Competition results

Well it was a hard job to decide the winner of the competition and there were so many entries and great ideas!  In the end, I picked the most practical idea and the one which made me think "why didn't I think of that?" and still had me thinking about it a week later - often the most obvious answers are the ones which elude one's mind when faced with an urgent challenge!

The most popular suggestion by far was that I make or buy bags drawstring or tote,  to put the corset kits into.  Although this would be a favourite idea of mine, it is unfortunately too time consuming  for me to make the number of bags I would need, and too expensive for me to buy the number of pretty bags I would have to buy to get a good price.  I think these ideas are definately something I might explore in the future though.

Other people suggested ziplock pouches, pillow boxes, paper bags, fabric wrapping or plain brown paper  with old fashioned string - all lovely ideas, but not quite in keeping with my original theme which was to provide something which resembled an old fashioned corset box with layers of tissue paper concealing the delight within.  I know the assumption is that Victorian women perhaps thought of their corset like a prison, but I don't doubt that when they received a new one,  fresh, crisp  and, if I know the Victorians, prettily packaged, in that beautiful but utalitarian way which they were famous for, it must have felt like a treat in the same way that a present of prettily packaged fine underwear is to us today - whether we have bought it ourselves or otherwise.  In my kits, I wanted to capture that feeling, even though you're not actually getting a complete, ready made garment.  

And so the prize went to Aurora who said:

"I would use your original idea, just use the brown box instead of black and substitute teal everywhere you have pink.  I think brown and teal is a gorgeous, vintage-y color palate"

She's right!  I was so entrenched with my pink and black packaging, that I never considered adding teal to the colour mix, even though this colour does infact appear in my logo and branding - the little birdies!

I will be introducing this new packaging over the next few weeks! 

Thank you so much to everyone for entering the competition and supporting me with you ideas (and links) - all of which were brilliant!

Hello ..? Is anybody there?

What a month!  I haven't stopped!  Here's a quick rundown...

Did I mention that the day I left my day job, I received my first signed client contract?  A lovely bride who is getting married in July and who wants a full over bust corset, with straps, to be worn under her vintage 1970's wedding dress.  I spent the first week or so of my 'freedom' working on the design for her corset and then making up a toile for her.  In the following weeks, the toile was fitted.  Now I am working on a second toile just to get the shape, fit and style absolutely perfect before I start work on the real thing.

My client has very kindly given me permission to publish these.  Here are the front side and back views of her first toile.

I've also been furiously working on my Corset e-Book which is due for submission to the Publisher in June! Argh!  I have written all the technical bits, and now i'm ploughing ahead with the practical bits.  

For illustrating various techniques in corsetry, I have decided to make up a historical corset from Jill Salen's book, "Corsets".  The reason for this is because by making up a genuine Victorian corset pattern from a book, readers will learn several things, namely:

• how to scale up a pattern from a historical source or book such as this
• how to construct a basic two layer Victorian corset from start to finish
• how to make the corset so that it has a smooth outside and inside
• how to make and apply external boning chanels
• how to fortify the corset using steel bones, fabrics and other techniques such as cording
• how to embellish the finished corset with trim and with decorative embroidery.

Here is a picture of the historical corset from the book that I have chosen to model this work upon:

ALSO going on in the House of Marmalade, is ofcourse my ever growing business, Sew Curvy Corsetry which I have been developing and expanding.  There are just not enough hours in the day!  Most of my work with Sew Curvy over the last month, apart from sending out orders every day, has been involved with getting Custom Corset Patterns up on the site, and finding out how to make and send a decent HTML newsletter to customers who have signed up to receive news, updates and special offers.

Custom patterning was an idea I had a while ago, but drawing all the pictures and diagrams and instructions, ready to be uploaded onto the site, not to mention creating the special measurement form, is what has taken the time.  But it's up there now!  Basically, there are 6 different shapes to choose from, you fill in a form with some key measurements, and I draw a custom corset pattern based on your personal size.  To my knowledge, nobody else in the UK offers this service and it has already proved to be very popular!  I have received orders from as far and wide as California and Saudi Arabia!  Very exciting.  Click over to the Custom Corset Pattern section of my website to investigate further.

My first Sew Curvy Newsletter, "News from the Corset Front", went out mid-April after I had discovered a marvellous programme called MailChimp which lets users customise ready made templates, upload pics and link to social networks all for free!   If you are a small business who would like to start a newsletter feature, then I recommend it, it's brilliant.  If you'd like to sign up for my newsletter, click HERE.

If you managed to click through to the newsletter, you will see that I'm about to upload to the website things for making bras!  This includes patterns, elastics, and findings.  I am busy sourcing some pretty bra fabrics to use for this, along with all sorts of other what have yous to add to the site.

AND as if all that weren't enough to keep a whirling dirvish occupied for every second of every day, there has also been the garden - I am compelled to grow our own veg as some of you will know, and have been doing so with a vengeance - I am trying to keep my other blog updated with progress in the allotment, but have so far, failed miserably. 

