My Flabber is Gasted!

Remember I told you that i'd been in the July issue of Sew Magazine?  And they had a competition to win one of my kits??

Well ...

They just called me to tell me that my competiton had the highest response EVER in the history of the magazine! 

Wow!

I'm just amazed!  

Who'd have thought?

Congratulations to the lucky winner!

You can read the full text of my interview with Sew Magazine HERE.

A mood board for a Marie Antoinette

I watched "Marie Antoinette".  Have you seen it?  Oh lordy!  There were Corsets, there were Cakes, there were Shoes and there was Shopping, not to mention all of the rumour and scandal mentioned on the box!  It was a feast for the eyes and the senses ... Blow  historical accuracy, that film was stunning!  

And so I spent ALL DAY on Sunday - bearing in mind EVERYTHING ELSE that I have to do - making a 'mood board' of images inspired by the film - it's the colours I love.  Here's what I ended up with:

 

 

Now I have an idea to "Mood Board" Moulin Rouge, another visual feast ... sigh.

ps: Have you noticed the "musical theme" to my last two titles.

Corset Construction Part 3

As you know, I've been making a 'display' corset from one of the patterns I'm offering for sale as part of a kit. The Simplicity 9769. It's a while since I posted parts ONE and TWO - just click on those links to catch up. At this stage, there are only a few things left to do, but these are the most time consuming! First, the bones need to go in...

There are 20 flat steel bones in this model. These "bones" are made from flattened steel springs which are then coated in plastic - this gives them the flexibility they require in order to mold your body - note: the bones mold your body, not the other way around! No need to use spiral bones as there are no 'horizontal' type curves - ie: the curves go straight up and down.

After the bones are all inserted, the trim needs to go on - I decided to trim a few of the bone channels - hence it goes on after the bones (so you don't sew through the bone channels!) and before the binding (to get a neat finish).


I've had this trim for AGES AND AGES! It's been waiting for just the right project, and I think this is it! It's a Victorian style daisy guipre trim.

Now it's time to bind the top and bottom. This can be done either with bias binding cut from your original fabric, or a contrasting satin bias binding ready made.

This is acetate satin binding. It goes on the top and bottom edges of the corset. This is where my sewing room turns into the "House of Flying Needles" !!

I broke FIVE needles doing this part - my own fault entirely, not paying enough attention. I forgot to move the bones up while I was sewing each respective edge. Humph. As you can see i'm using "sharps". These are special sharp needles, perfect for topstitching all those bone channels and layers. The underside of the binding now needs to be handstitched on the reverse.

Now ... what to do with it??


It's still not finished (binding to be handstitched), and it doesn't float! I needed to make a bust for the display which sort of happened in the middle of things!