The making of a yorkie/small dog mannequin…

This entire process of making a yorkie/small dog mannequin is very fascinating. I’m personally very familiar working with professional fashion design dress forms as we are both fashion designers. We have had custom women’s dress forms made & older forms recovered. So, I thought I knew where to go right away for a small dog mannequin.

Not really the case.

We started looking about 6 months ago for a yorkie/small dog mannequin. A few dress form/mannaquin companies really had 0 dog options.

A few did have some dog styles, but they were usually too big & not so nice looking. Nobody really had any attractive tiny, yorkie/small dog mannequin styles which we really wanted. Wow, we did not know it was going to be so hard.

We tried purchasing a few dog patterns online to try out. We cut & sewed them up but they were just too big.

We took the time & size the patterns down, however, it really was not what we needed to design & drape on professionally. Too soft & too wobbly, just not good enough. I personally wanted a dog mannequin that would last a long time, more like our professional dress forms.

Finally, in the last 2 months only, several dress form companies got the hint & started adding dog mannequins!… We found a place that will create a custom dog order for you. That was just what we needed. With my measuring tape & my squiggly little 3.25 pound Yorkie pup “Brigitte”, we recorded her specs, drew up the illustration & sent it right over to start the order.

Listen up, the smaller size does not mean less expensive!..This lil’ 11″ tall doggy costs almost as much as our 5ft. professioal industry dress forms, Ouch! Oh well, we will cherish it & smile ear to ear using this fab doggy for all kinds of things & nobody in the entire world has 1 just like her..:)… Next, we will have to give this fabulous baby dog a name!

Our custom order is almost ready so we are sharing some of the photos of the exciting development process:

Phase #1 – pouring the plaster, letting it dry, then sand/shape it with a round hand sander.

Phase #2 – looks like they cover it with some type of paper? – pic #2

Phase #3 – they will add a thin layer of foam for our draping pins to stick in!

Phase #4 – lastly, they will add the ears & tail, then cover the entire dog with 100% cream Linen just like a professional dress form!

Price – around $285 – ouch.
Timeline – up to 3 weeks.
……we did find a cute less expensive dog (under $30) to use while waiting for our custom yorkie. This one is cute as well…:)) It’s on Amazon –