Ru Pole Mannequin Makeover

A little back story on "Ru Pole" the mannequin.  I bought her about 15 years ago when my kids were small.  I used to sell on ebay and needed something besides the back of a chair to post pictures of sweaters and jackets, etc.  The kids decided at the time the mannequin needed a name and decided on Ru Pole, after Ru Paul who had a popular song out at the time.  Each time the kids walked by it I heard, "work it girl".  Well, the kids are grown now and on  their own and poor neglected Ru sits in the corner of a spare bedroom gathering dust.

I recently started redoing one of the spare bedrooms into an office/craft room and was thinking maybe there could be some way I could incorporate Ru into the decor but not in her present state.  Don't you hate when you're in the middle of a major project, get bored at doing the same thing for hours and decide to break up the monotony by starting another project?  

This was my first project using Modge Podge and I have to say, I'm hooked.  It was a little messy at first and I was having problems with the pages sticking to the cloth body on the mannequin but after I had about a quarter of it done, the rest was easy peasy.

The only problem I did have is, when I was completely done and it was dry, I started to add some Poly to it thinking it would make a protective coating.  This was not a good thing to do at all.  All the Poly did was make big wet, dark spots.  It's a good thing I only applied it on a few spots.  I ended up putting more Modge Podge and pages over the spots that looked terrible.  I sanded down the wood topper and stand and stained a dark walnut.

Now to finish the craft room.......

xoxo

Jeri

http://www.beneathmyheart.net/2012/02/best-diy-projects-of-february-linky-party/

              http://www.addicted2decorating.com

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