Unusual tools for sewing

Have you laid a wooden or laminate floor lately?  In which case - have you got some of these ....

I said BLOCK!

This is a "heavy duty knocking block" - sounds a bit risque doesn't it?   I use it for weighting my patterns - like this...

tracing a corset block from a master pattern

I also use large washers to weigh down pattern pieces on fabric.  You can get them from any hardware shop.  Mine cost 5p each - i've got 20.  They are indispensable.  I'm going to make some heavy duty ones by glueing two washers together.  I use the washers to hold the patterns in place, and then the knocking block to hold the pattern piece and the fabric in place while I cut it out with the rotary cutter.  

When I use my washer weights, I feel like a croupier!

As for my indispensable sewing tools - the rotary cutter you see pictured, my graders set square which isn't pictured, and my lovely wonderful French curve.  Sewing tools I just couldn't live without these days.

This is not the same as the Shoben Patternmaster which I have put firmly in the dustbin.

My first bridal corset commission - Done!

There has been blood, there has been sweat, there have been tears, there has been swearing, and sobbing and also hystericaly euphorical moments, all of which have contributed to the completion of my first ever paid commission ...

It's been a very very steep learning curve.  Even though I have made lots of corsets and been studying the subject for years,  I have learned more than I could ever have imagined by doing this,  and I have made some wonderful corset making friends along the way, some of whom I'll be meeting on 20 August at the Foundations Revealed field trip to the Symington Collection of Corsets.  Details here.

Luckily today was a beautiful sunny day and so I took her outside for a photo shoot.

Now all I need to do is think of a name for my 'label' ... Any ideas?  Anyone?

Sew Curvy Competition

Oh no!  It seems that I am unable to purchase my signature black boxes which I pack my corset kits in.  Apparently it has become impossible for manufacturers to purchase black board economically, and as my boxes are thoroughly eco friendly (no plastic coating or other un-biodegradable nasties) I am unwilling to source a more 'shiny' alternative.  I can get the same box in brown or white, but they seem a bit boring to me, and they don't go with pink ribbons so well!

SO, we're having a little competition, and here is the prize:

It is the new (ish) book by Velda Lauder, Corsets:  A Modern Girls Guide.. It's a lovely little handbag sized book all about corsets, but most specifically, those delicious creations by one of the UK's leading corsetiers Velda Lauder.  It was her corsets which inspired me to start making them for myself, and now for other people.

Inside, there are sumptuous pictures and the information  starts in the historical beginnings of corsetry right up to 'modern' corsetry against backdrops of high fashion, couture, burlesque, and fetish.  Is right up to the minute - including details from London Fashion Week 2010.  

There are pictures and words about other famous designers, their corsets, and their clients - here's one of Kylie Minogue in a space age style silver corset by Jean Paul Gaultier.

So!  Get your thinking caps on people.  This book will be sent to the person who can think of the best alternative idea on how to package my very popular corset kits.  Here are the rules:

• I need to be able to package my corset kits in a way that makes people feel 'special' when they receive it. A gift for themselves or a gift for someone else.  My current package includes the black box, pink ribbons and pink tissue.  In other words,  if you were to buy a corset kit containing all parts required to make a corset, how would you like it to be presented?

• The packaging needs to be pretty, light weight, inexpensive and eco-friendly - all parts need to be either biodegradable, recyclable, or re-usable.  It need not be a box, but I do not want to use plastic and I need to be able to use my labels so that people know what they're getting.

Competition is open to anyone where ever you are!  The best / most original idea will win.

Closing date is Friday 22 July.  Enter as many times as you like, using the competition form on my website here:  Sew Curvy Corsetry: Competition

Please spread the word! The more entries the better.

Been and gone ..

I've been away! Not that you'd probably notice ... I've been to north east Italy to see my friend who I refer to here as 'The Italian Connection'.  She's not Italian, just lives there, and we've been best friends for 22 years this September!  We had a perfectly girly (or girlily perfect?) 4 days filled with peace and quiet, husbandless solitude, lots of chatting, eating, more chatting, more eating and general flopping about in the sun ... absolute bliss.

I must have needed the break! It's been non stop frenzy at Sew Curvy HQ ever since I returned on Friday, but in a good, refreshed way.  Not only did I wrap up a large backlog of a orders, I also changed around my sewing room so that it now resembles a proper studio.  I'm VERY pleased with the results.  Mr Marmalade made some 'stilts' for my regular table making into a perfect cutting table, and we moved an armoir downstairs where it is more useful.  He also constructed a 'bone holder' for all the different sized corset bones I have to keep organised. I now have a useful, workable area for sewing, design and admin. 

