Bobbinet and dress foundations

I've been researching the fabric known as Bobbinet as i've started to stock it in the shop.  It's a fascinating fabric, not just any old tulle but special tulle which is woven in a particular way to make it strong enough for corsetted dress foundations whilst remaining beautifully light and bulk free.

Read all about it here:  

Bobbinet - what is it and what is it for?

Making bags for better corset making

Feeling quite accomplished today having written a blog post over at Sew Curvy and thought it a good idea to flag these posts up over here so that you don't miss them!

Here's a blog post on how making bags improved not only my sewing skills but my corset making skills no end.

 Click HERE.

Moving

I've started a blog over at my website which is more relevant to my current work.

I'll still pop in here now and again, and ofcourse you will still be able to access my most popular posts which are all linked from this page, either through the 'most popular posts' bar on the left, or through the tabbed headings below the main header at the top.

I do hope you enjoy my blogging adventures over at Sew Curvy.

Click HERE to go THERE

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!

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 :)

Imitation is the best form of flattery

For the last 2 or 3 years, this sewing blog right here has had the header "House of Marmalade".  My regular readers will testify to this.

Mr Google also knows because if you search for "House of Marmalade",  you get me ...

Now, according to Google Alerts, someone has bought the domain "houseofmarmalade' and seems to be planning some sort of fashion blog/shop ...

Thank goodness I bought the domains for Marmaladekiss, the original name of this place.

Fabric giveaway WINNER

We have a winner!  The Random Number Generator, generated the following:

This turns out to be Ginny who picked this lovely fabric:

Esteval

Please get in touch Ginny with your contact details.  You'll find my email address HERE.