How to Make: Satin Roses

Originally, this task was meant to be outsourced to my future mother-in-law, but as her confidence faded with a picture I have shown her of what I want, I have taken on the task myself.

They can be a little fiddly at first, but once you have managed to do one it gets easier all the time.










All I used per rose was a thin piece of floral wire, floral tape, a pipe cleaner, needle and thread, a glue gun and broad satin ribbon.







First, fold the edge of the ribbon over to create a triangular shape.Next, fold the other edge down to create another triangle and fasten the edge with needle and thread.

Twist the ribbon and wrap around the triangle, then fasten at the bottom. Repeat until you have a rose shape. Cut the ribbon off at the desired length and sew the edge to the closest 'petal'.

Twist the top of the wire to make a loop at 90 degrees away from the rest of the wire. Hold a pipe cleaner against the wire; if necessary, twist it around the wire a few times to hold it in place. Wrap floral tape around both to cover the entire length and the loop.

Apply glue to the top of the wrapped loop with a glue gun and attach the rose head.

Repeat for as many flowers as you desire.
They look beautiful and are guaranteed not to wilt on your big day.

Fabric Draping - The dress is back!

We have spent the last few days house hunting and have finally found something promising, which we will try to secure on Monday. This has meant that - predictably - a lot of attention and focus had to be diverted from the wedding preparations, save for little items like the frames and the flower-shaped confetti, which will be strewn across the tables.

However, today is Sunday and that means that Estate agents are shut, so there would have been nothing to do but wait around. I decided it was time to stop being down (it's what losing your home does to you) and get back on the horse, so to speak.

With the corset inner done, the daunting task of actually draping the outside of the fabric awaited. It turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. I cut my satin to a rectangular shape since I had no idea what I needed, but needed to start somewhere. I then applied Fraystopper to the edges, since whilst sharpening my scissors on sandpaper brought some cutting relief, the material still frayed like mad.

Using up all my available pins, I shaped the fabric around the inner, starting with the top of the bra straps and finishing under the bust. Each time, I folded a small portion of the fabric to cover part of the previous section, in the hope that this could cover up any sewing faults, which it did. I then sewed the edges of the folded material together - in a line at first, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake, then just at points where the material met or needed support in staying in shape, which showed some promise. I am not too worried about the messy top and whatever the material will look like under my bust, as I am making shoulder and belt appliques which will cover all that up.

So things are looking up on all fronts and I hope that this trend is set to continue.

Wedding Table Decor - Table Numbers

Amid all the sadness over being forced to move house and the seemingly impossible search for a new home somewhere close to my child's new school, the wedding preparations cannot be neglected. I have to say, I was in little mood to do anything yesterday, so I decided it was time to finish the table number frames - an easy, quick project with decent results.














I bought the frames just before our holiday. ASDA had a sale on the frames - each cost half its original price. We managed to get 9 heart-shaped frames and one rectangular one, which we wanted to reserve for our table. The paint was a small pot of Wilko's own brand and more than sufficient for our needs - I could even have gone with the smaller one.

The concept is simple enough: unwrap, paint the inside and re-insert after the frame inner has dried. Acquire chalk and draw as required. The wire cutter was my unwrapping aid as I could not find any of my many pairs of scissors.

So it doesn't just rain...

We've just come back from a little holiday to discover that we will have to move house within the next 2 months as our landlord wants to move into our property. Within the next 2 months. We will be getting married in about 2 months and a half.

So now add to the stresses of organising a wedding - minutely planned and work scheduled so far - to the stresses of packing everything up, finding a property, cleaning the place out, moving into a new property and unpacking, ready for October. Not to mention the cost of the whole thing, which will be added on to the already sky-high cost of the wedding. Or the upset that this has caused us, and - more importantly - my child, at losing our home, which we have only settled into a year ago.

Oh my dear lord.

Top Tips for Corset Making

What have I learned so far?

1. Duct Tape makes for fitted corsets.
Money-saving and perfectly fitted to your body, wrapping yourself up in duct tape can be the perfect start when you, like me, can't read patterns and need to decide where bones would have to go to tuck all the right bits away. Let's face it, any pattern you buy will never suit you 100%.

2. Cable ties make cheap, strong, flexible boning.
Just that, really. You can easily cut them to size with normal kitchen scissors, file them down and you have all you need to start your own corset.

3. Unless you know your stuff, make a 'skeleton corset'.
I used lining fabric to fit all the corset panels together and attach the bones. It is stiff enough to make a small difference to your shape already, but flexible enough to be able to wrap the bones into the fabric and attach them securely.

4. Buy pins. LOTS of pins.
I don't know how I would have got this far without two pin wheels. Pins have helped me trace where I needed to sew, hold everything in place, adjust panels and fabric and shape my cups.

5. The Look of the Inner doesn't matter.
I am telling myself this one. It's okay if the inner isn't perfect, because, let's face it, no one will ever see it. You cover both ends up with fabric, which will smooth out any little lumps and wonky sewing, as long as you can hide the stitches. The purpose if the inner is to hold everything in place, not to look good. So, if you are making your first ever corset and you are a relative beginner, don't panic.

6. Wear protection.
On your fingers, that is. Despite owning and using a thimble, I wish I had more, as my fingers are well and truly stinging from all the little needle pricks.

Shaping the darned thing

As promised, here is a picture of what the corset currently looks like. The rather crude sewing of the panels for the cup is mainly down to the fact that I had the corset on as I was sewing them together, so as to keep the cup pretty exact and fitted. It also meant that it was much more important to keep the needle away from my flesh than to have it look pretty at that moment in time. I keep reminding myself that it will all be covered up with layers of satin, so it'll be fine. Plus, now that the cup is done and fairly stiff, I can use that to shape another layer of fabric around the outside to soften the bumps and visually increase my boob size further. It'll still have to be smoothed out around the edges, but other than that I am very pleased with today's work :-)

Sew loooong

I will share photos etc. before the weekend is out, as progress is not really evident, but I have bought some stiffening fabric to be sewn into the corset with the (now fully) attached bra. As I am typing, one side has panels 1-2 sewn on and the other has panels 1-2 tacked on. I will likely leave 3-4 out and attach more stiffening fabric at 5 on both sides to aid the back, but allow my hips to create a decent hourglass shape.

I used the same panels that I made from duct tape for the corset shape, so it is indeed a good idea to keep them until you are fully done.

Next I have to figure out how to do a bra shape and attach stiffening fabric to the back of the bra, in order to create a more rounded, slightly padded version. I may use toy stuffing to add more shape to my ample bosom :-)

The back of the corset currently looks really untidy, but I hope that once the stiffening is done and I am happy with the overall shape I can sew the backing fabric on and hide all the not-so-nice bits.

I am in two minds about when to do the front - is that done before or after the back? After all, the aim is to have quite a showy front and no one but myself and possibly my husband-to-be are ever going to see the inside. On the other hand, the messy inside is really bugging me, whereas the front looks quite nice even now.

I have picked up speed now, though, as the stiffening fabric uses crochet thread (yes, I am mixing and possibly abusing different types of yarn, but who cares if the result is the same), which takes up much more space and therefore is quicker to use. I am still using back stitch only, as it said in the Dressmaking book that it is a very strong stitch, and for a corset I figured that strong is good.