An empty corner in the guest room of my dollhouse sent me scrolling through Etsy looking for something to put in that spot.  I started with chairs, and there were a few chairs out there with potential.  But ultimately the idea of adding a dress form to that corner popped into my head.

I started searching on Etsy and came across a miniature dress form that had been given a copper verdigris patina all over and thought “I can do that”.  In fact, I bet I can go one step further and create a miniature version of my full size dress form, Collette.

So I kept searching and ended up finding a pair of miniature dress forms for $10.

They are made of plastic, and require just a little bit of assembly with some superglue.

Once assembled I gave mine a quick coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss.  Since they are made out of a rather slick plastic, I wanted to hedge my bets on adhesion.

Once that dried I started on the base and the ‘cage’ at the bottom of the dress form.  Unfortunately my full-sized dress form doesn’t have a cage, I wish it did.  I think they are really cool.  The mini dress form has one, so I decided to give it a patina so that it would look like metal.

I started with a coat of the Dixie Belle Iron patina paint.  Then I added some dabs of the Bronze.  While the paint was still wet, I dabbed on some of the Green Spray.  I just kept playing around with those three products until I got the look that I wanted.

You can find a full tutorial on using the Patina Paint here.

Next I pulled out Dixie Belle paint in a color called Putty.  I’ve had this particular jar in my cupboard for a while, and it had been opened and used before (most recently on this dresser).  This chalk style paint will thicken up a little over time, but it’s easy to just add a little water to thin it back out again.  In this case I really didn’t want any big ol’ brush strokes, so I watered my paint down a little and applied it to the body of the dress form.

Once I had the Putty on I felt like it was a little bit one dimensional, so I went through my cupboard and found Dixie Belle’s Burlap.  Once again I watered it down a little, and then blended it with the Putty to create the perfect color.

Once that dried, I pulled out my re.design with prima knob transfers again (these are coming in so handy for miniature work!).  I found the perfect one to use on the dress form from the French Maison set.

Once the transfer was in place, I used clear wax over the body of the dress form.

I was going to call it good at that point, but I felt like it needed just a bit more dimension.  So I used a small brush to apply some of the Dixie Dirt in a brown color called Earth.

That’s an older photo, and clearly that brush was too big for this project.  I used a very small brush, and I applied the dirt to the crease down the center of the dress form body, and also around some of the edges.  It added the perfect touch of age.

I had so much fun creating these dress forms!

Since I’ve named both of my full-size dress forms, Collette and Lula, I decided I should go ahead and name the mini’s as well.  In honor of my recent trip to Disneyland, and one of my favorite attractions, the Enchanted Tiki Room, I’ve named them Suzette and Mimi (let’s all sing like the birdies sing, if you know, you know).

In case it wasn’t already apparent, I did paint both of the forms exactly the same.

Obviously I don’t need two identical dress forms for myself.  So I’m going to keep Suzette, but stash Mimi away and include her in my blogiversary giveaway next month.  Be sure to stay tuned for that!

But in the meantime, how do you like the dress forms?  And have you tried any of the Dixie Belle patina paints yet?  They continue to be one of my favorite mediums to play around with, on both miniature and full-sized items.  Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing their products used on the dress forms.