Meet Marsha, My Dress Form Valentine

I ordered Marsha back in December.  There is a post here somewhere about her.  For some reason, she didn't get here until yesterday, so instead of being my Christmas present from Jerry, she is my Valentine from Jerry.  No problem, really, since I was out of town most of the last six weeks.

So here is how she arrived.  Looks like a casket, doesn't it?  The little box had the base in it and it weighed a TON.  I was so mad Jerry carried it in the house by himself.  (Spine surgery, for those of you who don't know why I would say that.)  You know how he is though.  He thinks he is Superman and brags about how much he can lift now.  He is a SUPER man, but not in the heavy lifting category.

Obviously, Marsha was in the long box with the accessories.  Here she is as we lifted her out of the box.

One of the shoulder tip plates is scratched badly.  We didn't like that at all, but since Marsha is going to have arms, I guess I won't be too upset.  Should have asked for a replacement of that too, I suppose.

Looks exactly like me, doncha think???

Well, if you subtract 15 years from me, she would.  This is the reason they send padding and batting to fatten her up.  You have to start with your bone size in the upper chest, or she will always be too big up there.  That is what happened to Phylly's form: Matilda.  Too big in the upper chest, even though Phylly is well endowed under that.

The base was not packed well at all.  Jerry was shocked at how poorly it was packed inside the box.  He deals with large metal parts a lot, and he says he has never gotten one this rough before.  Fortunately, we did FIND everything, including two little tiny springs.  Jerry worked for several hours, but finally got the base fixed and put together.  One of the wheel holes wasn't drilled right, so Jerry had to find some doohickey to fix that.  We did find a use for that black table!

While Jerry worked on that super-heavy base, I tried to figure out what to do with the padding.  The instructions weren't very good for that, and they were actually for another kind of form, but I think I did it right.  Found out later there is an "Ebook" I am supposed to find.  Must find that.  The idea, of course, is to start lathering her slender frame with fat to match mine.  I put on two wraps of batting since that is what they sent to me.  After that, I started adding pads.  The directions for the pads were good but I ran out of pads.  More are on the way.

By this time last night, Jerry was getting gritchy.  Can't blame him after all the time it took to set up that base.  He really was nice about it.  He didn't HAVE to do it all.  He could have waited until the weekend.  He knew how much I wanted it though, so he indulged me.  Here he is hanging Marsha on the pole that is supposed to raise her up and down.  It doesn't lower her enough to be my height, however, and that was why I wanted that feature.

Notice that I have only the batting wrapped around her here.  It was really hard to get her clothes on because they sent me a Medium leotard for her even though I had ordered a Large.  You can only lather so much fat under that suit.  Notice that she doesn't have armholes in her outfit for me to attach her arms.  After Jerry got her hung, I began adding the pads to her.  You have to pull the garment down to where you are padding and put them in from bottom to top.  The garment is what HOLDS the pads against her.  NOT an easy thing to do, but it is doable.

I quit taking step by step pics at this point because I would have needed Jerry or the tripod, and it was quite late last night.  I kept putting pads into her outfit, and Jerry helped me measure.  We still have a way to go to get her to match me exactly, but here is what I have so far:

 

 

   

NOW, you can see:  High Left Hip, High Left Shoulder, Low Right Hip, Low Right Shoulder, Sway Back, and Round Back.  Notice how my pant leg -- hemmed from store -- is shorter on one side.  That is because of the shoulder/hip issue.  My legs are actually the same length. 

I don't know exactly how I am going to get all these areas padded out correctly on Marsha, but I will keep you posted.  Right now, she is still even.  I have to wait for the Large cover so I can stuff more fat in her pants!!!  Doesn't THAT sound crazy!  

I did talk to Bobbie from Fabulous Fit this morning.  She was VERY nice and understanding.  She apologized for the issues, and assured me she would ship the large cover and extra pads to me today.  She also will be sure my cover has holes in the arms so I can attach Marsha's arms.  She offered to replace the base, but we decided to keep it.  She did give me a discount though which was awesome of her.  She also said she would email me the Ebook.  Haven't gotten it yet, but will keep checking.

Hugs, Joy