The $22.50 Gamble: Wire Dress Form

After a nice long morning walk in town with my friend, Rose, I swung into an antique store on the way home. Not a store I frequent, a little more on the “mantique” side, but I hadn’t been in a while, and I’m always looking for something fun to craft with.

Leaning against a shelf in one space was this wire thing. I knew I’d seen wire like that before, on dress forms I’d viewed on eBay. I brought the flattend pile of wire and small box attached with string to the front and asked the dealer if he would cut the string so I could see what was what. The tag was labeled circa 1940 and the box included dress form parts with an instruction book tucked inside. There looked to be enough of the wire mesh there to make something, even if I couldn’t actually assemble the dress form. And how could I resist the gamble, only $22.50.

Once home, it took only 15 minutes to form this cool cage of wire around my other vintage dress form by pulling and pinching the mesh.

All joining snaps snapped and although the stand is not complete, it’s pretty darn cool as-is and now my home (or studio) has a new sculpture -once I find just the right place for it.




By the way... you can still find vintage My Double wire dress forms on eBay. If you get one without the instructions, let me know, I’ll email you mine.