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Getting a duct-tape sewing dummy to stay in place on a pole is harder than one would think.
Imagine me sitting and staring at the post that would be the dummy’s home for over an hour, mulling through how to get it to stay in place, all while petting Mari like I was some sort of science-fiction evil scientist hard at work on my master plan.
While that image has time to settle, perhaps I should back up and fill the reader in on the pieces I needed in order to get the dummy on a pole.
I salvaged a piece of one-inch thick PVC pipe that I had laying around after another project. It was thick enough that, in its original five-foot length, it would whip back and forth a little bit when held by one end and agitated.
I picked up a ten-pound box of stuffing while I was out. The stuffing in question is not the delicious Christmas dinner type, but rather the rough, fluffy substance found inside most children’s dolls and pet toys.
For those playing along at home, a Christmas tree stand will be needed for the final step, one that has pins that will go almost all the way in to the center. I picked up a five-pin model designed for six-foot trees from Big Lots.
Even though I will not get around to talking about this step until next week, I figured I would mention the need so that readers have a chance to snag a stand before the holidays ended.
I also made a trip to a home improvement store and bought a can of insulating spray foam and six-foot wooden beam from the banister section of the store. The beam was round and smooth, ready to be cut into banister rails, and almost an inch and a half thick.
I specify these details because it took me almost 30 minutes to find what I was looking for, and I always try to save my readers time when I can.
Being five-foot-six, I knew the six-foot length would be tall enough to create an accurate “me”. For those taller than six-foot, worry not. Having room for the head is not what matters on this sewing dummy only the shoulder line.
I placed the post on the floor and stood with it along my spine in my bare feet. I had my husband mark where my shoulders were on the wooden beam using a permanent marker.
I then had my husband measure the width of my shoulders on the piece of PVC, which we then marked and cut down to about half an inch shorter than the actual width of my shoulders.
I braced the wooden pole with my legs, leaning it awkwardly across the living room, and found the center point on the piece of PVC. I held that center point in place along the shoulder line on the wood, and began wrapping both pieces with excess yarn from my stash.
I wrapped and I wrapped, criss-crossing the yarn in every which way around the PVC and the wood, continuing until the PVC did not want to move when I pushed on it.
Then, I turned to the duct tape again. I began by taping around the pole for a couple of inches, and then turned the tape this way and that, criss-crossing it over the yarn and taping everything securely in place.
Once that was done, I turned to the yarn again and repeated my earlier efforts, wrapping the yarn as if the first yarn layer and the duct tape were not present.
Then, I settled the dummy over the shoulders I had made for it. I had a small amount of difficulty getting the hips over the shoulder post, so I leaned the dummy to one side and wiggled my own replicated hips past the width of my shoulders.
I then flipped the the dummy upside down, and turned to my big box of stuffing.
Oddly, the first thing I did was to take the bag of stuffing out of the box, and use my pair of not-for-cloth scissors to cut out cardboard circles the size of my arms and my neck. It took several tries to get these circles down to the right size.
I remind readers that it is easier to cut away excess cardboard than to add more on, so cut big and trim down as needed.
I fit the arm circles into the arms of the dummy, bringing them even to where the duct tape stopped on the sleeves. I tucked the shirt sleeves inside the dummy and taped the cardboard circles into place securely.
For the neckline, I found the center of the cardboard and cut a large x in the middle of the circle. I pushed these pieces in, and worked with it until I could slide it down over the pole of the dummy.
For the sake of a neat finish, I made sure the edges of the cut were facing down when I fit the neckline into position.
Add some more duct tape, and the neckline was complete. Time to start stuffing the dummy. I flipped the dummy upside-down and grabbed my stuffing from its bag.
Handful by handful, I shoved stuffing into the upside-down dummy. It feels rather odd to reach into a hollow version of yourself, stuffing fluff around the bar that represents your shoulders. It is even odder with your cat laying on your chair, watching you stuff yourself.
I paid special attention to the area above the shoulder cross-beam, stuffing down to the neckline and the shoulder lines, putting as much into the dummy as I could. I continued this until the dummy’s body was almost full.
Join me next week to read about the exciting conclusion of the creation of a sewing dummy.
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Gretchen Richards-Meunier is a reporter for the Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She is a fifth-generation artisan, and skilled in multiple art forms.