I’m frequently asked how to lace a corset. In my experience, the best way to lace a corset is using the bunny ear method! This allows you to get in and out of your corset by yourself. Let me say that again.. By yourself! Yes! It’s possible! 
The following image represents the lacing process, green being above, red below. This allows for a lot of tension control when lacing, and is easy to work yourself in and out of.
Something to note — the way this is done means the top of your bunny ears cinches the bottom of the corset, and the bottom of the bunny ears cinches the top. It seems counter intuitive, and takes a couple of tries to get used to, but once you have it you won’t go back to anything else!
Ha, I finally have something akin to inventory in my Etsy shop! So I can do things like this with multiple rows AND columns!
Hee. I am delighted!
And now: Homework, a dress commission, and two supaaar cute hat ideas I have!
I started my classes yesterday. I’m taking Differential Equations, Personal Finances, and Physics with Calculus.
What?! I think it’s awesome.
First of all, I know I’ve been a slacker for the past two weeks here — I apologize. There’s a couple of reasons for this, but the main one is that I’ve been working on an outfit for a show I’m going to, and I really loathe taking pictures of myself. So I’ve been putting it off, putting it off, and feeling more and more guilty about it (You know, not too different than Allie Broche’s This Is Why I’ll Never Be An Adult comic) and today I decided ENOUGH OF THAT! And.. well, posting.
I guess the bonus is is that even though I haven’t been posting here (Or cleaning my room, or doing laundry, or cooking all that much, or studying), I have been sewing lots. With that said, let’s have some pictures.
Since I’m not currently inclined to take pictures of me in my outfit, I’ll just tell you about it.
- The grey fabric up in those pictures is a really lovely wool (85%) and silk (15%). I’ve got four yards of it, and am going to be making myself a Split Skirt using a wonderful pattern from Truly Victorian. It will be in the cycling length so I can show off my shoes, and I’m considering attempting to rig the back so it can be work with or without a corset.I’ll also be making myself some sort of hat with the left over wool I have.
- The purple you see is just a dipioni, but it’s quite a striking color in person. This is going to be a vest for myself (uncorsetted), with welt pockets and a shawl color made out of the grey fabric. The vest pattern was kind of a bitch to draft (Four panels, princess seam) but I really like how it’s turning out.
- The red and floral pattern is a silk and linen blend (!!!) which is SUCH a cool texture. I have enough fabric in the red that I may make myself a bodice instead of a vest, with the floral fabric as accents on it. Maybe one of those mock vest bodices.
- Lastly, the cream is just a cotton shirting that I’m going to be making myself a shirtwaist with to be worn under the vest.
Other Projects
- Timekiller Pillbox: This is my first completed steamy hat — I have another one I’m working on, but this one came together very quickly. The body of the hat is a khaki linen accented with some simple brown embroidery on the edges. As you can see, there is a giant chartreuse bow on the back (silk dupioni) with brown ribbon tails (also silk dupioni). The hat decor consists of a keyhole and some clock parts (Yay, hardware store) — these are all securely sewn into place. The veiling on the hat is made to have a halo effect, not to cover the face. This is also lined in matching brown fabric, and sports the standard elastic. This hat is available for sale for $165, please send me an email at sale@scissorfiend.com if you’re interested!
- Corvis Corsair Tricorn: Blocked crown, brim is was flat patterned. The body is covered in a black silk dupioni, trimmed in a pleated grossgrain and braid. The skull is a resin cast crow skull, which is set in a nest of feathers arranged in the shape of wings. The other sides feature vintage black glass buttons, with one further adorned with a small ribbon and more feathers. This hat is also available for sale for $220, email sale@scissorfiend.com if you’d like to inquire!
I’m also working on another steampunky hat for a special person (more on that later), sprucing up my drafting techniques, getting excited for the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, planning panels for Orycon in November, trying to figure out how I’m going to costume myself for Steamcon, learning how to work with wire, and everything else that isn’t costuming.
Phew. Alright, I think it’s time to get back on the sewing machine!
I’ve been collecting a lot of little knickknacks and doodads and buttons to adorn hats with. After a particularly prolific stop at the thrift shop near my house I realized I needed some way to start organizing these things and then an idea struck!
What you need:
- Frame
- Black acyrlic paint
- Felt
- Ribbon
- Glue stick
- Doodads!
