Who knew there was Easter Spirit?

I have suddenly and inexplicably found my 'Easter spirit' today--I'm just enjoying planning on doing Eastery things today, and nothing is going to dampen my mood!

Yesterday, Good Friday, I made Hot Crossed buns because it is NOT Easter without that particular baked good! Swiping the icing off the pan always makes me feel like I'm 8 years old and elbowing my brother for the biggest patches of icing again--good memories!

Today I've been thinking of Easter craft project both for me and for my craft class, and I found some cute knitting patterns that I'm going to have to give a road test to before its too late. Hopefully there will be some fun pictures for you to enjoy come Easter Monday. Until then, Praise the Lord for He is Risen!

St. Patrick's Shindig and more Corsets

Beth and I had a mini ‘shindig’ for St. Paddies day on Friday. We had Irish coffee, watched Waking Ned Devine, and made butter tarts. We sure know how to party hard let me tell you… There may have even been some KNITTING and CROSS STITCHING going on!

I’ve been continuing my dabbling at corset making in spare moments over the last few days, and pretty much decided what boning I’m going to buy. I’ll use white steel boning and spring for lacing strips for the front edges. I can’t wait to see the whole ensemble! After I had sewed a line of stay stitching across the bottom of my boned-tabbed corset, I made a cardboard strip the size I wanted my channels and marked out the stitching lines. Then began the rather tedious process of actually stitching said channels. Once I finished that, I began to very carefully bind off the edges with bias tape, and I cut the tabs as I went to reduce fraying. Again, very fiddly. I think the channels are a little larger than I had anticipated, but I guess that is a good thing as the boning will have some depth to it. Now I just need to slip the boning in and bind off the top edge, set the eyelets, and lace ‘er up!

With that corset pretty much finished, I’m coming back to the tabbed corset next. This one is made rather similarly—after hand stitching the binding around most of the tabs, I sewed the bottom edge of the corset shut before marking out the channels. I had to bind both pieces of fabric because I am in idiot who missed the “leave a ½ seam allowance on the bottom edge” bit of the instructions. That made the whole channel process a little more interesting. After sewing these channels I will just need to put in the boning, bind off the top edge, set the eyelets, and squish in!

In non-corsety news, I’m plugging away at the log cabin baby blanket for little John, and while I’m still charmed by the simplicity of garter stitch and the colors, I’m starting to feel the “get it finished” itch. Hopefully it will become unbearable about the time I cast off the last strip. I'll post a pic when the internet isn't being annoying.

Oh the things I am learning about making corsets...

Note: I started this about a week ago and just now have had time to finish it.

I thought I’d post some pictures of the work I’ve been doing on my corset. This weekend I was mainly working on a bodice pattern that I am modifying/drafting, but here are the pictures of the corset.

Here is the pattern I drafted:

Here is the long shot of the quick knock up:

Here’s a closer look at the mid-part complete with bamboo boning-

On having Beth lace me up in it, I found that it was not tight enough, bamboo is REALLY POKEY, when I wear it I look like I’m wearing a bum roll—unfortunately it’s only my hips, and that it’s oddly supportive and kinda comfortable. When I make the ‘real thing,’ I’m going to shorten the corset body and take a lot more time sewing the channels! I was in a hurry there because I wanted to take advantage of an afternoon off.

Later…

I have since decided to change this to a front lacing corset for the obvious advantage that I can lace myself up. I want to make a boned and un-boned tabbed version to compare comfort and function. I’ve edged the tabs for the un-bonded tab corset, and I’m deciding what width and kind of boning I’m going to use so I can sew the channels. I can’t wait for Faire! Later I’ll post some pictures of the other Faire projects I've been playing with.