There has ofcourse been lots of lovely weather to enjoy and other excitement such as a trip to London with my very best friend in the whole world who lives in Italy, and thankfully, a few bank holidays, so relaxing in secluded spots by the Thames, found on bike rides in the country with Mr Marmalade, hasn't been totally off the agenda, otherwise my head might explode, but hopefully now, i've caught up with everything, and will post a little more regularly than once a month!

New new beginnings..

Old desk complete with big Mac and Dalek

This week I left my day job.  I enjoyed the last two years, it could be said that it's the best job - or at least the best boss - I ever had, and it was very sad to leave him and my lovely collegues some of whom were into sewing!.  Can you see the pile of books over on the far side of the desk?  They were my leaving pressie, 3 beautiful corsetry books, and also the Dita von Teese "Art of Burlesque" book.  Lots of inspiration in there!

Last time I left a day job was 4 years ago when I had what I thought was a perfect job - the job I always wanted, but unfortunately, it transpired, it came with the worst boss in the world.  Avery nasty piece of work, universally despised by all who meet her, but  in a position of power and after 4 years of being bullied by her to the point where she made it impossible for me to do my job, I was unable to work, physically or mentally, and it took a long time for me to recover... I am not sure if I am fully recovered even now!

New desk!

Happily, things are VERY different this time round and very very exciting!  I have a whole new purpose and direction, everything seems to have fallen right into place as if it was all meant to be,  and when I returned home from my last day at 'work',  I received my first signed client contract and deposit - so I know it's REAL!  My client is a bride, and I am ridiculously excited to be working with her.

New work mate.  Good company, doesn't say alot

So....  It's full steam ahead with Sew Curvy for which I have big plans, book writing and corset making  ... with lots of sowing and growing in my spare time.  

I feel like it's going to be a good summer.

Corsety Connundrum

Dear Readers

I need your help .. I am having a dilema!  I have 12 days in which to renew my current website subscription, or change providers.  The provider I am with, is OK, but I am frustrated by their limitations on postage options.  For example, I cannot charge postage by weight, and I cannot charge postage by destination.  I therefore have to charge postage on a sliding scale of product value, which I don't think is ideal but I have made it as accurate as possible and it works OK.

The new provider, can do postage options by weight and country, which means that the postage costs are more accurate especially for large orders.

The rest of it is swings and roundabouts - there are pro's and cons to either option with the new provider coming out tops on a couple of other things namely, the shopping basket is better and visible, there is a top menu, and a few other bits, BUT, I like the design of my current site and I cannot replicate it exactly on the new site (it's the colour scheme that I like and can't replicate).  

I can't decide which one looks better from a customer point of view...

Can you tell me which you like better?  In each case, the top or bottom image - which do you think looks more user friendly?  The top images are one provider, and the bottom images are the other.

Click on images to enlarge.  This is the home page:

This is the 'shop' introduction page:

What d'you reck???

Back to the Drawing Board

THANK YOU all so much for your feedback on my 'logo'.  I agree with all of you, in that:

The words should be on the same line

The text should 'pop'

The birds are too small

The font of the text should be the same

SO, improvements have been made!  Isn't it amazing how a couple of moves can spawn a whole new raft of ideas and inspiration!

I have removed the birds.  Although I love them, they really don't say much and I am not clever enough to make it looks as if they are actually sewing the corset in the manner of Disney movies!!  

I have put the text on the same line, and added a needle and thread instead of a 'stitched' font to convey the message that this is something you can sew.  I'm not sure if the needle will shrink down very well for small ads/pictures, but I do think that the logo, as a result of the tweaks, is much clearer now and good to go.

Thankyou so much for your help!  

I'd like to say a big hello now to all my new followers, subscribers and commenters who have come here recently - It's lovely to meet you.  For some reason, Blogger is being very rude lately and only giving me the email addresses of very few people, so I haven't been able to reply to all comments as I would like.  Please know that all comments are very much appreciated and gratefully received!

Mooning Around

Good grief! what a weekend we've had at the House of Marmalade ... i'm putting it down to the Full Moon.

On Friday night, Mr Marmalade and I heard a terrible commotion outside the house - we live next door to a pub - and presumed it was just a young man's brawl. Which it was. It wasn't until Saturday morning that we discovered the 'trail of vandalism' they had left behind - over 20 cars in the village badly damaged using keys or knives, and ours was no exception! It turns out that they were a gang from town who came here specifically to cause trouble ... WHY??!

On Saturday, more mindless carrying on as Mr Marmalade was called in the middle of the night to a fire - 50 tons of straw!! The 6th case of straw arson in as many weeks. Our Farmers are in despair! There is a straw shortage already due to the unfavourable straw growing weather of this year ... What is in the minds of these people? Do they even have minds?

Although crime figures do officially rise at the time of the full moon, the high energy ensures that lots of good things happen too, and so I am pleased to report that good things did come out top this weekend.

