Props Making a Draping/Tailoring Mannequin

I like sewing for my dolls, but I am a massive klutz with pins, scissors, and knives. So when my Dollshe Saint arrived after nine months' wait and needed a lot of clothes, I was loathe to start scratching him up. He was also a weird size, so buying an SD sized foam mannequin wouldn't do the job.

I decided to make my own mannequin!

To Do List:

Supplies:

• Plaster cloth/gauze X
  
• Mold release X
  
• Two-part expanding foam X
  
• Some kind of base X (sourcing/hunting!)
• Covering cloth (jersey/knit?) X

To Do:

• Plaster-wrap doll X
  
• Seal/stabilize/prepare mold X
  
• Expanding foam party!
• Sand foam core
• Attach base
• Create cover
• SEW THINGS!

So, I wanted something a bit sturdier than a masking tape mannequin. My original idea was to start with making a tape mannequin, then sew a "cover" based on that, and fill it with various materials (firm polyfill, batting, etc).

This was the start of it:





The paper under the half-mannequin is the "master sheet" of pattern pieces cut from the other half.

At this point, however, I started worrying that the finished mannequin would still be too floppy. I went through a few different ideas, starting with using a shaped wood block wrapped with batting as a "core" for the mannequin, but doubted it would be firm enough for pinning/draping (or, even worse, the wood would prevent pinning).

In frustration, I went on a googling spree, and came across this guide for making your own tailors' mannequin. I'm very familiar with working with plaster tape (back in my long-gone art school days, I used to make life casts of myself and my peers :P), and expanding foam sounds like exactly what I want.

The plaster will be arriving on Friday, so I'm hoping to wrap the doll this weekend. The foam will take a bit longer to arrive, but I'll be documenting the trials and tribulations of making a to-size dressing mannequin for a BJD.

 

Thank you!! A candlestick holder would never have occured to me, and that sounds perfect. I’ll take a look around today.

 

OK! It's Friday, and I...took the other half of the day off because the dentist left my mouth feeling like I got kicked in it.

But that's okay, because Friday is:



MAIL DAY!

I finished the first layer of wrapping, which is the most fiddly one. Here's the process:



You will need:

• A victim (I took his head off for ease of use)
• Plastic wrap
• Masking tape
• Scissors
• Plaster gauze
• Paper towel
• Bowl of warm water

I HIGHLY recommend taking a big piece of plastic wrap and wrapping your work area. That plaster gauze looks tame now, but once you add the water it wiiiiill drip. A lot. The good news is that the plaster cleans up very easily with water, so if you get it on anything, don't panic. Just get a damp paper towel and wipe up when you're done.

Now, if you've made a tape mannequin before, you know this process.



Wrap...



...and wrap some more.

Don't worry about getting it as perfect as you'd like to if you were making a tape mannequin/pattern. This is mostly just to protect the doll from the plaster mess. You can wrap your doll as much or as little as you like (go ahead and make them a mummy if you want!), just be careful that you don't leave any places where water and plaster can leak through.

If it does leak or drip, though, don't worry...damp paper towel is still your friend. Nothing in this stage of the project has the power to ruin your doll!

So, once you have that done, take your plaster gauze roll and start cutting pieces. Cut more than you think you'll need, in a variety of sizes.



You'll thank yourself later, because cutting more with wet hands is a pain in the butt.

Once you have your strips and everything is ready, pick up one strip at a time, and get it really wet in the water bowl. I usually just dunk it through and pull it out, maybe pushing it down a bit if the top floats. If you're feeling sloppy, you can put it on the doll straight out of the bowl (no harm done), but I usually run the strip between my fingers to (lightly!!) squeeze off extra water.

Now, slap it on there.



This stuff is a liiiittle sticky, so if you rub it smooth, it will stay in place without you needing to hold it. For the first layer, try to keep the pieces very flat and free of wrinkles. Any wrinkles you make on the first layer WILL show up on your foam mannequin, so be careful.

Then just start working around the doll, covering a bit at at time:



As the plaster starts to dry, you can go over it with damp fingers to smooth it more, and start getting rid of the holes if you like.



