Friday 7 October 2011

Walk Down The Canal


I’m still waiting to get my sewing machine, I’m desperately trying be productive and not fauxductive. I’ve set myself a target to create something everyday, so yesterday when it had got to 2pm I was feeling like it was time for action, then I got a text from a friend  who was going for a walk down the canal, It worked out perfectly because I had been meaning to take some picture’s there for a while.


The picture I came out with were not entirely what I expected. My corset books arrived yesterday. The pictures of the flossed corsets had clearly seeped into my imagination already as all I could see was silhouettes That were ripe for embroidery (and screen printing, when I can get my hands on the kit to do it).





When I got home I found a needle and a scrap of fabric, unfortunately I think I was in High School last time did an embroidery stitch, so I found a helpful Blog and after a quick refresher I was away. With the questionable results on the left.








Thursday 6 October 2011

Corset and Pictures





At first This blog was going to be a corset related affair but I've decided to open it up to all of my Creative endeavours.
Here's some experimental images I took today.

I'm looking forward to when I get a chance to light these properly, but there fun as a statement of intent. I find it difficult discussing the ideas behind self portraits but I'm Going to try.....




 



I had a rather interesting week about a month ago, lets just say Hunter S Thompson would be proud. The Week resulted in a two-week recovery and a lot of introspection.  My most over-riding thought from this time is that I have been in a waking dream for the last few years. Sure I was functioning perfectly normal as far society tell me what I'm supposed to do but I had been avoiding all creativity endeavours that might mean I actually felt something. I was doing that because It's a peaceful existence where the bad things can't get you. unfortunately neither can the good things.



Monday 3 October 2011

Lacing Solution




I was filling my virtual shopping Cart When I saw Eyelet Tape With Boning Channels  - my corset salvation. Corset condrum quashed. I dont have to worry about my limited supply of vintage fabric being ruined, and this offer more structure than taditional eyelet tape! Huzzah!

My Corset shopping spree is complete and I managed to get all the Supplies for under £30, Now its just a case of waiting for the post man.

Saturday 1 October 2011

One Week

When I visited London last weekend I didn’t think to bring my corset and sewing machine back with me to Coventry. There clearly was no cognitive process involved in this choice, I have a tendency to be a bit slow on realising whats important to me.

I now have just over weeks before I’m going to London, that’s a long time before I can start finishing ‘The Corset of Doom’. So now all I can do is prepare. Some of which is simple and some not so simple.I have limited funds at the moment so this is defiantly going to be a corset on a shoestring. So what I need is……


Knowledge is power; I’m going to splash out on 2 corset books on amazon.



I never heard or seen of the books before, the review and descriptions appear to imply that they are tech books, but we shall see.


I’m still organising my thoughts in regards to Design choices but there four distinct sections; Boning, Finishing Bias, Front fastening, and Back Fastening.


Boning:

For me the only way is Steel I hate plastic boning with a passion. The question is do I single (right) or Double (middle)  bone? Both will give the effect of 3 lines of stitching, just the width between will change, After doing a lot of silly doodles I realised im just going to have to wait until I get my sewing machine and I can do a sample of both.

IMG_9039


Finishing Bias: The colour of the fabric im using would lend itself to reds and golds and yellows but I just don’t feel it. I want the Bias finishing to be black, in fact I want all the detailing to be black, busk, eyelets, laces everything. (Refraining from wedging in some cheesy rolling stones reference took a lot of self-control.) I’m not so sure about the material of this black binding, cotton or satin? the fabric is certainly luxurious enough to use satin but I think cotton would ground it more and highlight that its vintage. I think im just going to have to buy both and sample it.


Front Fastening:

I want a Busk on the front of the corset, im happy with the straight busk Klein’s sell so no difficult choices there. Using them might be another matter, I never used a busk before but I think it should be similar to other techniques I have used.


Back Fastening:

This is the part that is challenging me….  I made a corset when I was 17, I was quite gothic so of course I used black velvet. It was not the most amazing corset but it greatest downfall was the lacing at the back. The tension of the laces was too much for the velvet, the eyelets started ripping out of the fabric. I did a few things wrong, I didn’t line the corset with anything, If I had used Couti or interfacing there would have been a lot more structural support. I only boned the seam channels so there was no boning to support the lacing. It was the first time I had used Eyelets, it certainly wasnt expert application.

Back to today; At the moment the back is fastened with Hook and Eye Tape which im going to remove so that the back can be laced at the back. Here is my first corset conundrum. I am very aware that this is an area of the corset that undergoes a lot of tension. I would really like to use eyelet boning as the first corset I made was in desperate need of more lacing structure. So If I use that I will have to make the eyelet hole directly into my vintage fabric. If I Fuck up here the corset is toast, no more fabric to make a new panel. So say I want to avoid this train wreck what my choices? I can use eyelet tape, If im using eyelet tape I can’t use eyelet boning, I can’t even put a boning channel either side; I can only bone one side of it. I need to think a bit about this one….

Friday 30 September 2011

The Beginning

I’m not sure where I start, as this is my first blog. what is ‘The Beginning’ my history that put my on this textiles related adventure or what spurned me to start this blog? I’m not feeling the David Copperfield monologue so lets start with This Saturday…

I was back in London visiting my parents, lying in my old bedroom nursing my hangover looking over the immense amounts of my crap I’ve collected over the years. Then from the corner of my eye I see it; The corset of Doom. Why does it have such a nickname? It’s a failed project that for me symbolise a few things. Firstly that a give up too quickly on things that mean a lot to me. Secondly since that corset stumped me I have not touched my sewing machine.


The reason this corset had been such a challenging project was that I had used a vintage fabric I had inherited from my Nan. After sewing the panels together I realised I had made huge mistake, the fit around the breast was horrific and nothing that should ever dare call itself a corset. Normally that wouldn’t have mattered, but as it was a vintage fabric and I didn’t have enough fabric left to fix it. I was Teaching myself to make a corsets by dissembling corsets that I had purchased. I had no one to help me, so the corset has languished in parents house ever since.

On Friday I went to The london the London Tattoo convention and spent a lot of time lusting after corsets and berating myself for not making them anymore. I saw a lot of clincher corsets, and there was some amazing clincher’s! especially the handmade ones by Engineers of Desire .  I never used to like  under bust corsets when I was younger, I was a bit too obsessed with the effect an over bust corset has on breasts!


With this widening of corset appreciation came my insight and inspiration. When I looked at the corset of doom I had the solution, I didn’t have to worry about how I was going to fix the fitting of the bust. I didn’t need a time machine to obtain more vintage fabric.  There was a simple solution; make it an under bust corset.

So I got out the scissors chopped away and tried my new  under bust corset on for a test run, and it was fitting well! The result of which is the shifty phone snapto the left .
So the hard part is over…… just all the boning and fine detail to decide!