Corset Fabrics and IT heaven

It pays, when you are a secret IT geek, to have friends in IT.  Especially when you have a new laptop and they have the software and space licences!  So this evening I am installing a couple of my favourite bits of IT kit, which is generally pretty boring and laptop battery destroying, but ultimately worth it and gives you time to think.

I had rooted round my fabric stash for a pale aqua-green shot silk which I was determined to use as my top corset fabric.  As clearly as I remembered the gorgeous colour, I had forgotten about the cream and beige bands of stripes, not too terrible, and the raised bands of darker green velour, yuck!  Back to the stash it went and, in making space, out came the cotton twill that I used for the skirt of my Victorian outfit.  It is a pretty simple fabric, cream and black stripes, but it has the most beautiful feel, to both work with and wear, and is a firm favourite.  I have more than enough left over to make a corset and a matching bum roll and I have to say I like the idea.  It will be lovely to use it in such a different manner, I need three layers of fabric for this corset and it will go very well with the remaining black cotton drill (left over from the box covers commission) and also with the leftover black coutil that I have.  The cotton drill would make a great choice for the farthingale too.  It would be a nice combination of dark and light; quite the opposite to it's pairing with the pale blue of the Victorian outfit.

I worried for a bit about using black as my intention for the rest of the outfit is soft creams, golds, greens (I think) but as I understand it from my initial look at the pattern, the farthingale will be under a full length kirtle and a full length gown on top of that (I'll certainly be warm!), I won't need to worry that it's black as you'll never see it!  I am also thinking that, if I have time, I would like to incorporate some blackwork embroidery (one of my favourite things to stitch) into the outfit, the black certainly wouldn't be out of place then.

So, in the tradition of using what I have and what's in front of me, buying only when necessary, I could have all the fabric for my Elizabethan underpinnings ready to hand, and more excitingly, to sew... hurry up IT kit!