Step 1:
Obtain your frame! I took off the back so it would lie flat while painting. Tape off the glass if it can’t be removed. Put down paper and paint the crap out of the frame.
Step 2:
Once your frame has dried, peel off the tape. Measure and cut a double piece of felt that will fit snugly into the frame. Top stitch the edges so it doesn’t skew, and sew any ribbons down to the piece. I have a strip across the bottom for clip on things, and two along the top to tie things down.
Step 3:
Glue sticccckkk! Or anything better. Glue stick is what I had sitting in front of me and it worked fine. I covered the glass of the frame with glue, then covered the corners of my felt rectangle with glue, then sandwiched the two together.
Step 4:
Once dry, decorate your new pretty frames with your stuff and things!
Hello! If you’re here because we chatted at Kumoricon there’s a few different things you could be looking for. To make that easier for you, here’s most post-Kumoricon 101 post 
The Glad Hatter Slide Show is available here
Millinery 101 is available here
How to flat pattern a Pillbox or Tricorn hat can be found here
If you’re interested in buying any of the hats I was wearing this weekend, I’ll be putting them up on my Etsy within a few hours days. Arg, I still need to get pictures of the miniature and large tricorns before I can post but the miniature top hat is up!
My face is puffy from my cold. Bah. But I like how the hat turned out.
I’ve been quite the past few days, I know. Reason for this is mostly Kumoricon — I am still working on my panels and costume, though both are significantly closer to being finished than they were a week ago. Another point against me: I caught myself a lovely cold. Blegh. Sincerely hoping that it’s gone by Saturday!
Almost done with outfits for kcon — I wasn’t able to pull off the Lulu outfit so it looks like I’m going to be in gothic lolita most of the weekend. Here’s an outline of my outfits:
The Grey Ensemble
- Grey Haunted Mansion skirt (needs to be hemmed)
- Grey cutsew (Not made by me)
- Black corset with grey buttons down the front
- Miniature tricorn (needs skull & feathers sewn down)
- Petticoats!
The Classic Ensemble
- Flower and striped corset-skirt (needs to be finished)
- Black petticoat (not made by me)
- Black cutsew top (Need to replace buttons – not made by me)
- Head bow of some sort with the stripe fabric
Supargawfic
- Dress
- Petticoat
- Throat tied sweater
- Muskrat Glower!
Worked on my hat rehab panel today — got a fair bit done! Got at least halfway done, and I have a week left (Though I guess I should also mention that I have to do the Victorian panel, too. Eeeeek). Spent so much time with this bouncing around my head trying to figure out how to put it into panel form and it’s really nice to finally see results! After the con I will probably post a condensed version here and have it available for download.
Meeaannnwhile, one of the things I had to document was adding pleats to the inside brim of a hat. What does this mean? Well, I had to do it, of course, since I had to take pictures! I had attempted to dye a straw hat I had picked up black, which failed. Curious, I dunked a piece of silk cloth into the dye bath to see what would happen. Interestingly enough, it turned PINK! So I decided to use the pink silk on the inside of the not-so-dyed hat. So what we have so far is…
Image on the left shows the hat after I had originally shaped it, and the dyed silk (pretty accurate color representation here). On the right is where I had pinned down the pleats and snapped a picture. I’ve since sewn the outter edge of the pleats down and pinned the inside. I’ve decided that I’m going to cut off the back edge of the hat (Currently have it folded up) which I’ll be tackling tomorrow because I don’t want to stop in the middle of it.
And for now? Sleeeeeeeeep.
Just finished the miniature top hat I had been working on since mid-July. It kept ending up as my back burner project but I finally was able to finish it and use part of the process for my Hat Refurb panel at Kumoricon. It’s a flat patterned buckram frame with wire at the inside and outside of the brim. Per usual, covered in fleece and then black silk dupioni. I wanted to give it a spooky vibe, so I made a fabric cameo of sorts out of the red/black silk, framed that in black pleats, then secured the muskrat skull inside of it. It’s also got a cream gathered lining on the inside, and elastic to secure it to the head.
I think my favorite part about the muskrat skull is how it looks like its glaring. I found this particularly charming with the red silk peeking out from the eye sockets, thus the name.
And now I shall work on my hat refurb slide show for kcon!
