A new blog on the block

Back in the summer I taught a lovely dress making class for Darn it and Stitch, the only sewing shop in Oxford who have their own sewing school called Pinworks.

I had 5 lovely students all from different parts of the world, as is typically 'Oxford'.  There was Liere from Spain (hope I spelled that right), Veronica from Mexico, Maria from Italy, Nicola from Germany, and Claire from Oxford.

Only Claire had sewing experience, the others had none but had seen their grandmothers and mothers sewing while they were growing up, paid no attention (as teenagers are prone to do) but then as grown women, realised that sewing is not only fun, but a valuable skill, and they wanted to learn.  We made a simple dress, and by the end of the 7 week course, I had 5 sewing junkies on my hands.  A proud moment of indeed - for all of us!  Unfortunately, this event is completely un-documented with the camera which is extremely unusual for me.

The girls have kept in touch with me and eachother, and have gone onto bigger and better projects and Claire has now joined 'the dark side' by becoming a sewing blogger!  She's done some fantastic work.  She's made several bits of clothing AND a quilt!  This is something I haven't attempted yet.  It would be great if you could support Claire and cheer her along.  Her blog is called "I want to be a Turtle" -

Now Claire has set herself an enormous challenge.  She wants to make 12 outfits between now and December. That's 2 per month.  These are they:

Join her as she sews up her new wardorbe!

Corset making classes commence!

It's already March which means it's nearly a year since I moved into my beautiful woodland cottage studio in Oxfordshire.  The reason I took on the studio wasn't just because my husband wanted to reclaim our house and make it free from 'work' (not to mention corset parts), but also because within the cottage was a lovely large workroom from where I could envision teaching lots of lovely corset making classes.

The first class of this year was Sparklewren's creative corsetry patterning masterclass a couple of weeks ago, but March, April and May are  very busy with  a corset pattern drafting course followed by a begginners corset construction course, followed by an intermediate corset construction course and then another beginners corsetry course which is already nearly full.  I am scheduling more classes soon!

The best part about teaching is that I learn as much as my students.  Each class is a feast of revelation for all!  Classes are much better than private tuition because of all the interaction between students - someone may ask a question that nobody else thought of, and you get 4 bodies worth of experience in one go.  This is invaluable and can't be learned from a book.   The courses are quite intense and everybody leaves as good friends -  my studio always feels rather empty on a Monday morning - a bit like the morning after the party with just the debris of a good time to clear up.

My egg mayo sandwiches have become pretty legendary!  We have vintage teas every day on each course, and these feature on the menu frequently.  The eggs come from my own chickens!  There is also plenty of cake and tea involved - all served up on beautiful vintage crockery and from about April onwards, the weather is usually good enough to eat on the picnick bench outside.

Many of my corsetry students have been back to me several times and this makes me very happy because I know it means that they had a good time in the Sew Curvy Cottage Studio, sewing, learning, chatting and lacing!

For more info on my corset making classes, click here:  Corset Making Classes

Ingredients of a corset

So I've been very busy making a basic portfolio for a shoot which happened back in January. I made two fully corseted wedding gown ensembles, a couple of extravagantly lacy and sparkly 'fun' corsets, a daring bridal boudoir plunge corset inspired by an original from 1910 which I saw in the Symington Collection, and an 'every day' underbust corset which can be worn day or night - the equivalent of the LBD in corsetry. 

One of the bridal ensembles took it's inspiration from the film Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn. Ever since I was small, i've absolutely loved the wedding dress in that film and Audrey has long been one of my main style and beauty idols. 

The pattern was extremely challenging to make! At first, I used a pattern from Atelier Sylphe. I was attracted to the pattern by the closely spaced and uniform boning channels where I could see a beautiful regimented flossing pattern, long before Sarah Burton ever thought of it! So I altered the pattern to size and made it up ... by the time the shell was finished it had grown by a whopping 4 inches. After much head scratching and no solutions, I made another, being extra extra careful with my measurements incase i'd missed some vital step which I thought would surely reveal itself 2nd time around. It didn't. This time the corset was only 2 inches bigger than it should have been. Annoying! 

