The Birthday Masquerade – at long last!

Yes, that’s right – photos of my Birthday Masquerade, finally! (And, of course, I was clearly far too optimistic in my last post – if anyone ever tries to tell you that being a teacher is easy, please give them a slap from me.  I’ve never been so exhausted in my life.  I’m loving it, [...]

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Decisions and Deadlines

Hmm… so, the problem is that I’m a bit behind schedule on my three projects: the PoP: Tamina costume for the Historical Costume Inspiration Festival; my Birthday Masquerade outfit (AKA, Lady Luck Pierrot outfit); and a waistcoat for my young man (for work and for his steampunk outfit for my Birthday Masquerade Party). Prince of [...]

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Stays, Now With Eyelets!

Yep, that’s right – all those pesky little hand-sewn eyelets are done and the straps are attached: Though they started off a little shaky: The bottom one that you can’t see very well was my first effort – it’s probably just as well it’s not very clear on the photo as it looks awful!!  I [...]

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Film Costume Love, Part I: The Good Doctor

I can’t believe I forgot to blog about this when I first saw it – clearly I had a lobotmy that week – so here it is now and my gushing about how much I love it: Yep, I said it – I don’t mean her (nothing against Lily Cole, it’s just not her I’m [...]

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Stays, Stitches and Spectacles

What a weekend! Friday – I got home from work to this yumminess: (They’re a bit creased as I’ve hand-washed them, but haven’t ironed yet.) The photos really don’t do these fabrics justice.  I’ll confess, I’ve been too busy to do a burn test, but from the feel of the fraying threads on the cut [...]

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Cable Ties, Ready To Go

At last – I’ve finished cutting and filing down all the cable ties for the stays!! My hands hurt and I did manage to stab myself in the knee (it bled quite a bit, but not on the stays, which is the important thing), but the boning is ready to go. Oh and I nearly [...]

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Stays – The Mock-Up (Or mockery?!)

The mock-up is done!  And The Boy was good enough to help me try them on (note to self – front-lacing stays in future – I hadn’t appreciated before just how much of a pain it is having to wait for someone else to help you dress!). I took a few pics to help me [...]

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Not the Saturday Shoe – How About Free Pattern Sunday?

OK, so yesterday’s Saturday Shoe didn’t happen.  Instead Ikea happened.  And after Ikea happened (for three hours!) the making of the things from Ikea happened.  It’s great because the flat is looking awesome and most of the storage problems in our bedroom should be sorted out (huzzah!), but it’s not so great because I’ve discovered [...]

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Sewing Machine Goodness

I have taken those promised photos of my lovely new sewing machine: Snug in its little case. Awake and raring to go! It even has all the original feet that came with it and the instruction manual, which revealed a cute coincidence … In the back is the original guarantee/warranty receipt with a space for [...]

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Stays – Bias Binding

I’ve been having a bit of a headache trying to find a fabric to use to make bias binding for my stays – everything I see that’s the right colour is too stiff or too thin. My Mum came down to visit this weekend, so we went to Chichester yesterday and I knethere was a [...]

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