professional body forms

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 foam for pinning. This layer of foam is then covered with either linen (in our Removable Magnetic Shoulders models) or thick canvas (in all of our other professional models). Both of these fabrics are very tough and can withstand lots of pinning. 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 stock as many sizes as possible. For instance, our professional female forms currently have up to 11 sizes (0-20) and our male professional forms have six (36-46). 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 female professional form w/ collapsible shoulders model in size 6 shares the same measurements as the female professional w/ removable magnetic shoulders model in the size 6).

Sizing - inventory 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. The sizes which show in the 'size' dropdown on the form's product page are those which are in stock and ready to ship. If your size is out of stock and you would like to be placed on our waiting list for that size, please write us a note and we will email you as soon as your size 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).

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

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!