NY Day One

It's been a lovely day in NY NY.

After a very late night (21hrs awake in total) and a great NY dinner of takeaway pizza and Snapples the boyf and I woke up to the Royal Wedding.. some things you can't avoid, and rather glad I didn't, feeling proud to be British. We then left the hotel about 8.30am walked south from the hotel on 39th via as many landmarks as we could fit in. Its just over 3 miles as the crow flies, I think we managed to double it and my feet are telling me that it felt like even more :) But the sun shone the whole day, I am entranced by NY and the architecture and we met some great people.

Highlights included the Empire State Building, jazz in Washington Sq Park, lunch at a gorgeous Italian in TriBeCa with the friendliest waiter, and the Memorial Preview Centre at Ground Zero which brought me to tears.

Last, but not least, a quick trip up to Mood... It was everything I expected, packed to the rafters with bolt after bolt of fabric, way too much to try and choose from, slightly grumpy staff and the bulldog! Thanks to the very patient boyf, who is far more fabric-aware than he'd ever want to admit, I am very pleased with my purchases which have just enough classic and quirk to suit both me and do justice to the historical nature of the dress.... I hope! I am excited to get home and start working with them... And may also just need to pop into a trim shop or two as they are everywhere I look and brimming with gorgeous things...

Miss K's Corset Card...

It's Miss K's birthday this weekend... the girls and I, in a moment of madness, decided that we'd make her a corset one weekend: a present-girly day in-bit of a laugh all round-in-one present. So, to get things started we decided that she'd need to get measured up... a job for the boyf, not us!

The card is meant to look like an old pattern packet, with instructions inside and a tag tied onto a ribbon bow to close. I wanted a naughty but nice, vintage look for the card, envelope and measuring instructions. I deliberately mixed up various baroque elements, handwritten and ornate fonts, as I wanted a classic feel which wasn't too perfect. I'm pleased with the results and delighted to say that Miss K was very pleased too.

In preparation for NY

I have bought the pattern for the rest of my Victorian costume, I hope to by the fabric at Mood as our hotel is only 2 blocks away... They're all from Truly Victorian's Natural Form range.

Here's to a couple of hours rummaging, not that the boyf knows this yet ;)

Does half a corset a corset builder make?

So I sat down last night to start the corset properly; sewing in the hoop side of the busk and then continuing to add panels round to the back seam.  Although I'm using Alasse's pattern, I also have a copy of How to Build a Corset which is now thumbed, annotated, post-it noted within an inch of it's life and the prospect of sewing steel into fabric for the first time in my 36-odd years had me checking, double-checking and "just checking again"! 

I started  by deciding where to place the busk, marked the openings for the busk hoops and then (wrong sides together) sewed the seam, leaving gaps where the hoops would be pushed through.  Once I actully commited needle to fabric, I was very pleased with how the coutil, canvas, fabric combination stayed together and was a pleasure to sew; though I put a sharp needle in the machine just to be sure.  The seam was then pressed open, the fabrics folded wrong sides together and pressed again.  Pins were placed where the gaps were and I sewed down the seam 1.5mm from the edge.  I unpicked and resewed a couple of the seams and will possibly do so again as I've not tied them off sufficiently and they are coming loose!  Annoying, and there is no suggestion of how to finish them so that they hold, I think I will tie them off and sew the excess thread through. 

The busk was then pushed into the seam and the hoops through their gaps.  I changed the machine foot to a zipper foot and sewed a line of stitching down the far side of the busk to hold this tight to the edge seam.  I actually sewed this twice as I didn't think that the first was close enough, and then panic un-picked the first seam, certain that in doing so I would catch the fabric and pull a thread... thankfully, all went well.

Finally, flushed with success and at 10.30pm on a school night!, I decided to sew on the next panel.  I paid no attention to anyone's instructions here and decided to sew the front and back panels on separately, which I can do thanks to my design for the corset; external bone casings that are both decorative and will hold the front and back layers together.  Careful pinning and a little adjusting on a couple of seams and I'm pleased; I was able to sew all the panels, round to the back, together in less than an hour.  I pinned a couple of bone casings onto the panels to see how they would look, but ordered 3" too short a length of casing... back to Vena Cava for some more casing and a little patience whilst I enjoy New York before I can get on with the other side....

But... I have half a corset made!! :o)

An evening at Casa B...

We went to the B's for a BBQ dinner... driving to any dinner with a bowl of homemade potato salad, 5 yr old Tempranillo and your corset-in-progress in a bag on your lap is a pretty good indication that it's going to be a good one and the B's did not let us down!  Thank you both for a fabulous evening at Casa B with great food (legendary lemon meringue pie!), wine and lots of laughter; the perfect end to the weekend xx