Here's the 'design and making' side - can you see the stilts on the table?:

Here's the 'sewing and admin' side:

I even managed to utilise some CD shelves which would otherwise have been passed on for recycling elsewhere - now that we all have ipods, there is no need for CD's to sit around collecting dust (we don't even have a CD player in the house).  Ideal for storing rolls of ribbon, tape, threads etc for my shop.

So it's been all go, but now thanks to long luxurious evening drinks on an Italian patio, I am itching like mad!  We were right in the sticks there and I was practically eaten alive!    Luckily, my friend Jane has posted a timely tutorial on her blog The Soap Teacher, giving instructions on how to make an antiseptic balm which takes the sting away from bites.  A summer essential for anyone I think!

Corset book is nearly done

My book is due this month so I'm working very hard to tie up all the loose odds and ends,  bring it all together chapter by chapter, zip the files up and send them to my Publisher.  It's hard work and all consuming but no pain no gain !

One of the difficulties is pictures.  Where do I get nice corsetty pictures for my book, without infringing any copyrights, or having to pay through the nose?  Well .. most of the book is tutorial, which means photos and video taken as I go.  The intro chapters, and the bits where I talk about corsetry through the ages, are a little more challenging, but for this I have found a few copyright free images, and the rest, I have drawn myself using a nifty piece of software called Artrage.  I love it because it's much more like proper drawing than other arty packages such as Illustrator and Photoshop but it still uses similar technologies such as layers.  Here's one I 'drew' earlier to illustrate the archetypal Victorian corset shape - small waist, rounded bust and hips:

I have also been in touch with a local museum to see if they would let me photograph some of their items.  They said yes, and waived a large part of their copyright fee, but more excitingly, they put me in touch with a lady who has a private family collection.  I went to see her last week, and though I can't show you what she showed me - because I haven't got any pics - I can tell you that I spent an entire afternoon with her, clutching the most exquisitely carved and polished 1795 stay busk which would have been slotted into the front of a pair of stays a little like this:

source

.... and examining a huge huge pile (and I mean a mountainous pile) of beautiful Victorian and Edwardian underwear and dresses which had belonged to her grandmother!  Not only that, but the lady was able to show me pictures of her ancestors, wearing the very clothes I was looking at!  It was a surreal afternoon I can tell you, and extremely enjoyable.

Future plans and skirt revision

Thank you all so much for the lovely and kind comments on my last post, all very much appreciated and gratefully received.  It is indeed extremely exciting, not least because i've spent the last 40 years wondering just what it is that I would like to do ... and now I know!  Hurray!  I wish it hadn't taken quite so long, but I do beleive in fate and the fact that everything has it's time and place, and even pace .. I am feeling very positive and I'm also looking forward to more blogging time!

I'm continuing with my skirt making 'series' which never got past the pencil stage last year!  Never fear that I have forgotton though, because I have now drawn the diagrams for my high waisted pencil skirt, with belt attachment and with lining based on a technique I found in Threads magazine.  If you want to make your own skirts, here are my first three tutorials on how to get to the pencil skirt stage:

Skirt block - part 1, measuring and drawing the block

Skirt block - part 2, shaping the block with darts

Skirt block - part 3, making a plain pencil skirt from the block

I hope to post the next tutorial this week sometime so watch this space!

A historical moment

I have resigned from the day job .. HURRAH!!!!

I have decided to focus 100% on Sew Curvy

I have new supplies for the shop and big expansion plans!

and ...

I am going to start making corsets for a living.

I am going to become a full time corsetiere!

Isn't it exciting?!

I have spent years consternating over suitable names for such a business, and suddenly, the other day I settled on one I'd never thought of before and quickly bought up the  domains.

I have so many ideas my head is BURSTING!

I am learning Dreamweaver in the final weeks of the day job and so should be able to build and manage my own websites which in itself is an exciting design project.

seeds have been planted

On the home front, the greenhouse and all the pots have been cleaned and de-cobwebbed, the compost is ready, the seeds have been bought (from The Real Seed Catalogue), the windowsills are laden with pots, and my chickens are laying again!

Everything is so exciting!!