Again, you've read right. Don't adjust your glasses, horizontal, colors, or anything. There is a way to get a suit to fit perfectly without you having to be the dressmaker dummy all the time.

Clone Yourself A Fitting Assistant - article from Taunton Press. A tutorial on four ways to make a dressmaker dummy, two using duct tape, one using papier-mache, and the other using paper tape - http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/t00002.asp

Using plaster bandages/burlap/ultracal - http://www.bioweapons.com/bodycast.htm

Dressmakers dummy
Found in at least some fabric and related shops, usually allows you to set the size of the person you're trying to fit something to. It's usually expensive, around $100-150 or more.

Duct tape dummy/double - Nice page!
The cheapest of all the various ways to get a dummy. This gives a very good approximation of your body, even down to making what you're making fit quite well. Total costs can be less than $30.

You will need a victim, 3 rolls of duct tape, a pair of cheap pajamas or something that fits your entire body, long legs and arms, and a good pair of scissors, like those with a blunt end, that EMTs and emergency rooms use. These particular scissors will not even poke you painfully like some other scissors will do. You will also want to stuff it with something, so your best bet is to use polyester filling, found at WalMart, in 5-lb boxes. Newspapers won't do it, as they don't hold their shape well after a good crumpling up.

One word of warning about all this, is that it gets quite warm, since duct tape itself does not breathe. The model will find themselves unable to move well, as you move down. This may not be for a claustrophobic person, since they can freak out during this procedure. If you do this, then be prepared to cut the person out, and quickly.

Then start wrapping your person, going from the neck, down to the arms, and torso/abdomen/chest and stomach area. You'll want to make some long strips to go across the arm, as well as around, for extra strength when you stuff it. Keep going down, doing the crotch area, all the way down both feet to the ankles, or if you wish, the feet.

Doing the female form is a little different. You will want to leave the breast area open a bit as you go down past it, then wrap them also, going left-right and up and down, to get the shape.

Then when you're done, take a marker, and mark from the neck, down to the waist, then the arms and legs, making marks that will allow you to put the cut parts back together. Then cut along these edges. Don't worry if you cut the clothes they're wearing, that's stuck to the duct tape, as it's part of the procedure. Just make sure you don't cut what's NOT stuck to the duct tape!

Once it's all off, take more duct tape and your stuffing, start at the ankle area, tape up the cut edges, and close up the open ankle, if you didn't do the foot. Then go up the leg, closing and stuffing as you go. You will want to put a strip along the cut edges, as well as some strips across it, for extra strength. Keep going, til you get to the neck, and close that area up. The torso area will take quite a bit of the stuffing.

- use of LC materials and fiberglass