Just keep at it, it goes quicker than you think.



When you've got the whole first layer down, go back and do a second layer. This is going to be a big crunchy/crumbly when dry, so you want to make sure there's a bit of reinforcement, but not so much that it becomes hard to cut off of the doll.

Make sure to go up over the neck a bit, below the hips, and over the shoulders. Think of what a mannequin looks like, with the stumps for the neck and arms!



When you're done, you can flip up the extra plastic wrap like your doll is Marilyn Monroe having trouble with a subway vent. This will help keep the drips from dripping on the dolls feet/the table/whatever.



I then threw mine into his dollstand. It does double duty of keeping him upright and keeping the waist tapered.

Now...just let it dry for a few hours.

 

Plaster cast: Part two!

After letting it dry on the doll for awhile (it should be dry enough that it's not floppy, but still slightly malleable), it's time to cut it off! Use an X-acto blade or scissors, whichever you prefer. I actually used an X-acto blade upside-down, so that I was always cutting up instead of towards the doll, but please be careful if you do this!

The plaster gauze WILL flex while you're doing this, so try not to manhandle it too much or you might lose the shape or cause it to separate.



This is my cut pattern - straight up the back, and then across the arms. This lets me pull it off towards the front of the doll without much fuss at all.



After you've done that, carefully line up the cut edges and use a few pieces of wet plaster bandage to seal up the cut. Be careful to hold the edges together, and try to also be mindful of the inside of the mold. The edges are weak and will want to collapse inward, so keep a hand on the inside to gently push outwards as your work.

Then, BOOM, cast:





And this is where I sealed him back up:



At this point, you're going to want to LEAVE IT for a good 24 hours to make sure it's totally dry. We'll be closing up the arm and neck gaps next time, but for now it's better to let air circulate so it dries fully and doesn't go moldy or something.

Use this time to clean the inevitable plaster dust off your poor doll, then dress them in something nice - their work is done at this point.

 

It’s super easy! I’ve done a lot of these plaster casts before, and plaster gauze is one of my favorite mediums to work with. It’s so forgivng, and has the benefits of a decently long working time and being able to see what you’re doing piece-by-piece, so there’s little danger of a bad mold.

I haven’t done the foam portion before, so that’s a bit intimidating, but I have an idea for how to help with that.

 

Once the base model is dry, you're going to want to close the neck and armholes. We're not going to close the bottom, because that's where the foam will go. At this stage, it's okay to have wrinkles and folds in the bandage:



As long as the holes are totally covered (preferably with one solid strip for this first layer).

Once that dries (and it should be quick) take a loooot of gauze and begin layering over the mannequin. Don't touch the inside, we're just putting a ton of a ton of gauze on the outside. This is to help it keep its shape when we add the expanding foam, because the foam will want to...well, expand, and we don't want the mold to crack or worse.

You'll notice that the mold is going to start getting pretty heavy!



In my case, I used the rest of my gauze roll, and it's still not as reinforced as I'd like it to be. You can check in a couple of ways - one quick way is to flip it inside out.



See all the spots where light shows through? Those are bad, and I want that to not happen. I'll be going out to get another roll of gauze later today (in a pinch, stores like JoAnn's, Michaels', and Hobby Lobby carry it. It's just a few dollars more expensive than ordering off of Amazon, but if you can get one of their ever-present 40-50% off coupons, it's not bad).

Another way to check is to lightly squeeze it (very lightly, don't try to give the poor thing CPR!) to gauge how much "flex" it has. You don't want a lot of flex at all.

Also, at this point, having seen the inside of my mold, I'm going to add "sand paper" to my shopping list. The foam will need a little bit of working.

 

OK, here's the final version of the mold:



On the outside, you can see how it's lost a lot of its definition and become more rounded due to the amount of plaster over it.



And the inside, no light shining through. I can squeeze it without it flexing, so it's good to have the foam poured as soon as I can get access to a well-ventilated workshop (probably this weekend). It'll be a tough wait!