Jimmy started his first Saturday job - he walked into a car garage last week - unbeknown to us, asked for a job, and they gave him one! He is doubly pleased as the cars are "prestige" and like many boys of his age, cars are one of his favourite obsessions - so much so that I sometimes think Jeremy Clarkson has moved in with me, I hear his voice so often, then I realise it's just Top Gear on the TV .... again! We've had our moments with Jimmy over the last year, since he turned 'teen', there was the famous gin incident, 2 school suspensions the most shocking moment of my career as a mother to date - the time that he was brought home by police at 2am after having escaped from his room to meet some friends! But all in all, it's moments like these that make me know without question that there IS light at the end of the 'terrifying teen' tunnel and that with each teen horror, a 'bursting with pride' moment will be just around the corner. Thank goodness!

I also received a few orders from my website, so I've been busily packaging them up and sending them off!

And Val's seed swap arrived!! I say seed swap - I think she's sent me a garden!!! And the most beautiful beaded bracelet too - an unexpected surprise! The seeds were packaged in the most lovely little origami envelopes, which I have shamelessly copied to enclose the seeds that I am swapping with Ginny, as her swap partner dropped out. Thank you so much Val! I can't wait to plant all my new flower seeds next year. Most of them will go in the allotment as our garden is being re-designed (Mr Marmalade + new shed). Now I too will be wafting around with my trug and secateurs in a Sarah Ravenesque cutting flower manner. Hurrah!

I have really enjoyed the Seed Swap, to me it's an expression of the abundance that we can all share as a community at this time of year, the late harvest, not just food, but joy and beauty too. I hope to do another next year, so anybody reading this who wants to join in, remember to save some seeds!

Oooops! I Did it Again ...

I couldn't help it! I went to the fabric shop, and came out with considerably more than the contents of my shopping list. What was on my list? Dress snaps .... yes just those little popper things a card of which costs 71p and a couple of metres of the gold fabric down below which was on sale reduced from £10/m to £6/m.

Thing is, I went to the fabric shop last week with my friend Mrs P to buy fabric for her party dress that i'm making. At the time the shop staff were unloading boxes and boxes and BOXES of suiting samples which they planned to sell off at £5.00/m .. Suiting, at £5.00/m! I valiantly fought off the urge to rifle through the boxes and came out of there with just a metre of plain cotton. But all week long, I've been thinking of all that suiting and as I coooed over Mrs P's fabric whilst deciding the best way to cut it, I found myself thinking that I too should have a pretty party dress - it'll soon be the festive season after all. So today, I went back to get some more of that and just to look at the suiting - to make sure that it was really horrible and not suitable at all for some nice dresses to be made from. Unfortunately, during the week, the winter fabric range had also appeared on the shop floor ... I couldn't stop myself! Wool fabrics for under £3./m ...

It's not really fabric, it's my winter wardrobe, because with this little lot, I intend to make at least 4 dresses, 1 skirt, 2 jackets and a corset ... not bad for £42.00 ..... don't you think? And if I make the patterns myself - which I will, then it's cheap at twice the price. All I need to complete my plan, is a few bits of lining which I shall get when I next go to London. Spreading the cost you know.
This is one of the dress styles I plan to make. I've already cut the pattern which I redrafted myself to my own measurements - I find it so much easier to start from scratch than to alter a pattern, especially a vintage pattern. It's a very simple dress, and I've changed the style a little by making it more of a panel dress - the seams will go all the way down the dress instead of stopping at the hip. This means that I will be able to adjust the 'wiggle factor' with more ease. I think I will also make the jacket pictured, but shorter.

Then there's the dress for Mrs P. Here it is pinned to Madge. It's a gorgeous fabric - gold cotton backed satin with a dark brown velvety pattern, like a flock. She is going to wear it to a wedding in October, and this fabric is just the right weight for a wintery frock. It will be lined with dark brown lining with a net underskirt to give it a little flounce. Today I cut out the dress pieces by thread tracing the pattern onto a single layer of the fabric in order to be able to match up the repeat. I'm not sure how well I did - it's not sewn together yet.

Also on my list to make is a skirt for my Sister-in-Law. It will be made from some lovely cream linen/cotton blend fabric, with accents in the Kaffe Fasset fabric pictured. It's bright and cheerful just like she is.

It's all sew around here!

As Good as Chocolate

I'm still stuck to Mr Site who really is behaving extremely badly!! However, though it took the best part of a day and a half, I have added 2 more pages to my shop, and these are for "separates" - fabric, bones, & various bits of haberdashery, and also for patterns.

Anyway, I took a break between jobs today and counted up the competition entrants. There were 15 people who had either put a link on their blog to Sew Curvy, or who had fanned me on Facebook, or both. So that 15 includes a few double entries.

I put all 15 names into my favourite tin, put the lid on, shook it all about, took the lid back off, and then picked a name. It's amazing how nervous one can feel when doing that!

And so I am extremely pleased to announce that the winner is .....

Jane, please pick a kit from the website, and let me know where to send it!

THANK YOU to everyone who helped me out. Because of you, I had loads of traffic to my site, and got to page 1 of the Google searches!