back at last... with a corset

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I have been on a long hiatus from this blog. While I was off and busy I was always wishing I could come back and show some of what I had been busy at, but have clearly failed to for a long stretch. Well, I'm hoping that now I can catch-up on some of that.

Among the projects that I worked on while I was away, this is one of the few that was for me. All me.



I think I have been intrigued by the look of corsets since childhood. I always loved the form that clothes from corseted eras had and thought that the corset itself looked beautiful.

I never tried one on until university when I was doing a production that was set in a corseted period. Granted the first one I tried on was not the best quality and certainly not fit properly to my proportions, but it was still positive enough of a first taste. I loved the feel of being hugged and the exaggerated hourglass that it created. I've always been very hourglass on my own but putting on a corset was the first time I remember really thinking that the hourglass was something I wanted to be. In fact, it turned out that I was hourglass enough on my own not to fit properly into standard sizes designed for 'contemporary figures' that were in stock in our costume department, and a teacher who had collected her own set of custom corsets for shows was kind enough to lend me hers. WAY BETTER.

Years later I have finally sewn a corset for the first time. Of course, I couldn't be sensible and start out with your typical 5 horizontal panel pattern. No, that would be too logical. I decided the first one I would try my hand at was the Angel Underbust Corset by CorsetTraining.net.

So easy, right? Well, the pattern wasn't difficult, but I had not yet mastered (or even tried-out) many techniques involved in corset making, so there are certainly flaws. The most noticeable flaw is the amount of wrinkling that occurred in the outer fashion fabric.

 I do like the pattern very much, but if I make it again I will do so with a number of alterations to the fit.While the pattern is designed specifically for waist training, the lower front which would allow greater movement and pressure just on the floating ribs for most is too short on me and ends up just under all of my ribs, so causing a few more problems than it was intended to solve. Next time I would add length to the top front. I also was worried about it being too small in my hips, as is usually the case, and ended up adding more than I needed to and I have way too much space in the hips now.

I hope to take all of these lessons into account as I go to make my next corset.

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{ valentine trickery }

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Hello lovelies. Happy Valentine's Day.

I thought I would share some of the sneakery I got up to for my sweetie, with the aid of others' creative talent I found on our good friend, the Internet. If you are still in hunt of some ideas before the day is over, perhaps you can use them, too.

First, when he got up in the morning, he found this fun tag on his toothbrush...

...accompanied by a sign on the mirror instructing him to look in the fridge where he found a yogurt parfait waiting for him.

...and a 'card' waiting at his desk. I loved this moldy peaches lyric quote poster art, but we don't get color ink for our printer because we are so cheap(poor), so I tried to jazz it up with some colored pens and doodling.

Some of my plans came out of GOOP suggestions, such as changing the wallpaper on his phone and setting alarms on it for various times, with instructions to check different locations for hidden treats. I changed his phone wallpaper to this fun poster art.



He wasn't supposed to find this until the first alarm on his phone, but due to him changing coats and checking pockets before he left he found it early...and left a photo of him wearing it that he put as the desktop wallpaper on my computer. Sweet.

At the second alarm, he was sent to find this cross-stitch heart card and a couple heart-shaped cookies stashed in his backpack.

There was also an origami heart stowed in another pocket.

Other than that, I did a couple things for myself to celebrate the day.

With some more of that leftover grey felt I have sitting around I threw together a little heart garland to hang in the window.

And in my frequent and addict-like browsing of Pinterest, I spotted this lovely valentine manicure tutorial by jenna beth.

I tied my own version with colors that I had on hand (no pun intended) and wound up with this.

I'm not as skilled as the originator, but still something fun to feel fancy today.

Happy celebrations to you all.

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{ hubby's tuque and scarf}

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Finally, I made a tuque and scarf for my hubby. While I am an American living in Canada, and have mostly kept my native vernacular, I have loved " tuque" ever since I first heard it. It is used by Canadians in reference to any typical knit cap and, it seems to me, feels like a very happy word. Just try saying it aloud.

The patterns used for these, the Molly tuque and Matilda scarf, may have girly names, but they were made for manly purposes. Both patterns are available for free. The tuque pattern I did alter to remove the cable. I made it first as prescribed, and and decided that the inclusion of the cable made it look significantly more feminine... so I frogged it and started all over again without, much the horror of my cast-mates who had been watching me knit it backstage during performances.

The cabled scarf is beautiful, and so fun to nuzzle your fingers into the texture of the multitude of cables. It is also nice and warm due to the cables. The downsides of it is that it took forever to make...I would estimate about 6 times longer than your average scarf. At least that was my experience. Also, I'm not a fan of the look of the backside of cables, so you have to be specific about how you drape it. That doesn't seem to be as big an issue in practice as I worried, though.

So I finally am able to send my husband off in the morning warm and with remembrances of me wrapped around.

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{ be my honey pie }

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St. Valentine's Day is approaching and I'm in a lovey-dovey mindset.

Are you planning any baking for this season? If so, I found something just right: Honey Pie.

I had always heard 'honey pie' as a (slightly mocking) pet name, but it never occurred to me that there was a real baked dish of the kind. Then when I stumbled across a recipe for one on Pinterest, my mouth watered at the thought. After sending the pin to my husband to check out the recipe it was quickly determined that this must be made in our home.