 

So as soon as I went to coat the plaster with mold release, I realized that I'd made a fatal error - I can't spray the inside if it's in one solid piece.

On the bright side, plaster cloth is very workable, so I'm carefully cutting it in half along the sides so it can be coated. I wish I'd done this before the reinforcement step, but...oh well. We've gotta pay for our mistakes!

This won't set me back too much, it's too cold this weekend to do the expanding foam anyway.

 

Successfully sawed in half. My hand feels like a perma-claw.

I think I'm going to use this week to clean up the inside a bit, though.

 

No pictures of this step, but I've got the mold release onto the mold!

 

Ok, I lied...two pictures!



I didn't want to fully seal up the sides of the mold (my hope is that it will make freeing the foam SO much easier and prevent scissor/xacto damage - let's see how badly I regret this decision later on), so I slapped a ton of rubber bands on it. It's really sturdy - the edges were a bit ragged where I had to cut them, so they kind of "locked" together and I can't really budge it with the bands in place.

I'm sincerely hoping that the foam doesn't force the halves apart.

Then I just lobbed it into a box, using bubblewrap and wadded-up paper towel to keep it stable.



Gotta wait until next week to actually pour the foam, since there's not really any place with good ventilation where I'm at, and it's gotten late. Instead, I'm going to try to trim the rough inside edges a bit.

 

Foam pour IS DONE!

Supplies:



Foam (2 part), two measuring cups, one mixing bowl (with a spout for easy pour), a stick to mix them with, and your victim.



I finished this in two pours. The ratio is 1:1, so for the first pour I did 5 tbsp of part A and part B each.



This is what it looked like after first being poured. Kind of a gross brown liquid that wasn't doing much of anything. I started to worry that I'd screwed up somehow, until I noticed that it was starting to flow around on its own...



Started to get lighter and more opaque, and "swell" up.



This was about where the reaction stopped.

Now, like a genius, I figured if 5 tbsp of each almost halfway filled it, I should be able to finish it in a second pour with 6 tbsp of each.



In it goes!



I DONE F*CKED UP.

So, the issue here, if you have more spatial awareness than me, was that the bottom half of the mold contained the neck and shoulders, which means that 5 tbsp actually MORE than half filled it.

And so I watched in horror:







Oh my god.

But before you feel bad for me, this is TOTALLY fine. I can cut off the extra at the top once the foam has set, and I'll need to sand the outside shape smooth anyway. No harm done here, it's really just hilarious.

 

OK, started cleaning the mold and...oh my god.

Freshly pulled out of the box:



Cleaned the sides:



Top and bottom carved:



Now...in spite of all the mold release, the plaster isn't even coming CLOSE to pulling away from the foam. I'm guessing it's because of how porous the plaster is.

So I started breaking the mold down using my hands, a knife, sandpaper, and a dremel:



This is as far as I got before I had to tap out for the day. My hands hurt and I regret everything. Also my fiancee keeps walking by, looking at the carpet and going "oh my god" so I think I need to vacuum.

 

Modge Podge would've probably been a great idea!

As it is, I went back to the tutorial I linked in the first post, because I remembered that she'd run into the same problem. Luckily, the solution was there - baking soda dissolved into water will weaken the plaster enough to let the bandage pull away fairly easily.

It's still a lot of work and I'm not going to finish it today, but here's my day 2 progress for cleaning the mannequin:

 

It's going well! My dremel battery kept dying and I ran out of work gloves, so it was on hold, but I'm looking to resume it tomorrow (been working on sewing in the meantime anyway).

It SHOULD be fine, but I'm a little worried about letting it soak. I also don't have a bowl big enough to fit the whole thing into, and don't want the plaster to end up going down a sink or tub drain. I've been soaking it in a giant mixing bowl half at a time, running and scrubbing water over the parts I can't reach that way. So far, so good. It's really just the shoulders and neck that are causing problems because the foam leaked so heavily there, so I'm going to cut into those pieces with a dremel tomorrow.

 

OK so, don't dremel wet plaster unless you're prepared to deal with the consequences.

I'll be letting things dry out a bit.