Part 9: Duct tape, dummy

When you're making a fitted costume, it's a good idea to have something to work with to make sure it actually fits. Tailors can usually get away with adjustable dummies, but for a full body costume like Stranger, which will include heavily padded arms, legs and so forth, it's useful to have something a bit more complete, and a bit more personal. This is where the Duct tape Dummy comes in.

Once again a note on safety. A duct tape dummy essentially involves having a number of friends mummify you in duct tape. It needs to be tight enough to capture your body shape, but if it's too tight it can restrict movement and cooling to the extent you can faint, especially if you can't bend your knees. If you choose to do one for yourself, PLEASE take all necessary precautions, do additional research on safety, and be certain the people making it are trusted, reliable and you have a rapid "escape plan". I would recommend at least two people plus the model, as the longer you are in it the greater the risk of becoming unwell from the process, and of course don't attempt one if you think you would be unhappy being mummified in duct tape. This blog is not intended as a tutorial, I recommend http://latinvixen.phpwebhosting.com/dtd.htm for more information and a rather better technique than the one we ended up using


So, with that said, on to the pictures.

I worked over a disposable paper suit, intended for protecting ones clothes while painting and decorating. I had to buy a bunch anyway for doing fibreglass work, so it made sense to do it this way. I also wear old socks and a pair of disposable gloves, since I want the suit to include both my feet and my hands

Next, we prepare some lengths of tape, it just makes it a bit quicker to do the early steps and avoids spending too much time in the dummy

 Then, my assistants start work. In hindsight, they probably should have done the legs last as having my knees locked for so long almost caused me to faint and prevented me from sitting down, and the crotch ended up rather low from being pulled down by the taped legs, but never mind

Working in a criss cross pattern ensures a strong dummy, 2-3 layers thick.

The body and arms are taped up, with support poles so my arms don't get tired, holding your arms up at your side for any length of time is very hard without support

I don't tape the head, it's not needed and tight tape near the neck is not a good idea. Also make sure the body tape isn't too tight, and for female dummies, don't be too tight around the bust unless you plan to wear a binder while in costume

The dummy is then marked with lines where it will be cut and carefully removed. I like to have marks across the cut line about every 10cm or so, as they help line things up when the dummy comes off and is being reconstructed. The assistant needs to be super careful with the scissors during this step or they can cut or scrape the model. I like to use a spoon to aid with the cutting off, slipped under the tape and paper suit the bowl of the spoon can help prevent the scissor tips digging in to the models skin

That's the dummy made, now I let it air out for a bit. You can see I've marked the knees on this dummy, it can be hard to know exactly where the models kneed are in a stuffed dummy, and in a costume where the position of the knees is important, knowing exactly where they are is really handy

 Finally, using the cross marks from the marking stage, I start putting the dummy back together with more tape, stuffing it as I go. I was lucky enough to have a large amount of polyfill toy stuffing lying around from other projects, if this isn't available, screwed up newspaper is OK, though heavier and more likely to become lumpy and uneven.

And that's it. I'll be using this dummy to build the arms, get proper sizings for the big leg armour and the body armour, and generally putting the costume together without having to constantly try things on and adjust them. It's also going to come in handy for a bunch of other costumes in the future, I hope.