Corsetry UK

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:06:01 GMT

Thought some of you might like to see this, i have had it posted on corsetmakers,
It's made from Silver Duchess satin, backed on ice wool and a medium cotton with a poplin lining, the lace is vintage 1960's brown/green which my Nana gave to me, Apart from the steels it still have to add on the matching crystals and make a lace shrug/wrap.

Feedback and comments are so very welcome the images might not be brilliant but i didn't have anything other then my phone!

.

The lace is sewn on by hand with tiny tiny stitches in a close thread match as i could find. I was thinking of putting a lace piece on the back but as of yet i can't make up my mind and even pinning a piece in place looks a bit odd, i think I'll wait till after i put the grommets in which are silver with a silver ribbon to lace it closed.

As well as this one i have three others in the making..... i can't help myself the fabric just has to be used! I'll post pictures of them in due course.

Eyelets

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:49:10 GMT

Does anyone have a prefered type of eyelet punch? If so, where I get one from in the UK?

I've used the ones that Vena Cava sell in the passed without great success I confess - is this just my poor technique or is there a better way?

Interesting item

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:59:39 GMT

Brass Corset

Used as a medical device..btu thought soem people might be inetrested in it

New Community

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 22:56:15 GMT

</b></a>lrp_costume_uk

A nuumber of us who LARP have been frothing rather a lot about costumes on other forums, and I suggested the idea of a dedicated community on maelfroth and within a couple of hours several people wanted to join.

If you make costumes for LARP, please join!

Post pictures, ideas and techniques!

It's still a bit of a work in progress, but feel free to make suggestions.

Breakfast time

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 10:57:36 GMT

Did anyone else see Posh Spice on Breakfast this morning in her corset and teeny pants? It did look yummy I must say.

http://www.hellomagazine.com/photo-galleries.html?imagen=/celebrities/2007/06/06/glamour-awards-posh/imgs/glam-beckham-1a.jpg

EDIT - oh and meant to say that they then had a journalist on in an Agent Provocateur number which wasn't the right size who bitched continuously about uncomfortable she was.

Stitch n Bitch

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 19:22:01 GMT

Had a lovely day today with </a></b></a>queenortart . We went down to my work ( the Community Centre in Tottenham, North London) to use the sewing room, only to find it was about to be full of happy clappys, (We rent the classrooms to Churches on a Sunday) so we used my office instead which has very large wooden furniture, inherited form the previous manager 'cos he thought a big office and big furniture made him look important. I set my beloved 99k up on my desk, and she used my big round meeting table for drafting and cutting, </a></b></a>pengshui_master set his laptop up on my number two's desk, and geeked all afternoon, and we drafted, cut out, sewed, geeked and chatted about frocking and LARPing and re-enacting, and gossip, and gaming from 11.00 until 6.00 pm.

</a></b></a>queenortart finished drafting a corset whe is making for a friend, cut it out, and marked all the seams, and was well on the way to cutting out a mock up of a frock coat to go with it, and I very nearly finished my mockup Silverado. We both agreed that we got tons more done than we would have done on our own, and it was great to have another knowledgeable person to bounce ideas off.

We are definitely planning to do it again, though possibly on a Saturday when we can use the actual sewing room.

We were also in agreement that more people would have been even more fun. If you are in London, and think that mutual frocking would be fun do comment!

X posted a couple of times.

For those with cable/satelite/freeview...BBC 4

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 08:07:47 GMT

Thoroughly Modern: The Corset

Showing as part of the Birth of Now Edwardian season. Tracing the history of the corset, from the Edwardian period to the present day.

BBC Four, Wed 18 Apr, 20:30-21:00 30mins

also whole season on Edwardians btw

Flossing and Cording

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 13:23:02 GMT

Does anyone have a link for how to floss at all?? Or can anyone give me any tips? I know it's purpose etc but would like to know the best thread to use etc. Also do corsetiers here find that their fabrics "shrinks" when using cording and how do they compensate for this (ie making the pattern bigger etc) I have recently made a bodice with cording on it and found that whilst the piece didn't shrink too much the layers kept sliding and in the end didn't end up exactly on top of one another. Does anyone have any tips on how to avoid this?

Whitby gothic weekend

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 17:49:59 GMT

For those of you who dont already know, some of us will be meeting up for afternoon tea at Sherlocks tea rooms on the afternoon of Thursday the 26th, anyone who wants to come along is welcome to join us for tea and cake.

Stolen corsets UK

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:20:51 GMT

A friend was on her way to a historical fashion show and had her car broken into and a bag of corsets stolen
Please keep you eyes open for these

One gold silk brocade, solid front, no busk, front centre has grey webbing on inside.
One Cadbury purple with gold organza overlay
These two are a large size
17th Century stays, dark blue linen with white/cream edging
¾ of 18th Century (stomacher not taken) in grey/blue silk brocade

Also other bits of period underwear.

If any of you hear of anything like these turing up please let me know! Two of the items stolen were parts of wedding dresses so the owners are very upset at the loss!

Cross posted a lot - sorry if you see this several times!

An interesting challenge

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 22:52:15 GMT

My partner is a cross dresser, we are both interested in corsetry, costuming et c. (we do LARP and re-enactment) and she is interested in a serious custom corset.

She has slender hips, a 32" waist, and wears breast forms, she normally wears a 34 or 36 DD.

