So here's an old new blog. How did we get here? Well ... A long long time ago, seems like half a century but in fact it's really only about 10 years, I made my first corset. I was inspired by lots of things, but I think what finally did it, was the day I met fan dancer Gwendoline L'Amour who had with her a little tiny suitcase stuffed with costumes, and the most beautiful corset I'd ever seen. This wasn't hard as I hadn't really seen any real corsets up to that point. It was black silk, encrusted with amber jewels and a matching bra. "It was made for me" she said casually as if all women have beautiful things made for them every day and as if she was saying 'this old thing' whilst handling what looked like the crown jewells! "MADE?" I thought? Aren't these things just magicked into existence for goddesses to wear? Happily it seems not. That was one of my moments in time. There have been others that led to this point, but that was the one specifically to do with corsetry. It was a defining moment.
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This was maybe the third corset I ever made. Modelled by moi!
It's the Laughing Moon Dore pattern |
Quite a long time later, I took a year out and honed my sewing skills. It was a time when craft blogs were just starting, dressmaking wasn't a thing, and if you searched for 'how to do a vintage hairstyle' you may have been sadly disappointed at the lack of information. But I started a sewing blog and filled it with silly sewing projects, and domestic tidbits. During that time I had ideas, and those ideas developed, a business was born, and here I am today. I outgrew the blog but there were some interesting bits on there.
Those interesting bits, are now here. And the boring domestic bits are still on the old blog. I've edited the titles and on some posts i've put "edits from the future" because it's funny how things turn out sometimes.
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| The old blog. I still have designs on vintage style but they are corset-centric now |
Everything from this point on will be new musings concentrated on corsetry and couture. I've come a bit of a way since the first post here! I've got a thriving online haberdashery shop which is in it's 6th year of business, specialising in corset making components, I've founded an International Conference, with it's it's third year nearly booked out already, and I've been teaching corsetry for the last 5 years in and around Oxford, but over the last three years, from my woodland studio in West Oxfordshire. I've had students come from all over the world to learn corsetry with me and have just launched The Oxford School of Corsetry, the only school dedicated entirely to the art of corset making in the whole wide world! You can read about some of my journey in the past posts here, and I hope you enjoy reading about the further adventures of Sew Curvy and all it's bits in the future!
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The last corset I made for Oxford Conference of Corsetry.
This is the Pearls of Wisdom Corset and was inspired by the Fellows Library at Jesus College
modelled by Liv Free and photographed by Scott Chalmers |
