A Find

Last year, on a very nice day in summer, I went garage saling. I do that sometimes. Usually I look around and notice that there aren't very many "good" items, but I continue browsing to be polite. On occasion I find something that has potential to be interesting, if it isn't  too old, or too warn out, or too broken. But it's a very rare to come across "a find."

So, I was garage saling. When we pulled up to the house just on the side of the road I thought it was probably going to be one of those polite browsing sessions. Lots of smiles and pretending-to-be-interested, but really nothing but some flower pots and unheard-of VHS titles.

I was wrong. In a few minutes I spotted "a find." It was next to the house, behind a table, hidden* in the shadows. Sure, it was covered in fake moss and parts were rusty and broken. But that didn't matter to me at all. It was exactly what I had been looking for, even though I hadn't particularly known that three minutes earlier. It doesn't matter whether or not you know what your looking for, as long as you know it when you see it.

And if you're me, the price also plays an important role in the "exactly what I had been looking for" criteria. But you see, it was perfect in every respect, even price. Although I may, or may not, have gotten it for five dollars less than what the lady asked for it because I asked. It's possible.

But of course, I've left you waiting. It was a dress form! Smile.

Of course the immediate problem was to get rid of the moss. My mom had questioned the wisdom of buying it in the first place, on the objection of the moss. To be fair, I have seen green, mossy dress forms which looked very whimsical and woodsy, and a little bit like Grecian statues that have been overgrown with lichen over time. Unfortunately, that's not what this one looked like. It looked a bit more like someone had drizzled hot glue over the whole thing and dumped a large bag-full of peat moss on top of that. And it smelled like dust.

So that very day we put her (the dress form) in the driveway and proceeded to remove the moss. Easy, right? Not right. We found that we had to use a heat gun and chisels. You know, like what you would use to chisel wood? The really sharp carving-type tools? Those.

Step number two: cover the ugly discolored foam with something else. There were lots of options of methods I could have used; paint, paper-mache, fake flowers, glitter... ok, so maybe glitter would have been a bit excessive. My choice was a layer of batting covered with fabric. Just a plain ivory cotton. Sounds simple.

Until you start to think about it.

Sooo... how do you do that? I looked online for dress-form-covering-directions and found some... but not any helpful ones. It was mostly people who said "...and then I covered the dress form in fabric and this is what it looks like!...) Wait... so how did you do that?

After years I've finally come to the conclusion that if at first the internet doesn't help, wing it!So I wung it. ;)

I actually sewed it to fit the form. And made it up as I went along.  And it only took me about a year from start to finish! Super speedy. ;) I also added some antique-looking upholstery tacks, which remind me of miniature railroad spikes.

So here she is. I've named her Cachette (ka-'shet) which means hiding place* in French. (see first asterisk)

She's made my room that much smaller. But that's ok. She's a very good hat-holder.