Sewing Away

Dear Constant Reader,

After not feeling terribly motivated for a while, I did a bunch of costuming in June. Most of it was improvements to existing acts, which I had been meaning to get to for a while.

Glove with applique wornI’ve been using the same pair of gloves for a couple of acts and I wanted Mina in Furs, one of my most performed numbers, to have dedicated gloves. I found a pair of plain white satin gloves in my closet and Devastasia had some great embroidered net fabric, which I cut out the motifs to make appliqués. I won’t lie, the hand sewing was fussy and tedious, but I love the result. I might add some rhinestones later, but I think they’re pretty as they are now.

The other act I do a lot is a striptease into a fan dance. For a while now Scratch has been suggesting I put some lace on the top of the undies. I had some lace fabric left over from my Lili St. Cyr lingerie project* which had a lovely decorative selvedge. It was a little tricky to make sure the tear-away still worked, but not too bad. Here’s Phyllis the mannequin modeling them.

Panties front    Panties back

I still need to do a bunch of rhinestoning, but I think they compliment the bra much better now.

And for the same act, I made these pasties to compliment my black and white fans. The pastie template was from Manuge et Toi and those hypnotic fan staves are by Donna Touch.

Fan pasties    Pasties on fans

Next step, I want to make a g-string to match the pasties.

I also had a couple of non-costume projects. I have a table top ironing board, but the legs got wonky and it wouldn’t stand up any more. Rather than buying a new one, I made an ironing pad for the top of my sewing table.

Ironing pad

It’s a piece of special insulated fabric, which is usually used for pot holders and the like, sandwiched between two layers of cotton quilt batting, with cotton print fabric on the outside. The insulated fabric protects the table from the heat while the cotton absorbs the moisture from steam. It takes up much less storage space than the ironing board did. Way better than a makeshift ironing surface made from a folded towel! (Note to self: put towel back in the linen closet) And best of all, almost everything came from my fabric stash**. Although I did have to drop a few bucks on the quilt binding.

Lastly, I’m contributing to a community quilting project and I had been dying to make a Storm at Sea quilt. I’m glad I started with this single block because it is hella challenging piecing. I love how it looks and do hope to make an actual quilt for me some day. In my copious spare time…

Storm at Sea block

What have you been up to? Sewn anything lately?

M2

*someday I’ll tell you all about that project because I’m very proud of it, but I need decent pictures.
**actually, I think this is the only project on this list for which I actually had to go out and spend some money.

These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 2 July 2026 at 12:47 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Making Do and Mending

Dear  Constant Reader,

VRA few years ago I made a costume for the Historical Masquerade at Costume-Con 33. You can read all about it here. Short version: what if the Victoria’s Secret fashion show was actual held in the Victorian era. Thus, Victorian Secret! I made a historically accurate Victorian corset — that is, accurate in pattern and construction, not the thousands of rhinestones decorating it — and drawers and a chemise. The mantle and crown are because my theme was Victoria’s coronation.
(Photo by Ken Warren)

MISSMINAMURRAY_AnthonyJColegaI spent a lot of time and effort on the corset because I knew I’d use it again in a burlesque costume — which I did. I also entered said costume at Costume-Con 37 and you can see it in our show on April 30. However, I didn’t think I’d ever wear the drawers and chemise again. I hated to just have them hanging in the closet, but it’s not like I frequently wear Victorian attire and they were vital to the costume presentation.
(Photo by Anthony J. Colega)

I realized recently that the drawers and chemise would make great summer lounging attire. It gets hot in my atelier, despite the ceiling fan the ever-thoughtful Mr. Scratch installed, and the underthings are made of thin, nay, even  translucent, cotton (I’m wearing pasties under them in the above picture. Just in case). The pretty pintucks and lace are just a bonus.

Unfortunately, the drawers had fallen off the hanger to the floor of my closet and during a mouse infestation, got nibbled. There were wee holes chewed hither and yon. The good news was they were only on one leg. The bad new was that they were so numerous and wide-spread that patching was not an option.

Fortunately, I had just enough cotton left over to cut one new leg. Then I stalled because I really didn’t feel like doing another set of pintucks, especially when the first ones were so even and matched so nicely on each leg.

Then I had an inspiration — I pinned the old leg and the new leg together and marked the stitching line for the first row of pintucks. I cut the old leg above it and the new leg below it. Then I sewed the new leg and the pintucked bit together just at that stitching line, using my stitch-in-the-ditch foot (also called an edge joiner). You can’t even tell  there’s a seam there!

Because the fabric is so sheer, the seam allowance was visible from the outside if I pressed it open, so I flat felled the seam toward the tucks and sewed it down with very teeny hand stitches behind the first pintuck where the extra fabric hides the seam.

Mended Victorian DrawersTada! I can’t even tell which leg is the mended one unless I turn the drawers inside out. I’m glad I was able to salvage these from the ravages of rodents and I’ll have something cool and comfy to wear this summer whilst I sew.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 14 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 15 March 2022 at 3:21 pm  Leave a Comment  
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New Bikini

Dear Constant Reader,

Recently Scratch bought me this vintage pattern:

Yes, that’s a bikini, designed by famed pin-up and photographer Bunny Yeager! The pattern has only one size, no seam allowances, and directions are fairly minimalist. This is not for the beginning seamstress.

I decided to try it out without any alterations, just to see what size the base pattern was. I picked some fabric I didn’t care much about in case this was a major fail, but was still pretty in hopes that the garment worked. First step was tracing the pattern (you don’t cut something of this historical value!) and adding my preferred seam allowances.

There was a note that the bikini should be lined in white cotton broadcloth, which was a great suggestion. Not only would that reduce any see-through issues with the fabric, but the bottoms were designed with only two-pieces, which would leave a seam at the crotch. With a lining, all seams would now be enclosed.

Cutting and sewing the bottoms was pretty straight-forward. However, there are no instructions for working with the elastic. I frequently make panties, so I didn’t think it would be a big deal — and it wasn’t. To my great surprise, the bottoms fit almost perfectly. The only hitch was that my elastic was on the older side and wasn’t as elastic as I thought, so things bag a little more than I expected.

I had my doubts about the bikini top, as the sole pattern piece was a rectangle with a casing on the top and the bottom. I expected a darted triangle, but I’m game for anything. Thanks to a clever neck strap, the cups are adjustable, attractive and support very nicely. Admittedly, I’m not as well-endowed as some of the BeauTease, but there’s not an insignificant amount to lift and keep covered.

And here is the final result!


Photo by Scratch

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 15 September 2020 at 12:47 pm  Leave a Comment  
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