I’ve wanted a half-scale mannequin for several years, but have always been unable to justify spending the money. I made my own full-sized body double, and several other mannequins for my research, so have lots of experience making real-size ones, but wasn’t sure how to start with a half-scale one.

Luckily I happened upon Leila’s website Grow Your Own Clothes, where she has a great tutorial about making your own half-scale mannequin. I then saw that she has a pattern for a sewn and stuffed on on Etsy. I thought that would be a bit weird, but having taken a good look and having done a lot of work on fitting clothing to the body I realised I could make that! I bought the pattern – thank you Leila for putting it out there, and assembled the materials. https://growyourownclothes.com/2015/08/06/mini-stuffed-dress-form-pattern/

Yes it is fiddly, and you need to concentrate. There are lots of little pattern pieces that have a tendency to blow off the table if the window is open, so I don’t think its something to take on if you can’t leave things out to work on unless you are very well organised. Do read the whole thing through before starting so you get the gist of what you are going to do. The tips and hints given in the pattern are extremely helpful and the instructions are very comprehensive and easy to follow.

Its really important to be as accurate as possible cutting out and sewing the seams. I managed to be reasonably accurate, but can see where I could have done better.

Stiffing is quite a challenge. I can again see where I could improve, and may unpick the base and rework this at a later date, but I am to excited to do this now. I luckily had a sack of carded polyester wadding that I used, but stuffed the shoulders and some other areas I felt might benefit from the behaviour of the fibre with wool that I carded myself. I might re-stuff with all wool – or at least do the next one with wool

At this point I was a bit frazzled and had burned my finger on the mini-iron and stabbed myself in the palm with the point of a very sharp pair of scissors, so I decided to call it a day. Today I completed the mannequin and am thrilled with the result.

The suggested stand is a cardboard one, but I have just broken the top of a wooden lamp, and realised that this would make a great stand.

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I am pleased, but as I say I am my own worse critic, so can see all the things I wish I had done better. I plan to make another one from the pattern to perfect it. For the moment I am chuffed though.