Edinburgh heat wave!

All that talk of winter woolens and the temperature in Edinburgh has soared!
25ºC yesterday – I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the hottest days of the year (yes, this summer has been that bad).

I'm not complaining. It is bliss!

The Met Office reckons on Sunday we'll be back to 13ºC so I'm just going to enjoy it while I can.

Autumn has arrived . . .

It's the end of September (where has this year gone?!?), the sunlight is weak and watery and there is a definite sense that the seasons are changing.

What does this mean for me? Well, I won't go out without a scarf for a start. I don't like being cold and last week's slight chill in the air has got me thinking about autumn/winter woolies. (Strangely enough it's warm today.)

I've dug out the crochet hooks and knitting needles that have lain dormant for the summer and am working on some super-dooper, super-cosy woolens. No pics of those here though because I allowed myself to be distracted (again?).To work with the chunky wool I had in mind I needed some new crochet hooks. So, having treated myself to a couple of beautiful new hooks I tried to put them in my knitting needle roll only to find I had no space. Oh dear, I'll have to make one just for the hooks!

. . . here's a little tutorial on the outcome.

Finished canvas corset

I still don't have any photos of the corded canvas corset on my client but I thought, as a filler, I'd let you see the final article . . .

Front showing the cording in place and the pocket on the left hand side

Back with cording next to the lacing panels and with floating lacing protector

The sandwich method of construction creates a really neat inside without having to line

Close up of the cording at the back with the binding in place.

More cording

The most recent canvas corset I've been working on has cording panels at the front and diagonal cording at the back, running from the waist to the top edge.

The diagonal cording was created once the panels were sewn together. I marked up the angle I wanted and top stitched five channels 4mm wide. Odd numbers always seem to look best – I think it's one of those things that mimics nature.

To insert the cording I used an awl to ease open the weave and inserted a loop turner with a nice small head (the stitching lines running parallel to the edge are for the boning for the lacing panels, grommets still to be inserted).

The cording was then hooked onto the loop turner, pulled through and left with a tail at both ends.

Wrong side, showing 'tails' of cording

Right side, showing tails at edge and external boning channel

Once I had checked I was happy with the cording the cord ends were trimmed. I put a few stitches through each for extra stability but they probably don't need it. Once the top edges are stitched and bound the cord can't escape!

The trimmed cords and stabilising stitches

The cording panels for the front were created separately before cutting. This ensured the panels were accurately sized (cording distorts the size and shape of the fabric so, when cording a larger area, some size is lost).

Only the top of the front panels was to be corded so the panels were sewn to the rest of the front using a flat felled seam.

Cording panels in place, showing exterior boning channels and watch pocket on the left

The inside

I love the effect of cording and it's relatively simple to do (even if time consuming). No doubt it will appear again soon!

A sight for sore eyes . . .

I decided to make a waspie/riding corset to my standard pattern (same as this white one but without the cording or black fanlacing) using a nice red and white woven stripe cotton I bought a wee while ago.

At the time I bought the cotton I'd been thinking about circuses and I suppose that leads indirectly to the idea of burlesque and showgirls . . .

So, no vertical stripes for me, I envisaged diagonals so that was what it had to be! The stripe on the fabric is woven so runs with the grain, making the pattern pieces run off the grain when cut as diagonals and therefore a bit stretchy. I knew this would happen so the cotton was flatlined to coutil before making up.

I used a bit of advice from Foundations Revealed (the trace the fabric pattern onto your paper pattern trick – although my pattern is considerably easier to match than the example in the article!) and it worked an absolute treat. It does take a shocking amount of time and pernickety-ness (is that a word?) to get it all working well but the sense of achievement when the diagonals work is fantastic, even if it does make your vision swim!

I thought it was particularly cute seeing the inside seams all trimmed and full of arrows.

So, much, much later this is how it looks. Cute?

Gratuitous pretty flower . . . 

It's been a wee while since I last posted a pretty flower pic and this flower is one that is currently brightening up my kitchen windowsill. It's a type of lily I was gifted by a friend and for the last two years it has just been a pot of leaves. I have no idea what it is but it certainly qualifies as pretty.

Etsy Finds

My steampunk canvas corset has made it into the Etsy Finds e-mail today. Very exciting!

This comes at a time when I have spent a day sewing and hand-basting pieces for my clients 'steampunk corset' – with watch pocket, cording (yes, I was allowed to put some in) and some exterior boning channels. Should be finished tomorrow and hopefully she'll let me take and post some pictures soon.

Sneak preview: corded panels ready for insertion into front panels. The one on the left has one cord more at the top but that's okay because it disappears into the seam allowance anyway!

If you look at the sample cording there really wasn't enough definition to make it work. Here I've used a stiffer backing fabric and, instead of sewing the channels and then threading the cord, placed the cord between the layers, run my nail along the side of it to create a crease and then used a piping foot to stitch hard against the cord (I didn't take any pictures). This means that the curve of the cord shows on the front fabric and the backing is almost totally flat. I don't know how other people do cording but I think the effect is pretty dramatic.

Now I have to work out how to cope with the bulk, especially for binding.

It's been a challenge, trying out new ideas, but good fun so far!