Sewing Gage

Photo by Captured by Corinne Photo by  Captured by Corinne Photo by  Captured by Corinne Just a few pics of the Marilyn dress finally completed. I really enjoyed making this, it was time consuming but I love the result. It's the first time I made a toile to get the fitting spot on before making the final garment, and it fitted perfectly.  The boyfriend made the headpieces, which were stunning! We even made the gay press. (c) QX Magazine (c) Boyz Magazine

My friend Phill approached me to ask if I could recreate the headpiece worn by Verka Serduchka in the 2007 Eurovision song contest, and of course I said yes! (I do anything for a Chinese takeaway and some wine). I started by making the start out of mirrored cardboard. There are loads of templates online to use, so I chose one and scaled it to the size I needed. I then got Phill over and made a plaster cast of his head. Once that was done, I hot glue gunned strips of thin foam to the inside, so it sat a little more comfortable. I then stuck on mirror tiles (available from ebay) with a hot glue gun. And then finished the edges with some silver trimming with more mirror tiles stuck on top of that; It then made its way to Germany all in one piece for the Kölner Karneval in Cologne.

I absolutely loved the costume in Maleficent, so I decided to try and recreate one of the costumes from the film for Halloween. I knew which one it was going to be, the gown worn during the christening scene, I just loved it; I found the perfect material from the Wimbledon Sewing Centre in Tooting Bec, a crushed polyester, at £5.50 a meter. I've never made a whole dress from scratch before, so this was certainly a challenge. First thing I needed to do was to work out how it would come together with the separate pattern pieces. I wanted the lines of the folded fabric to run diagonally, so I knew I had to cut the fabric on the bias, which would also help with the shape and drape of the dress. I started with the bodice, and, as mentioned before, cutting the fabric on the bias. These were sewn together on the overlocker to form the bodice; The skirt was cut in the same way and attached to the bodice; The sleeve...