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

Just a quick update on the red dress. The bodice is almost done, just the zip to put in at the back. I'm covered in sequins, but am so happy in how's it's progressing! And this arrived yesterday, my new overlocker! It just makes life so much easier! I'm going to try and send my old one back to the British Sewing Centre and demand a refund, which may be a challenge, going on reviews from other people trying to do the same thing. Wish me luck!

Me and the boyfriend have decided to make this iconic dress from the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (he's Jane Russell, and i'm Marilyn) for our Christmas outing at Cybil's House . I know it's not Christmasey (apart from being red maybe), but it's a good excuse to try and make it. Yeah, this really is a challenge! It was a challenge just sourcing the material. I searched everywhere online and only found one place that stocked it, but they were out of stock. When I contacted them, they told me that the material had been discontinued. I had tried all my usual shops, but one day I decided to visit Shepherds Bush, in West London. There's a whole street full of fabric shops there. After visiting six or seven shops, I finally found it at Toni Textiles . There was only five meters left on the roll, so I took the lot! We began by creating a toile, a test version of the bodice, so that adjustments could be made. I have never done this before, but for th...

Every third Saturday of the month, at a club not far from me is a club night called Cybil's House . It's an amazing party,  great music, a good variety of performers and a good mix of people in/out of drag. I don't claim to be any good at drag, but I enjoy the creativity, the dressing up, expressing myself and not giving a damn what anyone thinks. Every month is themed, and the next party was going to be musicals. I decided to do Norma Desmond from the musical Sunset Boulevard. A musical icon, brilliantly portrayed by Glenn Close. The look that I wanted to re-created was this; First thing was to source some fabric. Not far from where I live is a fabric store at Watney market. Prices are reasonable and there's a good selection of fabrics. The first fabric I found was (1) below. However, I felt the print was too big, although it was reasonably priced at £3 a metre. (1) I then moved on to Dalston to Dalston Mill Fabrics. This shop is amazing...