As much as I have an insatiable sweet tooth, I admit that I worries that something called honey pie would be too sweet to bear. I justified in my mind that there must be some reason I hadn't come across it before.
NOPE.
It was amazing. Not too sweet, not too overwhelming an honey flavor. Inside, it is the most lovely soft yellow color, and the top gets a bit of a creme brulee flavor to it as it carmalizes a touch. Amazing. The closest thing I can compare it to is a pecan pie without nuts, but so much better.

You'll just have to try it.

Here is the recipe I followed from South Brooklyn Post. Try it out and send back some love to the makers of this recipe.

Salty Honey Pie

By Melissa and Emily Elsen

Makes one 9-inch custard pie.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Have prepared one pre-baked pie shell of your choice. We use an all butter crust.

For filling:

1/2 c butter melted

3/4 c white sugar

2 Tbsp white cornmeal

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 c honey

3 eggs

1/2 c cream

2 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla paste

1 or 2 Tbsp flake sea salt for finishing (Maldon is a good choice)

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All of the mixing can be done by hand, or with an electric mixer.

Melt butter and combine with the sugar, salt and cornmeal to make a thick paste. Add the honey, vanilla and vinegar and mix together. Fold in the eggs, add the cream and blend.

Pour the filling into a pre-baked pie shell and bake at 350 F for 45 to 60 minutes. The filling will puff up like a marshmallow and the center will be just slightly wobbly. Once cooled (at least one hour), finish with a sprinkling of flake sea salt. Slice and serve with freshly whipped cream.

Happy Pie Time

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{ i solemnly swear i am up to no good }

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Are you a Harry Potter fan? My friend Nicole surely is.
It was her birthday the other day and we decided to throw her a Potter themed party.
Knowing me, I had to stick with theme for her gift, so I painted a tea cup and saucer for her in style.

I had curiously managed to side-step the whole Harry Potter cultural phenomenon for so many years, so when I knew the final movie was coming out last year I decided to steam-roll through all of the previous movies for the first time so that I could see the last when it came out in theatres.

I did indeed thoroughly enjoy it and took a liking to them. Surely one of the most memorable things to me was the Marauders Map and its accompanying pass-phrases of 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good' and 'Mischief managed.'

I thought that, plus several random foot prints, would make a fun marking for ceramics.

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{notebook paper pillows}

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While browsing through one of my favorite window shopping locations, PaperYa on Granville Island, I saw some lovely accessories created with ivory canvas and a whole lot of stitching to look like notebook paper. As usual with my widow shopping adventures, I thought 'I can make that'. So I did.
You can do it, too!

I could have left the pillows blank, but I decided to embroider a quote on each; one from Alice in Wonderland, and the other from the great mind of Einstein. I particularly appreciate the Einstein quote, both as an artist and a dyslexic.

Should I ever want more of a blank canvas look, I can just turn the pillows over, since the backside of each is quote-less.

This can be applied to most any project you want to make, because the beauty is in sewing the lines before you cut the fabric.  I can see making anything from wallets, purses, or even shirts with this technique.  Since I wanted to re-do our couch pillow covers, my task was particularly easy.

I measured to make sure I had enough fabric lengthwise to cover both pillows and then I started sewing many a straight line with blue thread.  I did it at 1/4" intervals so that I just had to use my sewing machine presser foot as a guide. So easy, right? Admittedly, this is a tight spacing of lines, which means a lot more time to do this part.  You could space them further apart if you like, which would take far less time, but I wanted it to look more like the actual spacing on notebook paper. After that, you can do one (or two, closely spaced) line(s) in pink perpendicular to your blue lines. I estimated the placement for my pink line to be 3.5" in from the left seam of the pillow, as that seemed good for the proportions of my pillows. This measurement would fluctuate, depending on the size object you were applying this to.

There are slight irregularities throughout this, such as not always perfectly straight lines and thread thickness where I ran out of a bobbin in the middle of a line. I decided to embrace these as being 'rustic' or some such thing instead of getting OCD over it.

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{ i made pancakes }

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A random piece of craftery for you today. A painting...sort of.
I went over to my dear friend Lois' place recently, where she pulled out masses of paint supplies and declared it craft time. Always a fun surprise.

My husband loves pancakes. I mean loooooves them. I often joke that he pre-courted me with pancakes as he frequently managed to make a fresh batch with too many right when he knew I would be nearby.
He treasures a heavily earmarked copy of The Pancakes Cookbook by Myra Waldo, and at the front of it I found the above quote.

I just couldn't resist turning that into something for our walls. Come on: Shakespeare + pancakes in a house of flapjack addicted thespians? It was necessary. So now I finally have something to hang on the formerly naked wall above our stove.

So go make some pancakes! Here is a classic buttermilk recipe to get you going if you need it.

2 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk or sour milk ("++more" says the hubby)
2 tablespoons melted butter or vegetable oil

Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and sugar. Beat the eggs, then mix in the buttermilk. Add to the flour mixture, stirring only until smooth. Mix in the melted butter or vegetable oil.

Rub a griddle or heavy skillet with vegetable oil or butter. Heat until a drop of water jumps when dropped on it. Pour the batter onto it by the ladle or tablespoon, depending on the size pancake you want. Bake until browned on both sides. Serve with any pancake accompaniment.

Makes about 24 5" or 48 2.5" pancakes.

The Pancake Man also imparted this tip for the best pancakes:
"Blend evenly with a big spoon, but don't over stir - there should still be plenty of air bubbles throughout...And only flip once."

Have a happy Pancake Day.

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