Prototypes . . .

The kids have been asking me to make backpacks for them in bright colours and patterns of their choice so I thought I'd come up with a wee design of my own rather than a straight-forward cobbling together of a version of the type of things they already have.

Cue my prototype, single-strap backpack. Okay, it's not bright or particularly fun in colour but it's made with a sturdy fabric I have in my stash and is good for thrashing around to make sure the style is 'fit for purpose'. Since it is a test piece for shape and size I've just used a heavy-weight calico, black denim for accents and waterproof cotton for lining (HAS to be practical, even for a prototype) and fabulous black webbing.

Daughter no. 2 has been using it and giving a little bit of feedback so that I can work in a couple of tweeks (I'd figured out a couple of things myself by the time I'd finished making it).

Oh yes, and she's had compliments on it when she took it to school. That's always a great boost.
Onwards and upwards . . .

Pewter and steel

My latest lovely . . . 

. . . a pewter coloured silk underbust with a pretty low hip and long busk.

I decided to revisit the 'all in one' construction method (that I'd found too bulky before) this time using silk flatlined to cotton and a slightly less stiff herringbone coutil than the one I used before. The cotton used to interline the silk is dense enough that it can double as a second strength layer so no need to add another layer to the bulk.

This is quite a curvy pattern and even as I was stitching I was loving the curves!

Following each seam a row of topstitching was added to give a super-sharp edge.
The whole effect is quite sculptural, long before the boning (or even the boning channels) are added.

It's so curvy it really doesn't want to lie flat at all!

This sample is a 22" 12-panel corset and, with two bones per seam, there is very little space between bones at the waist.

All to do now is finish the back, bone, floss and bind.

I'm working on flossing designs and will post pics of those later, although looking at these photographs makes me have second thoughts – I love the smooth curves so much.

P.S. Verdict on construction method:

I'm not keen on how bulky one side of the seam becomes and, once made up, there is absolutely no way to modify the fit without completely deconstructing. On the other hand, the two layers are precisely lined up and it's possible to add as many boning channels as you like since it is basically a sandwich method minus the 'lining up' hassles.

The joy of corsetry

I've been cutting and tipping the boning for the sample with the external boning channels.

The gripping and squeezing action with two pairs of pliers is a bit tiring for the hands and wrists so I'm having a wee break to rest my hands since there's a fair bit of steel involved.

Tipping boning is probably my least favourite part of making a corset but I love the look of the piles of steel – especially when finished!

Trying something new (for me)

In the last couple of weeks I have been testing my standard pattern for modern victorian overbust with variations on torso length and top and bottom edge shaping. As I'm making test pieces I thought I'd try out various seaming methods.

It's a Muckle Front Page

One of my bags made it to the Etsy UK front page! A really lovely collection put together by Julia Wright.

Paper corset

Last weekend was another round of fantastic rugby games in the Six Nations. As I prepared to watch Scotland v France at Murrayfield on the TV I knew I wanted to have something constructive to show at the end of almost two hours in front of the box.

I decided to try out a pattern from de Gracieuse, which has an absolutely fantastic on-line resource for patterns for Victorian clothes and underwear. I downloaded some pages of the magazine with corset images and patterns, imported the pattern page into photoshop, started removing lines I didn't need but soon tired of it and decided to just persuade my partner (who has an A2 printer in his office) to print out the pattern page for me at 'human' size and trace off that.

The arrival of spring

The first of March brought with it mild weather and a definite sensation that spring has arrived. It's been a very mild and dry winter here and it feels as though we've almost skipped a season.

Not only is the first of March a notable day in the changing of the seasons but yesterday, as my computer booted up and I opened up the internet, I was greeted by Google UK reminding me of St David's day.

St David is the patron saint of Wales so, as Google encourages us to do, I found myself reading about St David, looking at images of Welsh national costume (as a girl I had a collection of dolls in national costume and a Welsh one was there too!) and flags. The Welsh flag is a powerful and dramatic image, with its red dragon on a white and green background.

From there it was a short hop skip and a jump to heraldic symbolism and the names and rules for using. Yet another thing to try to find time to experiment with!