"it's getting colder, I often wonder"

Today I made some headway. I got all the pieces cut out for the wedding dress I've been comissioned for. Yay! Tomorrow I'm going to start stitching it together, :) I'm very pleased with my progress so far. I wish I had money to where I could hire someone to do all the fabric cutting for me... that is my least favorite part about sewing.

Hmm.

"taken away by a murderer's knife out back, behind the alley in the pale moonlight"

I found a new resource for steel! This makes me very happy :) I get to go whenever I need to to pick some up and its wonderful! Though I may save up some $$$ to go buy a large portion of it, just so I have it ready and available!

I've recieved the down for the wedding dress I'm working on. I've started mapping out the pattern and tomorrow I'll start steaming the wrinkles from the fabric so its nice and smooth. I won't be able to start sewing until Tuesday, but that will be okay. Plenty of time to map it out and make sure its a-okay before I start putting seams in!

Tonight I sat down with the hubby and we made some necklaces. My "Loving Hands" necklaces. We got plenty drilled and ready to be put together, but I only got three completed. One for a friend as a really late birthday present, and two for sale.

The two that are finished, one has a purple heart, and the other is a soft green. Soon I'll have more of each color, and pink, blue and yellow are to come.

"back in that old haunted cat house, where everybody used to go"

I finally finished Melanie's outfit! Yay, :) I'm very pleased with myself. Today after a few appointments, I will be shipping it off to her! Express so it will be there by Saturday!

Now that this project is complete, I can take on orders. I didn't want to work on anything else while finishing her outfit just because I wanted it to be my primary focus. The gal this is for is a good friend of mine and I owe her alot :) She kept me sane when I lived in Denver and was an angsty teenager!

I'm still working on organizing my photo-shoot... I'm no good at this! :( I'm also working toward getting new business cards. Not just more of the same, but a new design. I saw someone around town with a car magnet thats the same style as mine. That's what I get when I pick out a preset design from VistaPrint. But that's okay, I really liked the design. But now I'm working on a trade for some printing, which hopefully means I'll get some business cards, a poster or two and possibly a booklet of Corset Care/Wear and some other info. Fingers crossed!

This is one of my revamped corsets... I made a design similiar to this when I first got into corsetry and now I've decided to add it to my available designs right now. It ranges from $115 for plastic boning, and $135 for steel. I'm offering it in the cherries w/ red straps coloration and the navy blue anchor w/ white straps. However there are limited quanitites in both. Only two are available in the anchor material, while a few more than that are offered in the cherries.

I'm having a fear lately. I'm scrambling to get ahold of more steel. My normal resource (where I get it for next to nothing) has now started taking new measures with their steel so its no longer available to me. I'm looking for another source, but if I don't get a constant and steady supply of it, I may have to go online, where it will cost nearly, if not more than $300 for a 1000+ft supply of it. With this information, I may have to up the cost of my steel boned corsets to cover my additional cost... :( I will keep you updated!

"Farewell this bitter tongue, you spoke your lessons falling down, talking out and breaking silence"

So yesterday and today have been spent cleaning house and working on Melanie's outfit! All that remains is hand work, which is the best part for me. I love curling up on the couch with a needle and a project. I'm taking a break now to post some updates!

Here is the corset nearly finished! It is a custom drafted up pattern based off of a costume from Legend of the Seeker but I changed some things about it. I added in a lacing panel to make it a bit more  modest and comfortable, at Melanie's request. I hope she likes it! :)

I'm actually really liking crocheted doilies for corset appliques... I may have to go stock up and release a design that uses them ;)

I found the fabric that I want to make this corset out of... I dug it out of some old totes I have in the basement,stuffed with material. I need to go through them all one day, measure up how much I have and use it all up on corsets for sale so I can clear out my collection.

My next order (the check is in the mail! :)) is a wedding dress for a friend. She came up with the concept and I sketched it out so I could get her approval on how I imagined it. So far so good!

The idea is for the gown to be long and elegant with a slight train for the ceremony, then for the reception, to cinch the skirt up for a bustled, more cocktail dress look. She wants the dress made out of a silver satin and as soon her check arrives, I will be purchasing the material from Denverfabrics.com.

I'm meeting with a few people on wednesday to discuss various things: my first appointment is for alterations on a Tuxedo jacket, I'm meeting with a potential model, and also meeting with a friend who is interested in purchasing a corset. I like being busy!

I'm also trying to organize a photoshoot next week for my website. I have some models lined up, as well as a location, but finding a date and time is proving to be something difficult, but that is okay. It will work out! The location I have lined up is located at the Hellgate Rollergirls practice warehouse. I wanted something urban and open for the bulk of my designs, but I may schedule another in a park or possibly cemetary (still a goth at heart) for other designs.

No clever title, again.

I'm having a serious lack of clever titles... that and for some reason no song lyrics are jumping out at me.

Anywho. So I've been working like mad on the outfit for Miss Melanie and I'm almost there! All I have left to do is finish the snap in bodice, bone and finish up the corset and hem the sleeves. I ran into a problem with the bodice and ended up going in another direction, but so far so good. The straps are becoming slightly problematic though, I'll need to fix them, but I have an idea.

After I finish Melanie's, I have a wedding dress and two corset orders waiting in the wings, along with trade for services (Dark Dreams related, website and photo related! :) ).

