Yesterday two knitting friends came at my invitation for a surprise craft project. I had actually invited four friends but only two were brave enough. I told them the project was related to, but did not involve knitting. I am not really good at keeping secrets like this so when Nicole asked what we were going to do, I blurted it out. Sarah, on the other hand, was curious, maybe even wary, but trusting enough to show up with the specified materials: a t-shirt that could be sacrificed for the cause and a bag of polyester fiberfill. Hmmmm. That must have kept her up all night.
It turns out that 3 of us were the perfect number to make our individual body doubles. The instructions are found in Wendy Bernard's Custom Knits and this is one of the reasons I bought the book. Having a body double to try on garments is genius and when you can do it with duct tape, an old t-shirt, and some fiberfill, it is pretty cheap genius at that! We chose Nicole as our first guinea pig and she was certainly a good sport as Sarah and I read the directions step by step, pondering once in a while to figure out the next step. I think it took Sarah and me much longer to wrap Nicole than when Nicole was wrapping Sarah and me. We attributed that to the learning curve and that Nicole sews a lot.
After wrapping a body, you cut down the back and then tape it back together. Nicole and Sarah are figuring that out in this photo.
We have a few tips to share:
- The plastic wrap proved unnecessary. If the t-shirt has a reasonable neckline, we just taped around that.
- Get plenty of tape. It takes a lot.
- Get plenty of fiberfill. One large bag is not enough for one dummy and none of us are considered large.
- Do not attempt if you are overly modest.
- I thought being wrapped in duct tape would be claustrophobic but it wasn't. It didn't bother me at all and I'm the kind of person who doesn't like crowded elevators.
- Allow 45 min to an hour per person.
I don't look very happy in the photo, but it wasn't bad until I saw the finished product. Yikes! Am I that chubby??????????? (I asked my husband and he is smart enough to give the right answer.) Nicole looks a little wild-eyed. I'm glad I didn't know she had scissors in her hand.
The final stage was cutting a cardboad bottom, stuffing with fiberfill, and inserting a hanger.
Nicole looks happy with her finished Nicole #2.
I am just drawing a blank trying to think of labels for this post! It isn't knitting but it was fun.
3 comments:
This was, by far, the most fun I've ever had with duct tape!
After stuffing mine up all the way, I have one last suggestion - do some diagonal taping before you tape horizontally across the chest (and even then, make sure you're just going with the natural shape, not taping with too much tension.) We didn't figure that out until torso #2, and I think I might have to pad out the bust of mine, or anything I make on it is going to be a little obscene. :)
Thanks for including me in this project! There aren't many things that beat being crafty with fun friends!
Oops, somehow I didn't put my name on that comment. It's me, Crazy-Eyes Nicole!
I love it! That's the reason why I have this book on my wish list, and one of these days I think my friends and I need to make alternate us's too. It would be infinitly useful!
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