam. In this case, it should not be used, since the sheath of adhesive tape is inferior in strength to gypsum. This is a lightweight option, and for its filling it is better to use foam rubber or sintepon filler.
Consider the following steps:
- The section on the back must be glued. After this, the layout needs to be covered again with several layers of adhesive tape.
- The bottom of the figure should be installed on thick cardboard and circle around the contour. This will turn out the bottom of the dummy, which can be glued after filling it.
- Inside the shell, carefully fill the selected filler. Now the holes in the arms, neck and hips can be sealed.
Papier-mâché technique is used to smooth the surface of the figure. To do this, roll paper should be moistened with water, and when it gets wet, replace the water with PVA glue. In this condition, the paper must be placed on a mannequin. When all the polyethylene is coated, the product is allowed to dry for 48 hours.
Making a stand for a mannequin
When the person’s layout is ready, it's time to think about how to make a mannequin stand. To begin with, wooden crossbars need to be made a cross. To do this, cut a hole in each bar at half the thickness of the second bar. This will allow you to evenly fasten 2 elements.
Next, a horizontal stick is attached to them, on which the height of the layout will depend. It can be screwed to the cruciform base using self-tapping screws. Here can be used and metal or wooden corners. The type of fastener is not very important, the main thing is that the stand is stable enough.
The layout itself is put on the free edge of the stick. In the case of polyurethane foam, you do not need to make special holes, and in cardboard it is necessary to foresee one.
Conclusion
We examined two methods for manufacturing mannequins. One is simpler, the other is laborious, but allows you to create a durable layout. In any case, both options can significantly reduce the cost of acquiring a layout of the human body.
The indisputable advantage of independent production of a form for cutting clothes is that you can repeat the curves of the figure of any person with maximum accuracy. The dimensions of the wooden mannequin (which can be purchased at the store) are standard, which forces them to sew clothes with a large number of fittings. For this reason, it is sometimes more advisable to make a mannequin yourself.