Designer Doll: How We Made a Duct Tape Dress Form

     Ever since we had a little designer playdate with our good friends from Designer Daddy, Marley has been begging me to let her design and sew more of her own clothes.  I'm a sucker for creative passions, and what a wonderful addition to our homeschooling activities.  I am a strong believer in encouraging and seizing moments of learning based on interest.  I feel it maximizes the potential to absorb information and to really enjoy learning.  So we set out to make a dress form for Marley.  There were several helpful YouTube videos on how to do this, so we studied a few of them and went for it!

Items used:
 - duct tape (we chose two colors, one solid, and one print to make it look pretty)
 - an old shirt you don't mind cutting up
 - polyester fiber fill
 - scissors
 - a hanger
 - cardboard

We started out by picking up some duct tape and fiber-fill at a craft supply store.  I felt we scored big time when we spotted this Vintage Disney Princess one!

Marley picked out a shirt she didn't mind giving up. And I just started taping.  At first I felt like I made it too loose.  The tape should be forming her body, not her shirt, haha.

About a half hour later, I finally finished the first layer of tape.  Don't be fooled by the smile; she was irritated from having to sit still for that long.

I started on the second layer to make it look less chaotic and prettier.

After that layer was finished, we were both excited by the results so far.

Then I gently cut down the center of her back.  This made me nervous.  I was very careful and I told Marley to let me know if I started poking her.  I cut a third of the way down and then started up from the bottom.  The middle part was the hard part, but it worked out nicely.

We removed the dress form and taped it back up.  I then stuck a hanger inside and started filling it with the fiber-fill.  I filled it pretty tight, so I used an entire bag of the fiber-fill on just her little torso.

The last step was cutting out small circles for the arms and an oval for the bottom of the torso.  Then I covered those pieces with the same duct tape.

It turned out so cute!  I think I will use a small lamp stand to hold it up.  Marley is very excited to start using it asap.