Adjustable vs Custom Dress Form | Bootstrap dress form review (I was skeptical)

Thanks - not buying now.

One of the best videos I've watched on this for a beginner. I'm glad i didn't make the mistake of buying those plastic adjustable mannequins 😅

Everything you say here about the "adjustable" plastic dress forms, I saw at a glance the first time I laid eyes on one. They have not really changed or improved since the 80s, and while I always longed for a dress form so I could drape out clothes for myself, I never seriously considered buying one of those useless items. Your review just validated that

You just gained a new subscriber, thank you for making this video

Just had a thought that if you put a bra of yours on the form and then padded it before covering the whole form again would that not give a better lift and bust shape?

I got an adjustable form at an auction, or rather my husband brought it home for me. Lol He does find good stuff! But I never used it and got rid of it. I have a very old dress form that is also adjustable with a tube of matching fabric that slides over the form. But she is small so she holds handbags and all sorts of things. If I’m going to sew clothes I guess I’m going to have to try and do one of these projects. You guys comments are giving me confidence that I can do it. When I made clothes growing up I didn’t have adjustments to make but this 66 year old body needs adjustments.hahaha thanks everyone

Skip the stays! The dress is so much more fun and your 1780 stays should be fine under it.

Lolol. I laughed so hard at your description of what was wrong with the adjustable dress form. Had one inherited from my mother waaaay back and can confirm it's uselessness. Didn't help, that it was quite curvy and I'm basically a stick, of course.
Those things are just awful!

I never understood why people by those "adjustable" forms. They just seem so bad.

this is so helpful! Can you estimate how many hours it took?

Great information, thank you. I’m sewing shirts for my grandson who buys store bought 8XLT. Question I have is whether you know of a source that sells large patterns for men. Any advice from you or others is much appreciated on how best to enlarge a shirt pattern for the men’s casual shirt.

You can remove your rust stains with hydrogen peroxide. Blot with water once the stain is gone. Also might be time for a new steam iron.

I am about to embark on this journey. I bought some foamy fusible interfacing and I have the paper pieces cut out. That's as far as I've gotten. I'm just trying to watch all of the bootstrap videos and every single one of them gives me great ideas. Including yours.

This is the most helpful and also the most hilarious sewing video I’ve ever watched 😂😂😂😂😂

I was struggling with the forms as a beginner who hasn't even spent the 2500 on the sewing/ embroidery machine yet I thought a form would be a great way to kick off this hobby. I looked at all my options online the adjustable forms just didn't look right and without actually feeling and seeing the firms in person I decided on getting a 200 $ form that isn't adjustable and had the arms in fabric. Watching this video showed me I made a good choice. If that ridged crappy form would have made it to my doorstep I would have been livid

I made the bootstrap dress form cover, which is intended to fit over an existing dress form padded out to my actual measurements. It is essentially the same pattern as the dress form, except for some reason it does not include a center front or center back seam. I added those. I agree that you should absolutely include the additional optional measurements for an accurate fit. Apparently they use an algorithm based on your height to determine your back length, back neck to bust apex, etc. For someone like me, who is taller than average but shortwaisted, these generalized algorithms just do not work. The optional measurements did give me an accurate pattern for the upper body, with a minor adjustment for the upper bustline fullness (not). Unfortunately, as you point out, they do not give "optional" measurements for the lower body, like high hip and distance from waist to high/low hip. So their algorithm produced a profile that was way too slim at the high hip measurement, and the low hip was 2" below my actual low hip measurement. I adjusted the pattern and reported this to bootstrap. Their response was that their algorithm fits "most" people. Well - if you are going to market yourself as a custom pattern company, BE a custom pattern company . Adding three additional measurements can't be that heavy a lift compared to the measurements required for the upper body. I'm curious if anyone else has had issues with the lower body.

I think some people might find it useful to use old bedsheets for the outer fabric.

The Bootstrap customer service was extreme disappointing. I bought a couple of patterns and neither one fit well. I contacted CS and felt the rep was not only very unhelpful but was blaming the bad fit on me. I also felt the rep was disrespectful and had an attitude like, “ ha ha, I’m not helping you and there’s nothing you can do.”

Years ago, I made a duck tape dress form. It wasn’t that great at first. But then I made some sloper patterns of myself and put them over the form and kind of used stuffing to fill in the gaps. Then, a few years after that, I covered the whole thing in upholstery fabric and evened out some other parts and kind of molded it to the shape and measurements I wanted. The final result was a dream come true. It’s perfectly pinnable and sturdy. I even put a cup in the neck to hold little items I might need while doing a project. I put the whole thing on wheels too. It took years of perfecting it, and if you cut it open, you would be utterly confused at all the layers of weird items inside. But I absolutely love it!

"What if you have a really high, prominent hip bone"
Well that rules out the Bootstrap form for me then. :D
My problem is that I need a squishy dress form for historical costuming, but as a matter of fact most of me isn't squishy. And I can't solve this problem just by padding up a regular dress form, because I also have a longer torso... :P I think I decided that the best option might be a thick felt, like The Modern Maker made (not sure if he ever shared it anywhere but Facebook).
Still, nice tips on how to make this type of dress form in a better way! :-)

I bought adjustible but it was like you said a piece of junk.

I spy a capo. I rock this combo also, sewing and guitar!!!🎶

Onde compro

I'm really on the fence about bootstrap Vs adjustable.
One the one hand bootstrap is pinnable and made to measure.
But on the other hand if I fluctuate in size then I'd have to remake it, and potentially even rebuy the pattern.
With an adjustable form it's not pinnable and might be the wrong shape, but I can could adjust it to my size if I lose or gain weight and could pad it out to fix the shape and potentially make it pinnable...

