What our Early Supporters taught us

October 14, 2018 By Alison

I can’t believe it but we are almost done with our Early Supporter Program! We have 4 shipping out Monday and just one more form to cut this week. I thought it might be a good time to reflect.

Learning by doing

When starting anything new, including starting a business, you can only really learn by doing the darn thing. As much as we’d like to think that we can imagine what it’s going to be like, there will always be surprises and some failures – which I prefer to frame as “learning”.

So what did we learn? A lot, thanks to all the incredibly patient and generous sewists out there that took a chance on us. Here are the big take-aways:

Patterns are symmetrical, your body is not

July 8, 2018 By Alison

Maybe you’ve noticed in the mirror that one of your shoulders is higher than the other. But did you know that our bodies also twist from top to bottom, lean to the side, and are sometimes bigger on one side? Just because most patterns are symmetrical doesn’t mean that your body is too!

Flat Patterning

July 3, 2018 By Sophie Hines

So you have an idea for a project, and you can’t find a sewing pattern that is just what you want. Maybe you’ve tried hacking some existing patterns, but they’re just not fitting together like you want them to, or trying to combine them is just making more problems than you started out with. Well, I think it’s time for you to learn to draft your own patterns! It might sound like a whole huge thing, but don’t worry – it’s a cinch to learn, and we’ll have you dancing around in self-drafted garments in no time!

[Read more…] about Flat Patterning

5 things to love about your Beatrice

April 11, 2018 By Alison

the studio at Beatrice Forms For sewists, the dress form evokes a special nostalgia and romance for us that is hard to explain to others who don’t sew. While it offers many functional benefits as a tool, it also transforms our sewing space into a more inspiring and inviting place full of possibility! When designing Beatrice, I hoped to honor that, while at the same time including modern advancements to make it useful as a fitting tool for real people, like us.

Over the past year, a lot of love and careful thought went into creating Beatrice. From top to bottom, there are so many beautiful details that went into the current design. I’d love to share some of my favorites with you!

Welcome to Beatrice Forms!

March 17, 2018 By Alison

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We began our company with the intention of making a new dress form that starts with the right shape: yours! To make it easier to sew for yourself, we wanted to make an accessible dress form that’s exactly you, to make clothes that fit from the beginning instead of needing workarounds and tricks to get your beautiful handmade clothes to fit the way you like. What we’ve learned, however, is that these new forms are also doing something incredible that we had never even considered!

It’s not just a tool

With each form that we deliver, one thing is becoming more and more clear: this is not just a sewing tool. Because each form is a replica of the user’s body, living with a Beatrice every day is the closest anybody has ever been to physically “being” with themselves. This experience is completely new to people. It is not the same as seeing yourself in pictures or in a mirror.

At first, it can be pretty jarring to put your hands around your own waist, touch your shoulders, or drape a dart on “yourself.” I suspect it has something to do with people’s mental image of their body not jiving with what they are physically experiencing with their Beatrice. I know this first-hand because I went through the same thing with mine.

When my form came to live in my sewing room, it was a bit unnerving at first to catch intimate glimpses of myself as I worked. But here’s the kicker: with time, you do end up accepting your body as it is. Completely! Really, what’s to dislike? And when my body changes an hour after eating a burrito or in five years’ time, what will be wrong with that?

One thing that struck me is my form’s presence – instead of fading into the decor, she actively inhabits her space. Because she is the same as my body, I unconsciously treat her with extra respect and notice that others do the same. It seems silly as an adult woman not to know this about myself, but it’s taught me that I belong in the space I am in.

Reclaim your body image

It’s crazy that being around a 3D version of yourself could be so empowering and instructive. When I share this experience with others, it profoundly resonates with pretty much everyone, not just sewists but non-sewists, across genders, and people of all ages. Several people told me it gave them goosebumps.

Many of us have taken on a mental body image that differs greatly from our actual body, an identity mismatch that creates problems. Unfortunately, the way we imagine our bodies should be can severely limit what we believe is possible for ourselves. Time to ditch that mindset and start loving ourselves for who we are today, right now! Who knew that a dress form could help with that?!

Have you ever experienced this body image mismatch that I’m talking about? Would love to hear about it in the comments!

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