 I had by this time wasted 2 metres of extremely beautiful silk duchess satin, luckily purchased from ebay, so not the usual exorbitant (but worth it) price and a metre or so of coutil. oyster corset I was hell bent on doing the design because of the flossing, so I tried a third time but on this attempt, made my own pattern, copied some of the styling details from the original pattern and used cheaper materials incase of disaster. When the shell was done, it measured correctly, I had removed one of the panels, so the corset was now eight panels per side, instead of nine but hurray! No unexplained growth! Now the curious incident of the extra inches isn't the fault of the pattern. It's because there are so many bone channels, and so many seams - the original corset is 9 panels on each side, even a 1mm stretch on each seam therefore, will grow the corset irretreivably. I was therefore very gentle on the third round and my patience paid off. However, by this time, I practically hated this corset!!

Nevertheless, I pressed on. it was only a week until the shoot and I had no alternative but to finish it or be without one bridal ensemble in my portfolio which I wasn't prepared to forfeit. The corset is made from my loomstate cotton backed duchess satin. This fabric is a beautiful colour, drapes well despite it's heavy nature, is quite luxurious to look at and the weave is quite 'rough' which makes it interesting. The strength layer of the corset is made from 2 layers of cotton canvas interfacing and the corset has a floating lining of cream silk. The circular skirt which goes with the corset is also made from the loomstate satin which needed only one petticoat to have the required flare.

The corset boning channels are 6mm wide and these accommodate around sixty 4mm spiral steels. The seams at the sides and back of the corset are boned with around fourteen 5mm spirals, and there are 8mm flat steels at the centre back edges and either side of the eyelets for strength. Embellishments are French couture lace and perle cotton flossing. 

The corset also features a concealed busk which is fast becoming a trademark of mine. I am very pleased with the result and will definately use that loomstate cotton again for more bridal corsetry. 

Here's the finished look:

Leap years

Can you hear that noise? It's the creaky door which I haven't opened for quite a while it seems! Honestly, since September I have hardly been able to sniff nevermind write anything, it's been non-stop.

I had every intention of writing one of those 'looking back over the year' posts at new year, but you know how it is, life gets in the way of life and all that, and January, which I was expecting to be a quiet month, turned out to be my busiest month out of the last 12!

Now it is February, and things haven't really slowed down although I do find myself with a lull today, enabling me to write this - I may be close to the point of exhaustion collapse!

So this time last year, I took an enormous leap of faith. I spent all the money I had on a 6 year lease agreement to start renting my beautiful woodland cottage studio. It was the worlds most expensive lease agreement I might add - something to do with lawyers in London. I needed to move all my stuff out of home (it was taking over), have a lovely space to see clients, and a space in which to teach and work.  I got all of that - my leap paid off very well and this week  Sew Curvy was officially incorporated as Limited Company which feels very grown up and a trifle scary!

It seems that February is a time for leaping as I have now done it again - another leap which I hope will be as successful - if not more so - than the aforementioned! I'm having a conference! In Oxford. And it's going to be all about corsets!  I'll tell you more about it another day because I don't want you to think that i'm only here to tell you about that - but it is ridiculously exciting.  I have a number of 'special guests' lined up!

So in the meantime, another project I had to get off the ground ... The re-launch of my own corset brand. I do have a new name because I feel i've grown out of "MarmaladeKiss" -  I am over 40 now after all .. so I made 6 corsets 2 of which came with wedding gowns and had them all photographed by amazing photographer and re-toucher Catherine Day. Here is a sneaky peak of one of them ...

model: Tessa Kuragi

photographer:  Catherine Day

Words AND Pictures this time!

Oh lawks!  I didn't realise my pics were invisible on the last post ... they show up in my editor .. anyway.  Rectified.  I put the pics up and you can see them now :)

Corsets and Cocktails

June, July, August and September have been ridiculously exciting months for me and my little company Sew Curvy Corsetry.

There was the article in my local paper which I mentioned in my last post...


