Designing and fitting clothes

5. Cut the lower end of the dowel to length; you may want the doll’s height to measure from the top of the base, or from the lower edge of the base.)
Secure the dowel to the base. Make sure the base is large enough and heavy enough to keep the dress form stable while you use it. We use various wooden toy bits from the hardware store and pieces of wood to fabricate bases. Voila! Michael has a double!

You may want to spray the form with ScotchGuard to protect it; it won’t be washable. Probably would be, if you used polyester stuffing, but that wouldn’t be good to use for pressing.

click for the the patterns

II. To put the form on a stand, you'll need a dowel and a base into which you can secure the dowel.
1. After step 9 in Part I, put some glue on the upper end of the dowel, and push it into place through a small slit in the centre of the base right up to the neck. 2. Stuff the form with cotton batting, small bits at a time, and pack firmly in place, keeping the dowel centered. 3. Finish sewing the base to the form. Put some glue round the centre hole to secure it to the dowel and to stop fraying. (Note: you could work a satin stitch around the centre hole before putting it in place.)