The funny little horizontal rod is for marking even hemlines- drives me crazy & I'm going to take mine off untill I need to use it. (Try not to kick that sucker...)
Pants, hmmm. I know there are special pants fitting forms that are sort of under the bustline to the knees. You should be able to at least make hip & waist adjustments using the regular form as long as the crotch isn't sewn yet- other than that it gets tricky.
That's My problem tho.... the pants I am altering are actually store bought and just want to make them smaller.. so the crotch is done and sewn up... so Now what?
and thanx for solving that "arm thingy mystery"...heehhee