We are considering a custom corset for her that gives as natural a bustline as is possible to achieve, without showing the forms, reduces her waistline nicely, and is pretty to wear over clothes, or on its own.

We were considering a victorian shape, overbust if acheivable, maybe with a sweetheart neckline. It needs to come quite high over the breasts to support and cup the forms.

Has anyone here experience with a similar challenge, or would like to attempt it? Approx how much would we be looking at spending? (cost is an issue, though she hopes to get an end of year bonus soon, which she is hoping will be enough).

My email is r4venqueen at gmail dot com. We are in the UK.

Currently it is beyond my skill, though I hope to be able to make corsets for both of us one day.

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 16:27:11 GMT

This afternoon I popped out to the Singer Sewing Centre to get some new machine needles. It was a funny little shop, in Chigwell Road, full of slightly foxed looking 80s sewing machines for £50, with a funny little old man as the proprietor.

And there, right at the back, hidden between the other indistinguishable white modern machines was a gem!

A vintage Singer 99K portable electric, all gleaming solid black enamelled metal, first made over 90 years ago, and made to last another hundred.

Weighs a ton, sews anyfabric, any number of layers, perfectly, no skipping, no stopping. I learned to sew on one of these!

£65, and it was a done deal.

Hope this is not off topic, but it is my opinion that these are one of the best machines ever made for heavy duty sewing, and it's probably the one single thing I could do to most improve the quality of my corset- making!

I am the happy!

Anybody out there able to date it for me? I'm figuring 20s or 30s from the bakelite bits.

Crossposted to my lj and corsetry UK

Possible group order?

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:12:14 GMT

Hello everyone!

I'm in the process of putting together an order myself from Devine Supplies down in Essex for a variety of busks and possibly some boning as well.

I know Devine deal in higher quantities than most usually want to buy (for boning at least, as they are sold in blocks of 100 pieces!) but was wondering if anyone would be interested in a group order for busks.

I can dig out their price list tonight and post for comparison if anyone is interested, but I remember from my last order that they tended to be at least £1 per busk cheaper than places such as sewingchest.co.uk or www.venacavadesign.co.uk and they stock both standard, wider, and spoon busks.

I'm hoping to place my own order in a few weeks time, so if anyone would be interested, please let me know and I'll see what I can organise!

Becky
Silk and Steel Designs

A couple of bits of fabric up for grabs

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:04:12 GMT

duck egg blue and pale gold borcade, approx 56"x28"

Bright yellow/green (much brighter than it appears in the picture), reverse sort of silvery green, approx 70"x49"

I can send samples out if anyone can make use of either of these.

Ribbon Corset

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:58:19 GMT

I've decided to make a ribbon corset, as it won't take me long and should, I hope, get me over my 'sewing itch'.

So do any of you know any really good haberdasheries in or around London that will sell really beautiful ribbon?

I will be looking in John Lewis, and probably McCulloch and Wallis (as I've never been there and think I should) and probably Liberties too (although I don't know what their fabric/haberdashery section's like) but are there any other ideas? Any little secret shops that I should know about?

Sewing itch (similar to writers block)

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 11:40:16 GMT

Possibly not the place to be moaning about this, I should probably post it to my own journal, but I'm more likely to get sympathy and possibly a kick up the backside from your good selves. Please delete if inappropriate.

I'm having a sewing itch, I need to be creative, but I'm having absolutely NO inspiration. I don't know what to do about it. Normally if I start sewing something when I feel like this I stop half way through and it NEVER gets completed, so I need something that grabs me round the throat and demands my unadulterated concentration.

I've been having thoughts about either doing a waspie for some time, and I've been floored by this (but then who wouldn't), however I'm not sure I want something as outer-wear, and it would be a shame to cover something like that up. Not that I'm saying I could make something as amazing as that, but I can pretend ;o)

So what am I hoping to get from this post? Well a kick up the backside as I mentioned would be nice, possibly some ideas if anyone has something in their head that they're not going to make themselves, areas of fashion that inspire people, or just tea and sympathy if nothing else.

P.s. I have a couple of books on order that I'm hoping will inspire me.

Hello, my nane is Jenny and I have a corset problem.....

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 14:49:44 GMT

I thought perhaps introductions were in order for those of you that don’t know me.
My name is Jenny and I have been interested in historical costume for a very long time, with a particular fascination with corsets. I have been wearing and making corsets for over ten years. I sew as a hobby not a business and my house appears to be being taken over by piles of fabric! I am also a goth and historical re enactor (predominantly 15th century with a bit of pirating and early medieval thrown in!). I am based in the North West, but have lived in Scotland and the South East too.
I’d love to meet up with more corset enthusiasts, and was wondering if any of you will be at the Whitby Gothic weekend and would like to meet up, perhaps for a spot of afternoon tea?
I’m sorry this sounds like a cross between an introduction for a self help group and a lonely hearts ad!

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 09:11:35 GMT

There are a lot of corset communities already, I know, but I hope that this may be of interest to some of you out there. I intend this to be a community for corset lovers and makers in the UK, to share ideas, information and generaly meet like minded individuals!
It is not intended as a place for sales or advertising your company - there are plenty of communities that cater for that already and seeing the same post six times can get boring!
At present I have kept the membership moderated by myself, this may change at a later date, but lets just see how things go!
I hope you all find it useful!