Professional Body Forms

Which Professional Dress Form is right for you?

We produce three different body types for our professional dress forms. The Half Body Form has the torso extending beyond the crotch area but without the separation of the legs. The poles connect through the middle of these forms. The 3/4 Body Form has partial legs extending to the knee area and the poles connect through the left leg. The Full Body Form has legs which extend all the way to the ankles and the form is suspended from the neck.

Each dress form body type comes in two variations: without collapsible shoulders and with collapsible shoulders. The variations without collapsible shoulders still have removable shoulder knobs. The variations with collapsible shoulders also include full arms. The Full Body form type is only offered in the variation with collapsible shoulders and full arms.

It is important to note that, despite the above distinctions, our professional dress forms are more similar to each other than they are different. They are all built from a tough fiberglass core using the same size charts. They are all wrapped in a layer of felt and then a tough and durable outer canvas fabric. All of the bases are heavy duty cast iron with functioning pedal-adjustable height.

This guide should be able to help you decide which particular model is perfect for your needs.

Are you planning on designing (or displaying)…

• tightly fitted tops?
• You would need a form with Collapsible Shoulders. Collapsing the shoulders shrinks the width of the torso which makes it very easy to put on, or take off, tops, without any risk of damaging the garment. If your tops are fitted but do not need to be draped over the form (i.e. they can be dressed on the form by a zipper or buttons - like a jacket) then you would not need the collapsible shoulders.
• tightly fitted sleeves?
• You would need a form with arms. All of our Collapsible Shoulders variations come with Removable Arms. These models have specialized shoulder caps which the arms can click into and are held securely in place. The arms can also be rotated 360 degrees. Our non-collapsible shoulders models (with Removable Shoulders) also have these same connectors but, at the moment, we do not offer arms to be purchased separately.
• extremely heavy clothing?
• For extremely heavy clothing (such as thick wedding gowns and the like) it would be best to use either the Half Body type (as the form is supported through the center bottom) or the Full Body type (which is supported through the center top). The 3/4 Body - which is supported by a pole slightly to the side of form’s center of gravity - can cause the form to lean with extremely heavy clothing.
• tightly fitted skirts?
• All three of our dress form body types (Half, 3/4 or Full Body) can be used for skirt design. Many find the cage on the Half Body very helpful for this.
• underwear or pants?
• You would need either our 3/4 of Full Body Dress Forms as these have a defined crotch area and legs (the Half Body types have their pole connecting through the middle of the form and do not have a defined crotch area).

¹ Both the Fabulous Fit Studio dress form and the TSC Professional Dress Form are designed for professional use - and are being enjoyed by numerous fashion designers, brands and schools around the world. Our TSC Professional Dress Forms are just built for more robust use with a wide range or features, numerous sizes and super heavy-weight materials.

² Basically, our TSC forms are built from a hard inner core while the FF forms are built from a foam inner core. Both are extremely durable and each has its pros and cons. The hard foam core of the Fabulous Fit forms allows for direct pinning (as pins can easily penetrate the foam core). The fiberglass core of the TSC Professional Forms allows for the addition of the important Collapsible Shoulders function. The TSC forms can also be pinned - and are designed for heavy pinning - though the pins need to be inserted at an angle through the felt and canvas outer layers (as the pins cannot penetrate the core).

The purpose of the Collapsible Shoulders is for use with designing or displaying tight fitting clothing. If the shoulders are static, there is the potential of damaging the garment when putting it on, or removing it from, the form. The Collapsible Shoulders function allows you to shrink the torso width inwards. Simply squeeze the form together to lock into a collapsed position and squeeze again to release. The Removable Shoulders function can help a bit for this as well but the Collapsible Shoulders function does this much better. This is only needed for use with tight fitting clothing.

³The Fabulous Fit forms are based on a global sizing standard which is slightly more curvier than TSC form standard. FF forms are available in female sizes 0-18 and male sizes 38 and 40. TSC forms are available in female sizes 0-26, male sizes 34-52 and child sizes 6 months through 18 years (sizes 8 years and up are available in both girls and boys sizes).

⁴ All body types are good for the designing tops or dresses. The 3/4 Body and Full Body can also be used for pants or underwear (as they have a designed crotch area). Please see above for a full description of the uses for each body type.

⁵ The TSC Display Forms are meant for displaying clothing and are therefore offered with a wide range of bases and colors. The FF Studio Forms are offered with a mid-weight cast iron rolling base available in three colors. The TSC Professional Forms are only available in a heavy duty cast iron base with full height adjustability. The height can be adjusted on the bases of the other forms as well though it is done through a t-screw system on both the pole and the form connectors. With the TSC Professionals, depressing the base pedal with your foot releases the vertical hold on the form and allows you to easily set the height. Simply take your foot off the pedal to lock the new height in place.

