Hi Kristen! Any luck on the draping yet?

Lisa

Why, yes, we're in Lansing for about another 8 months while my husband finishes his Ph.D. As a matter of fact, he had a conference in Austin this week and it was our original plan to go together…but definitely sometime in the future! The draping was quite easy, provided you can get a ribbed knit that comes a tube form. That way, you've already got a tiny bit of structure as it holds itself up for you. I purchased a length (by eye) as long as my torso and set my stuffed dressform on the coffee table for easy access. The draping technique, for the most part, consisted of two steps. Keeping the fabric smoothly taut against the form, place pins around where side-seams would be, following up over the shoulders and neck to the next side, and leaving the bottom of your form as the open portion. At this point, it should look pretty good, but I'd repeat the step, because the fabric can still sit much tighter against the form. With all the pins in place you won’t be able to remove this from the form very easily, though! Take a contrasting colored marking pencil, and trace along the line they've made, going along both the front and back sides, as they'll be matching up in the next step. Then, remove the pins and fabric, and re-pin along the lines, making sure the back piece’s lines match up with the front. Now you're finally ready to sew! Stretching the fabric slightly as you so, I'd recommend a smaller stitch length. Trim the seams down so that they can separate and lie flat inside against the form, turn inside out, and ‘dress’ your form. Voila! My pictures don’t show it that clearly, but I made somewhat of a cap-sleeve when trimming the arms. It looks good, but the fabric cover didn’t lie as closely as I'd have preferred once finished, so I did anchor those parts with a long pin in each of the “armpit” regions, and that solved the problem rather quickly.

That is a rather lengthy how-to, but trust me, it’s really easy! If that’s confusing at all or you have more questions, feel free to post again! Have fun. ;)