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.