⁶ The optional arms on the TSC Display Forms are made of wood and can be set in various positions. They are not meant for sleeve design use. The optional arms on the TSC Professionals connect easily to the form and can be rotated a full 360 degrees along the shoulder. They are meant for design use.

Shipping - there is no charge for orders over $49 shipping within the continental United States. For shipping worldwide, our website should be able to offer very competitive shipping rates.

Dress Form Assembly Guides

All TSC Professional Dress Forms ships with full assembly instructions. They can also be downloaded here: Half Body Forms, 3/4 Body Forms and Full Body Forms. There is also an assembly video below and lots of new videos posted to our troubleshooting section.

General FAQ

Below we have compiled a list of some of the commonly asked questions we get for our professional dressforms. We hope they can be of some help. Also, please feel free to write us any questions you may have.

What are professional dress forms and how are they different from the display forms?

Professional dress forms (also known as tailor dress forms, seamstress form, and sewing dress forms), like the display forms can be used for both creating and displaying clothing. However, the professional dress forms were built from the ground up for sewing, draping and fitting. Constructed with much higher quality materials, they are excellent for sewing and they can keep in tip top shape for a very long time. Once only the tool for tailors/ seamstresses, these professional forms have now also become very popular for stores looking to display clothing with a unique 'high quality tailored' look.

What type of materials are used in these professional dress forms?

As mentioned previously, our professional forms were built to perform and to last performing. Accordingly, we have used very high quality materials in every part of its construction. The inner core of the form is constructed from a tough fiberglass which is then covered with a durable layer of felt for pinning. The felt layer is then wrapped with the outer layer of tough and durable canvas. The bases are heavy cast iron and offer the form superior stability.

Sizing - find your exact size

As the professionals were built with sewing in mind, we try to produce and stock as many sizes as possible. For instance, our professional female forms currently have up to 13 sizes (0-26) and our male professional forms have six (34-52). The child forms are available in unisex sizes from 6 months through 6 years, from girls in sizes 8 years through 18 years and boys in sizes 8 years through 18 years. The measurements for the different sizes are all found on the specific form's product page. All of our models share the same measurements (i.e. the half body female professional form in the size 6 shares the same measurements as the 3/4 body and full body female professional forms in the same size 6).

Sizing - inventory, preorder and waiting lists

Although we do try very hard to keep all of our form sizes in stock, there are times when we run out of several of the sizes. All of the sizes we produce are shown in the size section on the product page. If the size choice is shaded in white, then the size is in stock and can be shipped soon after the order is placed.

If the size choice is shaded in blue, then the size is not currently in stock but is in one of our current production batches and can be preordered. Preordering a form essentially reserves one for you from the production batch and it will ship upon the completion of that production batch. The estimated completion date (the shipping date) is shown when the preordered size is selected.

If the size is not currently in stock nor is it in one of our current production batches, the size choice will be shaded in red. These cannot be preordered until the production batch begins but you can be added to a waiting list to be notified when this form becomes available.

Sizing - how to measure yourself

Although the measurements of our forms are pretty much based off common sizes, we would advise on trying to match your measurements up to those of our charts for our sizes (rather than simply getting the size you usually wear). We have published a thorough guide on how to take your own measurements (here). Please also use our new Size Finder guide at the top of the website.

Sizing - what to do when your measurements fall in between sizes

Measurements falling in between dress form sizes is actually pretty common. In these instances, it is always advisable choosing the smaller of the sizes rather than the larger. The reason for this is that all of our dress forms can be adjusted by using padding and you can always pad a smaller form up to size (in those areas where your measurements are higher than those of the form) but you can never pad a larger form down to size. Anything can be used as padding however, we highly suggest using the excellent padding system from Fabulous Fit (here). This kit comes with specially contoured pads for all the important areas of the dress form and filler pads which can be placed underneath these pads to bump the measurements even higher. All of these pads are then covered by a durable stretch cover (included in the kit) to hold them in place (as well as hides the padding).

Besides for the common moderate sizing adjustments, these pads are also often used for petite (shorter torso height - from neck to waist) or longer torso measurements. This is accomplished by applying the kit's hip pads a bit higher up on the form (thus making a new higher hip area and a shorter front length measurement). For longer torso measurements, the hip pads would be placed lower down on the form (creating a new lower hip area). There are actually dozens of other practical sizing adjustment uses with the many pads from this amazing kit.

At the current time, we do not manufacture custom forms

Our Size Finder guide available through the top of this website should be able to help you with the sizing. Please also feel free to contact us with any sizing questions you may have.

Need to know more?

We have written up a full guide to our dressforms (here) that address many of these points in addition to many others. We have also published fully detailed assembly guides for these dressforms (accessible through their product pages).

If you have any questions please call or email us - we are here to help!