A group of friends and I have been talking about making "duct-tape doubles," using duct tape, or wide house-painter's masking tape, or possibly fabric medical tape (expensive!) --- over plastic garbage bags or thin dry-cleaner's bags. We've been debating using foam-rubber for the stuffing, or teddy-bear stuffing, or spray-in building-insulation foam (this last is not squishable, but it is "carve-able").
I did this a couple of years ago and used duct tape for the form over an old t-shirt. Then it was filled with the spray in insulation foam. The thing I would caution on the insulation foam is not to over fill the form and give it time to expand before you put too much in. I didn't and had the stuff oozing out of the form for almost six monthes or so.
One thing we have discovered is that an old microphone stand is *very* heavy, and might be an ideal base for a dress form, especially for our > large and heavy historic dresses.
For the stand I used a length two by two wood and an old christmas tree stand. That was sturdy and steady enough for my Elizabethans. If you do want a weighted base I'd also check out old floor lamps and umbrella stands. alex _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
