Design By Claire

If you'd like to join me, please feel free to come on over to eternalmagpie.

Alternatively, you can add the syndicated feed of my new blog, eternal_magpie.



See you there!

For those of you who aren't subscribed to eternal_magpie, here's a brief summary of what I've been up to since I last posted here.

I have some original kniting patterns available in the Eternal Magpie Shop

I've been inspired by some pretty wool

I've climbed a tree wearing an outfit that I made

and my new Alexander Henry fabric's arrived.


I've also been making corsets, fitting dresses, joining a new choir, and generally keeping myself extremely busy!

pesky33's cupcake dress is finished!

You can read about it here.



I also made a matching suffolk puff corsage. Cute!

I may have accidentally bought a few dress patterns for myself.

You can read about my plans for them here.

(Or you can friend eternal_magpie, and I can stop bugging you...)

This is Vogue 8470.



You can read more about it here.

(blah blah eternal_magpie blah blah...)

Today I have been mostly unravelling a massive jumper.




*cough*eternal_magpie*cough*

While I was at work yesterday, I may have accidentally picked up a piece of pink leopard print satin.



I have enough of the pink to make two corsets.

Also available in red, blue and purple, if anyone's interested...?




You can also see photos of my pink tartan corset, over at the Eternal Magpie blog.

(Or you can add eternal_magpie to get the updates directly in LJ.)

Over the weekend I made a couple of brooches, for my Mum and for Paul's.





You can read about them here, if you like.

Or add eternal_magpie to your friends list, to get the updates automatically.

I have puddingcat coming over later today, to be measured for a corset to match her coat.

I needed to have the contract ready, along with the instructions for how to measure yourself for a corset.

The contract sets out the terms and conditions of the sale, and also confirms the customer's choices of fabrics and trimmings. This makes sure that we both know exactly what's going on.

I'm going to be doing most of my orders via the internet and without fittings, so I've drawn up a handy sheet of instructions which will hopefully enable the buyer to provide me with accurate measurements. The instructions come with a tape measure, and three pieces of elastic which you use as a guide for where to take the measurements.

Obviously I'll provide a mock-up if a customer wants one, but it helps to have accurate measurements in the first place!

If the pack works well, I'll probably make it available for download. (You'd have to provide your own tape measure and elastic to go with it though!)

To go with it, I was thinking of sharing the details of how I use these measurements to draft the corsets. Most of the searches coming to the Eternal Magpie blog are looking for instructions on how to draft a corset, so it might be nice for me to share that information.

Is that the sort of thing that people would be interested in, do you think?



[edit] I'm taking orders for September, by the way! You can find out how to order over here.

I'd never made a Suffolk Puff before today, and now I've made a dozen:



They're made from offcuts of the Bishopston organic cottons, with a little bit of Fair Trade batik thrown in for good measure. The centres are made from self-cover buttons.

These particular puffs are going to be sewn on to organic cotton tote bags, which I've been embroidering for Paul's cousin's daughters. I haven't done any embroidery for a very long time either, but I'm pleased with the way it's come out. Pictures will follow when the puffs are attached!

Before the Art Market in September, I plan to make a whole bunch of these as corsages, with brooch pins on the back. If I'm feeling particularly creative, I might go mad with multiple layers and feathers and ribbons and sparkly bits.

I've really enjoyed making these little pretties. I can't wait to see how they look in lots of different types of fabric!