Earlier, MoonShadow and I got together on a Friday afternoon to get in a session of duct taping each other, to create a dressing dummy of sorts for ourselves. Why do this? It creates an approximation of your own body while allowing you to dress it up without having to guess all the time at your own size. The real fittings will be done on yourself.

In starting, you will need at least a few things. Most important is a trusted friend, someone you know who won't abandon you just when you're in a rather, shall we say, a sticky and confining situation.


- duct tape - Two rolls per person will do you well, though it would help to have 5 rolls for two people, for extras.
- scissors - you will wish to cut someone out of the tape cage! I would suggest you use medical grade scissors, the kind that the emergency rooms have with a flat blade.
- old clothes - these will need to be thin enough to allow you to cut without too much difficulty, through layers of duct tape.
- stuffing - depending on your body size, 10-12 pounds of cotton or polyester stuffing will do you quite nicely. Walmart has some great stuff, 5 pound boxes for just under $10.

Did I forget anything? Ah... On to the pics! Click on any of the thumbnails to bring up the full-sized pic.

Before the session, we went out to the local Walmart for some of that cotton stuffing as mentioned above. I'm just walking up, taken unawares of MoonShadow's snapping the pic.

Not exactly old clothes, but rather, a cheap pair of pajamas that I didn't mind cutting up. Yep, I'm victim #2... Done up by MoonShadow, of course.



Well, I look fairly relaxed, with a drink, with the pajamas on, with a somewhat evil look that should really belong to MoonShadow...

This is the chest and arm wrap, which usually gets you started, together with the ankle wrap.




Another maniacal look in my eye, as there's one roll done. Chest, arm, and much of the legs are done. One roll doesn't go this far with MoonShadow, as the guy's a bit bigger than I am. Should I worry?

Almost done, yet I'm sorta looking forward to getting out of this, as my breathing was getting a little short and I was beginning to get a little warm, despite the fan being turned on.

Finally done, a feather is stuck in my neck just for the heck of it. Shades of Yankee Doodle... Note the cutting marks that were made, as well as the lines every now and then. These were done to allow for lining up of the edges right.


The side view of me in all my duct-taped splendor.


Rear view.

Finally getting myself cut out in the last leg of the session.









I'm applying stuffing to the top neck part of the dummy, after spending much time stuffing the rest. You may wish to note the little thing behind my ear, which is my hearing aid, for some of you who wish to know...

I'm nearly done with stuffing my dummy, need a little more for the neck area. Due to a small mistake on MoonShadow's part, my dummy's crotch area is a couple inches lower than my own, which may be a good thing...



One thing to remember when wrapping the tape is you will need to go up and down rather than just around and overlapping. This gives it strength, otherwise when you stuff it, it's gonna pop the seams. The clothing you wear underneath will give it a little more. Someone mentioned using foam rubber. That's one of the worst things you can use, as it's gonna expand and blow it apart under the stress. Use the stuffing as mentioned above, and you can stuff the thing tightly, and it won't blow apart, unless you stuff it too tightly.

When you're putting the dummy together, start with the arms and legs first, or you can start with the legs first and go up. Put a "+" kind of thing with the tape on the ends of the arms and legs, to hold in the stuffing, and then strengthen that by placing a strip around the "wrist" area of the dummy. The "ankle" area may need more of these strips. Then place long strips along the cut area, with shorter strips across it. Stuff as you go. The chest area will take LOTS of stuffing, so just pack and pack through the neck. Depending on how you did the neck, place strips across the opening, and strips across those strips at the base. The entire thing will be fairly heavy, as heavy as the amount of stuffing you put in.

(Late February 1999 - UPDATE) When the dummy was made, the crotch area was made 6-7 inches too far down. This was modified by cutting and rewrapping with the duct tape, til it was of the right length I needed, after measuring myself a few times. Now the leg is the correct length, but the arm is a few inches too short. This can be rectified with more tape, wrapped around a cardboard tube filled with the filling.

Well, MoonShadow's dad somehow managed to cut off our heads, while still managing to show our dummies in all their splendor...

Now, will the real dummy please sit down? Better yet... He's the dummy, I'm the wrapper. Rather punny...

Other Duct Tape Dummy links:

If you made your duct tape dummy right, it will be one of the most useful things you will ever have. It was the form for when I made my purple suit (Mutant Cat) for Millennicon, and even went with me out there. It was particularly useful when I was handsewing some pieces on, and needed at least a way to know how it's going to be on me.

Any other additions, suggestions? Email me!

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wrapped people rolled through here...