Which led to the radio interviews on BBC Radio Oxford  also mentioned in the last post.  In August Lou one of the presenters of the morning breakfast show came to my studio to record a series of 4 features with me for her breakfast show.  She was with me for about an hour.  I had made a corset to her measurements so that we could pretend she was a customer coming for a fitting and the "oooh!" factor could be caught live.

Lou was lovely and seemed very interested in my work.  On her list of questions to ask, she had a question about cheap Chinese corsetry.  I'm happy to say that she was so interested in what I was saying about quality hand made corsetry, that she forgot to re-visit the Chinese question and it was never mentioned either in private or in air.  Hooray!

Now before Lou came to record those features with me, she happened to mention to the TV people that she would be interviewing me ... they asked if they could come too!  So hey presto, I found out I was to be on TV ... but another day.  That day dawned when I had a class - they wanted to use that angle for added interest and my lovely students were very game. 

I was expecting a whole film crew to arrive, but no!  Just a camera man and Lou and a couple of microphones.  That's all!  The whole thing took half an hour to film 2 minutes of footage.  It was very exciting and glamorous!

As if  all that wasn't thrilling enough, a few weeks later I was contacted by the PR company acting for Universal Pictures to help promote the new Keira Knightly film, Anna Karenina.  They wanted me to make a presentation to several online journalists all about corsetry.  It was to be an evening of "corsets and cocktails" where I would give a presenation, a fitting demonstration, a little sewing lesson, and let the girls try on some of my finished bespoke corsets.  It was a really fun evening in Soho.

The offices of the PR company were very swish, there was a giant Shrek in the lobby as this company also represent Disney - Infact they represent almost everyone there is to represent in film and TV!  Here's the boardroom all set up and ready.

Doesn't it look lovely?  It so happens that this company's logo is the same colour pink as my own logo! Serendipidy!

I was quite nervous when I arrived there.  I'd taken my presentation which detailed the history of corsets from Minoan times to the present day with a special focus on corsetry in the mid 1870's which is when the story of Anna Karenina was set, plus a n umber of corsets, and a mockup that i'd made   to fit one of the journalists who'd given me her measurements in advance.

The mock up  was for a fitting demo to illustrate how curve can be quite dramatic without making the waist uncomfortable or breathing uneasy,  by fitting the corset properly around the hip and bust area.

After the fitting demo, the other girls couldn't wait to try on some corsets, luckily I took a few!  Here are some of them.  Don't they look gorgeous!

So all in all the summer and early autumn of 2012 has been a very exciting time for me and my corsetry!  There is more exciting news on the horizon, more on that another day!

Sew Busy!

Hi Folks!

I am sorry it's been so long.  The e-book was published and then everything went WOOOOOOSH!! The Oxford Mail got in touch because they'd seen a BBC article about corsetry on a 'no news day', then once that was published, the actual BBC got in touch and came to record a few sessions with me for BBC Radio Oxford.  Those have already been broadcast on a breakfast show last week, but .... drumroll ... the TV people now want in on the corset action, so they're coming with a film crew next week!  Click the pic to read the Oxford Mail article:

All this means is that it's been insanely busy at Sew Curvy towers.  My sales have gone through the roof - i've already sold 70 copies of the e-book, and ofcourse the knock on sales have added to that mountain of tissue paper, ribbons and postal receipts! ... Gertie of Better Sewing fame also decided to make a corset - have you seen it?  She is going to look AMAZING when it's all done - keep an eye out on her blog for more news on that.

Ofcourse I had to make a corset as if for a fitting for Lou the lovely BBC radio presenter so that we could capture the "ooooh!" factor when she was laced in, for the listeners.  Now I'm making her another for the TV slot - one that I think will 'suit' her more.  More on that in the next post or so.  In the meantime, here she is with her corset ready for final fitting:

And I've been trying to make a little bridal portfolio to take to local wedding fairs this autumn.  I've finished a couple of pieces but the work is on going on that front.  There are all sorts of other possibilities and projects in the pie too, so what I really need to do is figure out a way of either extending the number of hours in the day - or the number of minutes in an hour, or how to clone myself at least 4 times.

You can see a preview of my e-book, and buy a copy if you wish,  by clicking here:

Corset Making by Julia Bremble