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I'm a Heterosexual Transvestite who needs advice on body padding so my dresses will fit better.

Tara-- It was great to run across your page on the Web. When visiting a costume shop several years ago, I remember seeing some women's period costumes fitted for a man in a drag role. Being a crossdresser, I was quite impressed. I wanted a job like yours. Anyway, I'm learning to sew with my wife's abandoned sewing machine, and the links you provided look like they're going to be very helpful. Halloween is like Christmas for me, and I
want to start making my own costumes. This year I want to make something up with a long gown and corset. At any rate, it was great to run across your site. It brought back a good memory. If I need advice, may I contact you again? I won't bother you with sewing basics, but I am sewing for a different kind of purpose than most housewives. Cheryl

You are indeed. My new shop manager Jason also cross dresses, as Lady Bracknell, and I'm doing costumes for community service with the new drag theatre in town, so drag is all so much on our minds we are thinking of offering a drag advice section to the Manifesto. This will take time of course, but feel free to ask questions in the meantime. The questions you ask will give us hints on what kind of stuff would be useful. Also If you have any tips or tricks you want to share, please do so, and we will eventually post them. Right now I'm doing a major overhaul because I'm having problems with my server, but I hope to have a chance to work on this eventually. -- ---Tara

A drag theatre in Fairbanks? Wow. I'm glad to hear of it. Probably the biggest concern for me is altering body shape without looking "fake." I am 6'2" and 140 lbs, so I can fit into a size 12 or 14, but that doesn't solve the fact that I have a stick-straight body. I've been trying to think of ways to make foundation garments that would add some padding at the hips and breasts without looking lumpy or being able to see seams. A corset helps my figure some, but the one I have is bulky and it shows on the outside of whatever garment I'm wearing.  Yet another concern is being able to wear dresses that are relatively fitted. Most of the time I end up wearing skirts and blouses. But I don't want to be stuck with skirts and sweaters as my only option. Well, I've rambled on enough. If you have some ideas for me, I'd love to hear from you again. Take your time in responding. I know you're probably rather busy. Thanks, Cheryl

Dear Cheryl, We at UAF are presently working on this problem in our assistance of KDQ's upcoming show opening on Friday. I and Jason (my assistant aka Lady Bracknell) will probably work on web pages on this in the future. In the meantime here are some tips: 1. You can buy any and all suitable body padding/cinching underwear at Fredericks of Hollywood. They show these items on already voluptuous female models, but it's obvious a number of the padded girdle-waistcinch items and artificial breasts are intended mainly to assist the transvestite in search of the best quality understructure. 2. since Fredericks is not cheap, let me tell you about boobs: To do your own boobs at home, without spending a lot of money you probably want to do two things to get a natural appearance. The two things that look least realistic when a man puts on an ordinary bra with padding is that the padding doesn't move or get shaped naturally nor is the bra at the right height. Women don't have their bras ride up because their breasts are holding them down. Men need a longer line bra, preferably a lightly boned bustier with soft bra cups, or a light knit underwear bodysuit with built in bra so that the "breasts" stay down where they look natural. Even just wearing a normal bra in a large enough size, with the shoulder straps let down as far as possible helps a lot. The second thing you want if you don't like the bullet breasted look of "foam domes" is to fill the cups with beans instead. You can make the beanbag a separate piece that comes out for laundering or you can just put them in the cup and sew a piece of cloth to the inside of the bra to hold it in place. If you want ultra realism you can butcher "blue ice" ice packs or the plastic powdered stuff they sell in garden shops that swells into little gelatinous chunks when soaked in water. These both obviously have to be put into plastic baggie falsies to avoid wetting clothing. 3. As for hips, this is best done with a Frederick's padded girdle, but if you really want to make your own, cut a pair of egg shaped pieces of 1" foam mattress pad, trim the edges with scissors or an electric knife so that the egg is beveled on one side, and then sew them to the buttocks of a not too tight panty-girdle by laying t-shirt type knit over the egg pieces and sewing around the edges to form a pocket around the eggs. You will need to do this with the girdle on a body or an old mannequin's bottom half. Well, I hope this helps! -- ---Tara Maginnis

Tara-- Thanks for the tips. You're a wonderful resource. I wish I was still an Alaskan so I could see the show. Cheryl

Another tip: Rachel Slurr "The Ugliest Drag Queen in Alaska" (he wears a beard and deliberately dresses as tacky as possible) came up with a better cheaper hip pad idea. He went to Value Village (like Salvation Army but bigger) and bought a set of hockey padding for a dollar. It fits on like a girdle and has a built in foam pad for protecting the tail bone and pelvis from falls on the ice. Sounds great to me. -- ---Tara