I can NOT thank you enough! I'm a single mother and do not have a dime to spare on things that are not adding serious value to my life. And I do have a very odd shaped body, which worried me before I saw this, but now I know for sure the adjustable form would not be a wise investment for me. I'm very slender but with thickness in my hips and thighs. I have a huge ribcage yet no boobs, a long torso and I'm tall for a woman. All that considered I think I have more time to waste than money and more reasons to make my own than risk it. I was so unsure before this video. Thank you!🙏🥰

I orderd mines am workin on it at the moment but my waist are low but I saw that measurements after I done order as to more measurements but that ok I guess will see when it's done good job on urs

I came here looking just for the bootstrap review and suddenly see flashes of historical dressmaking?! Huzzah! 🥰🤗

I made mine from painters dropcloth. 0/10. Do not recommend. Way too lose a weave for this project. I bought 4 fiberfill pillows from Walmart for the stuffing at $4 each. I have 1 left. I'm making my sister one from some curtains I got from IKEA. I will probably redo mine in this fabric. It sews up a dream. I had the same problem with the tummy and bust but I also had a stretching problem. If your fabric has any stretch at all, you won't be happy with your form.

Can you share where you got the stand? Thx!

I really want to make one of these. Whoever came up with this is an angel! They are genius! The ones u buy are so so janky.

Thank you, it was very helpful. I think I really need something like this to improve my sewing

For $10 you can buy two ugly pillows at Goodwill for $5 each and use that instead of buying new stuffing. There's literally nothing this calls for that can't be gotten from upcycled materials. It's one of the reasons I love this dress form so much.

Thank you so much for this video sharing your own opinion! I am thinking now to buy the pattern or de adjustable mannequin and this video has solved a lot of questions for me :)

How did you get to choose your measurements?

So i have a duct tape dress form. It ruins pins, they come put covered in sticky goop and get super bent. so there's that. It was fun and interesting to make. I bought a bulk of ductape from amazon (about 30) and used an old t shirt. I used a christmas tree stand for a base and a pole from a christmas tree we were getting rid of at the time.. I only used this a hand full of times. because after a while things just started sticking to it. Im looking at the boot strap form and loved your video on it. I have watched several others and it seem like it would be the most accurate. My mother in law has that adjustable one. ive looked at it real good a few times and even she said it isnt the best to use. and it was pricey.

Bootstrap was awful if you are asymetrical as they REFUSE to adjust and burn two patterns, even through it is closely stated in the margin. Their generalizations for shape of butt and belly and measurements is absurd. Their Bust was so far off I had to redraft and cut my own. The length is off by over 8 inches. And if you are plus size, let's talk about the joy of filling /layering these things. I'm lucky enough to have a neighbor that makes mattresses', so I have access to tons of memory and egg foam. (I made the cover for another dress form.) PLUS, the notches you match up are not unique to their pieces which should be. I'm glad I'm not the only one that had 'do over' issues with this one. I used a 4 way stitch btw.

I keep getting videos about this and I'm so tempted 😭My only worry is about what happens if one loses weight? I suppose the illustrator file is pretty easy to adjust, but it feels like it would require some trial and error in order to really nail down the right shape.

Thanks for the good review of the Bootstrap form. I think I am going to order one. Thanks again!

Drop cloth at Home Depot would be a frugal alternative to the thick cotton canvas. I’ve made curtains and slip covers out of it.

Lol I just bought the Dritz dress form. I hope I like it more than you did! I did notice that I can't adjust it to match my tummy without making the top part too big. I see your point!

I'm in the midst of making one of the Bootstrap forms. I had one of the nasty plastic forms, and it never worked for me as I am very short waisted. I had a duct tape dummy, but that sort of "melted" with the heat. :( Now to see how this works.

Wow. This was an excellent, detailed review of the Bootstrap form. I was just getting ready to purchase an adjustable form and so glad to see the reasons why those forms are problematic. Thank you for this video.

Amour

Your confusion and caution about the "tell us what you look like" bit is what's been stopping me from getting a Bootstrap pattern. Being plus size and having not very proportional parts of my body is not fun - I 100% have the same issue with the underbust being too low fot me! I'm so glad yours turned out lovely though :)

Plastic adjustable clamps and sticker rule?!!
I’ve been not lovening this for years :( time for bootstrap

I enjoyed this very much. I bought my Bootstrap pattern but haven't sewn it yet. I feel like I need a dress form to adjust this dress form. But yes, way better than the plastic one - I threw mine in a "donate" box and kept the stand to use for my me-made one. Thanks for your video!

I made my bootstrap form for only $50. It’s not 100%. I’d say it’s more like 90%. I stuffed it with scrap fabric and used this sheet found at the thrift store. Totally worth it.

I suppose, that the problems with the bust section appears because people are not wearing a bra when taking the measurements. As we form our clothes to our bodies in bras, we need to do so. Yet if we do not wear a bra,we off course have to wear whatever clothes we usually wear underneathour everyday clothing when making the measurements.
I learned as young girl from my specialized Dirndl tailor, that I had to wear exactly the bra, that I was going to wear with the Dirndl she tailored for me. So I guess it all depends on what garments you would be making with the help of the dress form and so you might need about 3 various dress forms to use for all garment types.
Also the stuffing might vary. When making a corset, you would want to tailor it on a softly stuffed dress form. But when making a top garment, the dress form will be better if stuffed in a hard way.