Pad Those Hips!By Jami WardJanet's system, and the pads I originally explained how to make, were suited to blouse/skirt sets and dresses designed for the average height woman. However, they did not work quite so well with dresses designed for longer-waisted "tall" fashions or with pants. Face it - as much as we say we only want to wear skirts, there are times when slacks or blue jeans are appropriate and great to wear! The second thing I learned was that wearing the pads in this way placed the widest part of the hipline too close to the waistline. When we pad our hips we tend to add to the widest point of our male hipline, which is about an inch above the crotch. The widest point of a female's hips is in a direct line with her crotch or even up to an inch lower. The hips must not "shoot out" from the waistline but, rather, should be a gradual taper out to the widest point - the crotch line - and then back to the thigh. Lastly, the pads addressed only the hips and not the buttocks. Males have hollow areas in the musculature of their butt cheeks. As with their hips, females have fat deposits which fill in these hollows, giving their fannies rounded contours. This is what we need to duplicate. I disagree with the need to pad the very rear of the buttocks (like padded girdles do) to achieve a feminine shape. Your hips and fanny don't have to be large to be feminine, just properly contoured. Within reason, what would be considered 'flat' buttocks even for a male can be made shapely with the style of pads described here. How to construct your hip pads:1. Go to your local carpet/furniture store and buy a linear yard of "Omalon Spec 2"® commercial carpet padding. Your local store doesn't carry it? Find another store that does! I can recommend no other material for making hip pads. Once you use Spec 2 you'll understand why. A linear yard will cost less than $20.00 and will give you sufficient material to make at least two or three sets of pads - plenty to allow for experimentation, mistakes, etc. At that price are you going to complain? 2. Take off all your clothes and stand in front of a full-length mirror. You can make all the following measurements yourself, but it's easier if you have a helper. Tie a string around your natural waist. Tie a second string around your upper thigh at the crotch. Then tie a third string around your thigh half the distance between the crotch and the top of the kneecap. Measure between the waist and mid-thigh strings along the outside of your hip and subtract three inches. This measurement is the long length of your hip pads. Measure from the waist string down to the bottom of the crotch string. Again, subtract three inches. This will be the height of the butt cheek portion of the pads. Determining the width of the pads is a little trickier and will depend on your body shape and size. Visualize a line running down the outside center of your hip, thigh and leg. Figure how far forward of that line you want the pads to come, but remember not to come too far or there will be problems when sitting. Basically, you want to cover just the side of your leg and thigh. For me, 3 in. was right. Take that measurement and double it. That will be the width of the long portion of the pad that runs down your thigh. From that same point forward of the outside centerline, measure back through the center of the hollow in your butt to the mid-point where your cheeks meet. Subtracting an inch from this measurement will give the width of the butt cheek section. I am 5ft., 11 in. tall, and weigh 175 pounds. Illustration "A" shows how the above measurements worked out for me. (Your mileage may vary.) Remember, it is better to cut too big as you can always trim off the excess. Cut too small and you have to start over. 3. Spec 2 has a smooth "skin" side and a rough side. The skin side will be facing out and the rough side will be against your own skin. Lay the material so that the rough side is up. This way the layout lines will not show on the finished product. Mark and cut out the first layer from the pad according to your measurements. Cut out a second pad two inches smaller in width and height. Then, cut a third pad two inches smaller than the second. See Illustration "B". 4. To cut the pad for the other hip you must remember that it will be the mirror image opposite of the ones you just did. Laying the rough side of each piece you just cut against the rough side of the material and then tracing it will ensure that you cut "rights" and "lefts". It's probably not a bad idea to mark each piece on the center of the rough side as either a right or a left to avoid confusion later. When the cutting is done, you should have two sets of three layers each which, when laid atop each other, should look like Illustration "C". 5. Trim all the pieces to the approximate shape shown in Illustration "D", which basically involves just rounding all the corners. Lay the largest pieces on the table skin sides down and center the next smaller piece on the larger piece. Repeat for the smallest piece. You will then have two pads which are 3/8 in. thick at the outside edge and 1-1/8 in. thick in the center. 6. Slip into an old pair of pantyhose - control top works well for this - but don't pull them all the way up. Pick up each pad (you will have to hold the layers together at this point) and place it on your hip with the smallest piece to the inside, largest to the outside. Position the top of each pad so it is about three inches below your natural waist with the long section centered on the side of your hip and down your leg. Now, work the pantyhose all the way up so that they hold the pads in place. Then go look at your shape in the mirror. Does everything look great, or at least, good? Is the widest part of your new hips even with the crotch line? Do your new hips taper from your waist to their widest point and then down to the center of your thighs? If necessary, compare your shape with a photo from a woman's swimsuit or panty ad in a catalog. Allow for the fact that the edges of the layers have not been beveled as yet. Still not right? Trim the pads as you feel necessary. You may also find it necessary, depending on your shape, to add or subtract layers. I had to add two more layers, oval, to the part of the pads that covered the hollow in my butt cheeks and a small strip to the thigh area to get the exact shape I wanted. EXPERIMENT...you have plenty of material to play with! 7. When you are happy with the shape of the pads, outline each piece on the back (rough) side of the larger piece next to it and then break the pads up again into their individual pieces. Now comes the tedious part. Arrange all pieces with the smooth (skin) side down. Using a pair of sharp scissors on the rough side of each piece, bevel the edges in as gradual a taper as you can from the line drawn on the back to the outer corner on the smooth front side. Bevel the edge of the smallest pieces to match the taper on the rest of the pieces. You will probably find it easiest to run the scissors, held at an angle, along the edge. It has also been reported that a sharp reciprocating-type electric knife, a Dremel Moto-Tool® with a rotating cutting blade or lots of single-edge razor blades will work. Again, experiment and practice on some scraps to find what works best for you. Whatever you use, take your time, work carefully and do the job right. 8. When the edges are beveled to your satisfaction, (and they don't have to be absolutely perfect) again lay the pieces out, skin side down, largest to smallest in two groups, lefts and rights. Put a strip of contact cement from top to bottom down the center of the rough side of the largest piece and the skin side of the second largest piece for one hip. (Test the glue on a piece of scrap to ensure that it works OK.) After the recommended set-up time for the glue, center the pieces together again and press them in place. Do the same for each of the smaller pieces, smooth side of the smaller piece glued to the rough side of the next larger accumulation of pieces. You should finally end up with a completed hip pad that looks like Illustration "E". Do the same for the other pad and you're done. If you want, you can buy some skin-tone latex paint to color the outer (smooth) side, but that's not absolutely necessary. With these new pads, one can feel free to buy those tight, sexy slacks or dress she has been looking at, knowing that her new hips will fill them properly. When combined with a good waist-cincher or, better yet, a quality corset, WOW! (NOTE: Those who prefer miniskirts may find it necessary to shorten the part of the pads that extends down the thigh, or even to eliminate it altogether. In that case, I recommend making two sets of pads, one to wear with your shorter skirts and one to wear with your slacks or jeans and longer outfits.) Copyright © 1997 Jami Ward |