No clever title, just progress!

I don't have pictures, yet, but I thought I'd update on my current progress:

Melanie's Outfit #1 75% Completed

Tonight I got the corset to the point where all I have left to do is the boning, setting the eyelets, binding and finishing. Yay! I need to work some more on the bodice and the sleeves and then it will be complete! Some of the progress is halted because I need to get ahold of some more $$ so I can purchase a few more materials to finish it. My goal is to have it in the mail for her by the 20th, :)

After I complete Miss Melanie's outfit, it looks like I'll have a wedding dress and at least two corsets that are definate (hopefully anyway!) orders. I will be taking on a few more possibly, some in trade, as well. Yay for being busy!

But unfortunately, its not busy enough to bring in enough $$$ to support the household. So I am going to resubmit my application to JoAnn's for a full time, open availability position. I'll have to do some figuring out for child care, but, we need money to survive and raise a baby girl. And the discount will help me in my clothing design adventures.

Collecting Dust!

So I've been working a bit here and there and I'm almost finished with Melanie's first outfit! I'd mark it at about 70% completed. I need to map out the boning casings on the corset, construct the bodice, which will connect to the corset with snaps, that way if it needs to be washed, she can just pop it out and throw it in the wash. And I need to finish the removable sleeves, which won't be finished until sometime next week, after I get some $$ since I need to purchase some more bias tape. I need to keep better track of my inventory :P and hopefully the brown cording I've been going back to JoAnn's for, will finally be stocked!

After I finish Miss Melanie's outfit, I have a few orders waiting on the back burner :) hopefully by next week I'll be able to get some started! I'm planning on emailing those who are interested so we can get started on the order details and whatnot.

The other day I was thumbing through my design sketch-book and found tons of Corset designs I've yet to work with. And that makes me sad. So I've decided to share them on here... maybe someone's interest will be peaked and want to model and/or purchase them.

This design has yet to be named.. but its a unique one. It has a buckle overlay that hides a busk (or zipper) closure. I'd love to make this one, but I don't see it being in my collection unfortunately. It's not quite my particular style, but I do like the design!!

This corset is one I designed up awhile ago (there are two variations...). It's a steampunk inspired corset. A strapped design that's a mix between Georgian and Victorian. With something of a scalloped bottom and defined waistline. My initial desire for this corset was clockwork material, which I have enough for maybe two of this design. But I'm nervous about it, and definately want to make a prototype before I offer it as a design in my collection.

This corset is actually a revival of the first corset I ever drafted up! Inspired by the character Anna in the Van Helsing flick, it is a studded underbust that I will offer of corduroy and faux leather. The original corset I made that I called the "Anna", was my first custom drafted pattern corset that I ever did, and I'm still rather proud of it, even if it is out-dated and not the best. But this is why I want to make it better!

This is the corset I want to make myself for the next Dark Dreams. I think it will go along well with the theme. I intend to make this a multi-panel corset of a hot pink taffeta like materal with black satin ribbon over the panel seams, marking boning casings as well. I do want to get a busk for this, and the flounce will be about a 1 1/2 to 2" wide lace. The skirt portion isn't a finished design, I'm not sure how that's going to work out, but we'll see.

And last, but not least, these are just all illustrations of the corset designs I will be offering when my website is launched. More will be added eventually, but I think this is a good bit the start with.

"He took her out behind the alley, carved away all of her beauty; now they call her Betty Bones"

While I ended up not selling anything at the Dark Dreams event on Friday, I did make a couple of contacts (who I need to contact, haha) who offered services for trade.

I've been making great headway on the outfit for my friend Melanie, the skirt is all finished and I'll be working on finishing up the corset/bodice and the sleeves, though I may go for a sort of bolero jacket... we'll see. I may do up some sketches. She wanted the outfit to be on the modest side, so I think a bolero may add that extra kick of modesty.

I finished a corset prototype last Thursday and I've decided to name it the "Jackie". It's a long line cincher style, and it has a faux front, a "vest" bottom and buttons sewn down the front. I think I will only offer it in black/white and (if I can find it often enough) white/black pinstripe. I made the prototype for me, and I wore it on Friday. I think it turned out rather sexy.

So my list of projects has dwindled slightly since I finished a ton of corsets, and the skirt for Jez, as well as the alterations I had been comissioned for. I wasn't entirely pleased with the alterations (let it be known: I HATE zippers, especially invisable ones...), and I let her know if she needs anything else done, I'll take care of it for her.

After I finish this outfit for Miss Melanie, I believe I may have as many as three orders to follow it up, which makes me happy :) I need this. I need this to be my job! And I have a list of personal/design projects I want to work on in in interum... which include:

• 
  
  Finishing the prototype for my swing dress hybrid.
• 
  
  Rework my Elsa corset. I need to fix the bottom and I want to fix the sides. I made some errors which I noticed after wearing it to the Dark Dreams back in April. So I'm going to work on fixing that so it will look/fit right and I'll be comfortable with selling this design.
• 
  
  Getting pictures of everything that I've recently completed to post on the amazing website Krista Engler has been working on for me.
• 
  
  I also need to get in touch with those I've arranged trades with, such as my webpage designer, one of the head-honcho's for Dark Dreams: Holy, and my friend Madeline. Her's isn't really a trade, but it is one I need to work on.