Duct tape bondage

Ah, that got you interested didn't it? First of all, apologies for not writing for you during the past couple of weeks. I don't know where the time goes but I know I'm busy. There's the local business association, for which I do quite a bit. Then there's the church restoration project and the various events which it spawns.

I've taken to promoting our pub quite heavily since we have some amazing people who've taken it over. They're really interested in the community and the food is excellent. All fresh - nothing out of a plastic bag. I can't afford to eat there all the time - though prices are very reasonable - so I have to try and encourage others so that it becomes really successful.

We have a Titanic commemorative evening coming up at the pub, where people can attend and dine "first class" or "steerage". Appropriate meals will be served depending upon the class of passenger. Of course I need to be wearing a dress of authentic 1912 design. So at the moment I'm sitting with a lot of bits of fabric around me wondering if I can use the £5 dress which I bought in a charity shop as a basis for my Titanic creation.

I've always wanted a dress form - you know a tailor's dummy. And I've come close to ordering one over the past couple of months. But I got a little put off by reading on forums about the different models and that for some it's really difficult to get the dummy adjusted to exactly the right size. Well, I know I'm anything but ordinary. I've a very long back and my arms are a bit long. My legs are actually longer than my husband's although he's taller than me! So I Googled to see if there was any way of making your own dummy.

That is why a week or so ago, with me dressed in an old T-shirt, one of our daughters and my husband spent a couple of hours covering me in duct tape. Yes, you've read that correctly. Duct tape - the silver stuff you use for taping down leads when you're doing a gig. Yards and yards of it - about two and a half rolls of the big reels. I was covered up to my neck and down to my thighs and around the tops of my arms in the stuff and then I was carefully cut out with a jagged cut down the back. I'd read that if you cut a jagged line it makes it much easier to stick it back square.

I have stuffed my dummy with the contents of an old flattened duvet - and actually I really need to find another old one, because it's stll only half filled. It could do with a stand but for the time being it's got a coat hanger in the neck and can hang from a door frame.

The one thing that has shocked me about this exercise is, depsite my weight loss, that it's soooooo big!