Sewing Gage

As mentioned before, every month I go to, in my opinion, one of the best night's in London, Cybil's House , hosted by Cybil of course. I put an idea to Cybil to create a combination of a corset and a leather harness. I'm going to call it a corness. The material used was a faux leather from Dalston Mill fabrics. This was of my own design and I set about creating the pattern. Initially  I was going to just sew the straps to the corset part, but i wanted it to be all one piece and the straps grow out from the corset. I wasn't entirely happy with my sewing between the panels, so, to resolve this I got some trimming to cover up my bad work and I think it actually enhanced the piece.

After the corset, I was ready for another challenge. I decided to do something a little more masc - a waistcoat. This was a real challenge, I've never attempted any sort of tailoring before let alone the welt pockets! I decided to use Vogue pattern 7488. The fabric I used was a woolen Herringbone from minerva crafts . I managed to get this far, and then I got stuck on the lapel. The instructions in the pattern made absolutely no sense. I couldn't decipher it. I needed help. Luckily, I have a friend, James , who works at Budd Tailors . So, I called on him for help. He guided me through the pattern and I finally finished it, and was pretty impressed with the result.

With all the expensive fabric I had left from the Norma outfit, I decided to make a corset. Again, diving in the deep end and trying something tricky. I'm always up for a challenge. I decide to use the Simplicity 1345 pattern, corset C; I already had the fabric, but ordered the eyelets, steel bones and busk from sewcurvy . I found it easier than I initially thought, and for some reason people are scared to tackle something like a corset. But it really wasn't that bad, in fact it was easier sewing something with smaller panels, than working with larger pieces of fabric, like Norma's outfit. And this is how it eventually turned out; The theme for Cybil's House this month is Easter. So, taking my inspiration from the film Easter Parade, I decided to add a bustle to the corset. Unfortunately though, I never made it to Cybil's as I had to work :-(