Here are a few things I have been working on since I last posted.

Can you guess what it is yet?

G corset work in progress

  I’m working on a few things at the moment and as I was stood at the ironing board yesterday I noticed that most of my work room is set out in a line along one wall. It made a lovely picture so I photographed it. Unfortunately the weather has been really dull here and the electric lighting isn’t great in here so it’s a bit dark.

From the left: 

Iron. My big iron is a must, I love having is set up all the time so I can use it ata moment’s notice. Little domestic things don’t do the job so I’m hoping to upgrade to a polti or spirella soon

Mini mannequins:  These aren’t any use at all, I just have a little collection going.

Basic block templates: These are an absolute god send and a time saver. I have made up these templates in sizes 10 – 16 (they are so useful I’m going to make 8 and 18 eventually). When I have a garment to make I just select the nearest sized basic block based on the person’s measurments, and alter the pattern from there. It’s saves so much drafting time and has been accurate so far.

Costume reference books: I put them in a little desktop bookshelf I’ve had since childhood. I did have them in a pile but it was getting a bit silly when I wanted one from the bottom. The grey folder is my on going napoleonic research file, by research I mean photocopies, he he.  On there I have Patterns of fashion 1-3, corsets and crinolines, history of underwear, classic tailoring techniques, supplier catalogues and more.

Adjustable dressmaking dummy: I’ve had this old gal for nearly 10 years. She’s a bit rickety but still does the job. I have a little collection of dummies and mannequins which came in very handy for the wedding dress exhibition a few months ago. I keep this one here because it’s handy to sit down and do some cutting on the stand when I am trying something out.

Angle Poise lamp: As I mentioned the electric light in here is terrible, I sometimes use a daylight bulb in here and angle it on my sewing machine as the bulb has gone. At the moment there is a 250 watt bulb and a tin pie tray in there for exposing silk screens for printing, it’s very warm *chuckle*

Sewing machine and overlocker:  Not a lot to say about these essentials. I’ve had my sewing machine since my Art School days and it could probably do with a service!! I love my overlocker, it makes everything so neat and complete looking.

Spot the cutting table!! It’s under there somewhere!!

I just wanted to share this picture of all the embroidery floss I got for my birthday on Sunday.

It’s from my Auntie, a fellow sewer and dancer.

Today has been a bit of a non starter so I thought I would post a pretty picture instead.

My latest piece of work, for Nicola of the 2/95th Rifles.
The fabric is from Anglian Furnishing Fabrics in Norwich and the pattern is taken from one of Nicola’s own corsets.
Nicola fills it out better than my flat chested old mannequin ;D

I’ve only worn my new yellow corset outfit twice this year:
Once at the Chiltern training weekend in March:

http://www.95th-rifles.co.uk/images/2009/chilternmarch/chiltern.html

Then again at our only event so far this year, Newstead Abbey:

http://www.95th-rifles.co.uk/images/2009/newstead/newstead.html

It was recorded for posterity though by the 28th North Gloucestershire Regiment of Foot for their recruitment poster. They had no lady members at the time and were visiting our training weekend in March, unfortunately I hadn’t quite finished the corset at that point.  www.28thglos.co.uk

So, we’re very excited to be going out again to the Dorchester Regency weekend on the 3rd and 4th of October at Kingston Maurward.

OK, I love Youtube.com, I just found these videos from www.DarkDorset.co.uk of last year’s great event at Kingston Maurward.

Our boys out on the battlefield:

And one of the lovely wedding that one group performed:

August (D’oh!).

Throughout August I was on tour in France with Diva Opera  www.DivaOpera.com. I took June and July off for the wedding, honeymoon and moving house. Lucky me

I’ve not got any photos but to give you an idea of what we do here is another little video courtesy of the Festival de Vezere. This was the local TV News coverage of th festival in 2008, try not to blink and you might spot me ironing away.

We got back from Honeymoon at the beginning of July so had a little time to do some decorating before I started work on making costumes and rehearsing for a Flamenco performance at the Worstead Festival.
Yes I dance too, I have a lot of strings to my bow. http://www.worsteadfestival.org/

We tried a new thing this year and had a bit of storyline, I’m not sure how well it worked out in the open.
We were two rival Gyspy gangs begin troubled by the Guardia.

I based the costumes on Zorro the Musical which we all went to see in December: http://www.zorrothemusical.com/photography.html

I managed to use up lots of fabric that I have been hoarding for years, marvellous! I’m quite pleased with how they turned out although it would have been nice to have broken them down a bit.

Here they all are (I’m in the blue):

I finished sewing in one zip on the morning of the wedding only for it to promptly pop and the bridesmaid ended up getting hand sewn into her dress.
Here they are, the gorgeous girls of the moment. I hope they won’t mind too much me posting a photo of them, well I won’t tell them.

L to R, I made number 1 , 3 and 4. 2 and 5 made their own, number 5 is the talented Ani Townsend Milliner and she made all the cool little top hat fascinators. http://bristolartfringe.org/category/textiles/

You may notice the dresses have evolved from back here: http://freyapointer.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/bridesmaid-designs/

Due to time and the girls editing they ended up a lot more simple. I’m quite pleased as I didn’t want them to feel uncomfortable not being quite as theatrical as my good self.

Many apologies for the break in transmission folks. As I mentioned in early blog posts we got married on 13th June.

Just to add stress to the proceedings we decided to buy a house at the same time… CRAZY!

I’ll fill you in with the goings on of July and August another day but to get back into the swing of things here is a little video from the Festival de Vezere in France.  Just before the wedding, back in May, I made 5 black shirts for Diva Opera (where I also work as a wardrobe supervisor, more on them later). In the back you can see several of the men wearing my shirts.. fame at last!!!

It’s a shame but this will be much better as it was VERY cold and VERY damp. Condensation was dripping onto things and there is no way I can leave commission work in there.

Anyway, the new space is looking very good and I can’t wait to get back to work in there.

Of course I’ve been throwing a few things out and this little lady had to go, she’s a dust trap and falling apart.

I made this head piece about 12 years ago when doing my textiles A level at Norwich city college. I made a crazy wicked stepmother style costume to go with it but I can’t find a piccie right now.