I've had "Henri" for a long time, and I've been wanting to fix him up a little. He was originally meant to sit on a department store counter to display shirts or other man things. I traded someone a kimono for him maybe 15 years ago. He had a short little stand, so my son made him a new stand out of an old fan stand and some hardware. He's a sturdy molded papier mache form covered with a now-ratty grey jersey. Never very pinnable.
First layer added is fusible fleece to soften up the surface a little, and give me something to pin into.
It's just regular fusible fleece about 1/4 inch thick. Difficult to fuse to all those curvy surfaces with a steam iron especially in the middle of a heat wave. I took the form off the stand and lay it on my table, still awkward but less strain on me. You can only do an area the size of the iron every 10 seconds or so, so it takes a while.
While I had him on the table, I filled in that awkward hole in the front. A piece of cereal box and duct tape on the inside to start with, another layer of fleece on the outside and then muslin on the inside held with spray adhesive.
And here he is, all nicely covered with a comfy layer of fleece. Next is the muslin cover ...
I started by trying to pin-fit on-grain muslin; this wasn't meant to be a removeable cover so no zipper or anything and I couldn't make it work for me. Oh Duh! Turn it on the bias! Bias muslin is moldable enough to smooth over the curves and look tidy.
This is where spray adhesive comes in. I was going to hand sew the cover together over the form. Did I mention the heat wave? I did do some hand-sewing around the neck, but the rest of it is basically glued to the fleece and the seams are spray-glued. Here's the front, not quite finished.
This was new, clean, washed and ironed muslin, but I still got some areas that look like water staining, whether from the adhesive or the hard water. But it's mostly OK!
Side view
Back view
Henri isn't mean to be a fit dummy. He's to "wear" things I want to photograph, maybe for displaying scarves or something, and also to drape with fabric, pin swatches to, etc. like a design wall. I'm very pleased with the finished product for now, and plan to tidy up his cover with some hand stitching.
Next time I will write about where this idea came from and how I made a fit dummy for myself.
