i recently invested in one from fabulous fit in ny. it was pricey but man, it was worth it! i love love love it. here's the website www.fabulousfit.com/ - i got the "pro maxima" misses form and it comes with these neato foam pads that you can adjust under the cover to make the form shaped more like your own body. before that i had been using a hand-me-down cheapie covered styrofoam adjustable one - this is WORLDS better. it has a sturdy iron base that raises and lowers and is on locking casters. it rocks my socks!

I've had HORRIFIC, I mean TRULY, TRULY AWFUL experience with Fabulous Fit. we're talking about $2000 worth of merchandise (their professional level forms) and not a single thing went right. it took about 6 months to resolve the issue, until which time no one would return my emails or phone calls. Nearly all the items I received were damaged, the wrong replacement parts were sent when I could get service, and I found that their "sale" forms were a completely different make and model than their regular forms (they were basically clearing out discontinued and damaged forms on their sale, but failed to inform customers of this). A year after the transaction I'm stil unsatisfied.

my suggestion: buy a quality form elsewhere and just buy the Fabulous Fit fitting system (the shaped pads and body cover) to use on it. The pads are the only thing worthwhile.

btw, if you search "dress forms" here, in Crafty Vixens tribe, in the Craftster site and the Pattern Review site you'll get tons fo helpful info to make your decision. People are always looking for dress forms.

Try Vecharelli Bros. in Los Angeles.
If you get their number and call them they could probably send you one.
They have professional ones that the apparel industry uses.
You can't go wrong with one of those...

If you can afford it, buy a Wolf Form. Industry standard, the best I've used. Buy the size that is closest (smaller not larger) to your measurements, and pad out any needed area with cotton batting. Over the padding, wrap bias cut strips of muslin. Wolf forms last forever, and if needed are easy to recover. The one I use is over 40 years old and still is sturdy enough to handle plenty of use. You can sometimes find a used one on Ebay, the only problem is the shipping. They are a bit large and heavy to ship.

If you're mostly making costumes for other people, or if your own size changes now and then, you might want to get an adjustable dress form (on Craigs list). If you get one that is on the small end, and you can pad it up to whatever your currently working on.

I make a lot of not-fabric garments, all for models between size 6 and size 18, so the adjustable is great for me. I pad it with dish towels (sometimes bath towels!) as I need to. I sometimes have to put a bra on the dress form to make the shape right.

spend the $$$ on the nice form if you're working professionally, or are serious about your draping
the #1 thing about the wolf or equivilant pro forms is that it doesn't fall over no matter how much poking, pulling, prodding, pinning, or 8 layers of denim for that couture jean gown you put on it
from experience, i can tell you the other crap falls over, blows over (when outdoors), dents and otherwises pisses you off at the least opportune moments. you have to hold it in place with one foot when draping or you need to sandbag the base so it is secure
if you're starting out or would like to try 1st, scour your local thrift shops for a trashy one, it's ok if it's ugly, with a bottle of tacky glue and 1.5 yards of nice toile, you can make a beauty! a little bit foam padding can fix any sizing problems as well....

If you are using it just mainly for yourself then make your own with duct tape. I've made one for a friend using this method and it is easy to make and very sturdy.

www.taunton.com/threads/pages/t00002.asp
etsylabs.blogspot.com/2007/03...act.html
www.instructables.com/id/Duct...essform/