TUTORIAL - Vintage Style Decoupaged Mannequin

I picked up this female torso at a car boot sale a few years ago and she's been hanging around in my wardrobe ever since just waiting for the perfect project to come along. I don't know why, but last week I suddenly had an overwhelming desire to try out decoupage and what better project to try it out on than this?

Like it? Read on to find out how to make your own!

Materials:

• Torso - mine's the hollow plastic kind but you could use any!
• Thin paper - I used old incomplete dressmaking patterns
• Brushes - I used cheapy ones from the kids art section at the supermarket!
• PVA glue or equivalent - I watered mine down as it spreads better!

First of all I cleared the area I was going to be working at, laid newspaper down and arranged my materials. I opted for the old dressmaking pattern paper as it seemed more fitting for the project & would be easier to work with as it was thinner. Other papers on my list of 'things I can use' were vintage letters, comic book pages, maps and sheet music which could also work well.

I started off with a base layer of glue. Whilst waiting for it to dry I began tearing up my papers. Smaller bits are easier to work with - large pieces will only end up folding, creasing up and over-lapping where you don't want it to (as you can see on the first layers I laid down - duh).

Next up I put some glue down and started layering my paper. I found the glue to be a little too thick to work with to begin with so I thinned it by mixing it with a bit of hot water until I had a usable consistency, making it much easier to work with. As you can see, the pieces I started off with were too big to smooth nicely over all the curves, but I liked the textured appearance the larger pieces left on the torso, so I left them there.

I picked out as many interesting bits of print that I could, and placed them on the torso so they could be seen clearly. The little "Vogue Pattern" marks are my favourite and I put the little buttons on her neck.

 

I started off layering printed bits of the pattern paper but wasn't particularly keen on the bold appearance so went back over it all again with plain pattern paper to fade the lines out a bit.

I felt she was still looking a bit too naked, so I used the lines of the patterns to 'draw' a corset onto her.

After she'd dried I patched up some bits that needed a few more layers, folded over any over-hanging edges and glued them to the back so she is now smooth around the edges!

She's certainly not 'perfect', but overall I'm really happy with how she turned out and I now have a beautiful new mannequin to display my work on at craft fairs, and when she's not being used she'll look fabulous propped up on display in my home!

I would love to know what you think! 

Do let me know if you find this tutorial useful or if you think I could improve it in any way. 

 ♥