Making stuff and a trip to Wales

That's me, outside the stadium in Cardiff. Last weekend Mr Robot and I went to see Metallica in concert there, and it was great. I saw Anthrax playing in Cardiff back in 1993; it's only taken me 33 years to see another of thrash metal's big four. Picking out what to wear was tricky as the UK had been experiencing a horrible heat wave all week – I stayed in the house the whole time – and my usual black velvet jeans were likely to be too hot. In the end I wore my floaty cotton Disturbia 'Blythe' dress, and took my recently-completed jackety thing for after the gig, in case the night was coolish. Anyway, we had a great time. Metallica were fantastic. They play a 'local' song at every gig; we'd been discussing what it might be. They went for the option we'd thought most likely, and did a cover of Tom Jones' 'Delilah' halfway through, with the audience singing along. And no audience sings along like a Welsh one!

Sooooo many future projects!

Now I've completed the jacket, I've put Pingu Bastard the overlocker away and am using my regular machine for a bit. I've got lengths of fabric for a range of projects all ready to go, but what I decided to do was play around a bit. I made a wrap dress in 2024 (um, and never blogged about it, sorry for that!) from fabric I bought from Fabworks. They were selling it as deadstock, and I recognised it instantly as leftovers from House Of Foxy. And HOF use quality cloth, so I snapped it up. When I'd finished making the wrap dress I had some biggish scraps left over. I didn't want to throw them out, but I needed to find a way to combine them that also looked good.

Yet again my Pinterest mood boards came to the rescue! Each year I make a new board of things that inspire me, and for the past few years I've had a consistent fascination with Victorian and Edwardian corset covers. There's just something I love about the dainty fabric joined with strips of embroidery and lace. I bought some lengths of lace insertion on Etsy, put it all in my sewing bag, and did no more with it. 

At this point, I was starting to wonder if this was really a good idea

The project's time has come. I took the pattern I'd adjusted for my purple vest top earlier this year, traced it, and rotated the side dart into the armhole. I switched the v-neck for more of a scoop, and reduced the width of the straps. Then I cut the tracing up into pieces I thought I could eke out of my scraps. I had yesterday off work and started joining the pieces using the lace insertions, and it seems to be working pretty well.

I'm feeling really pleased with my sewing. So far I've only done one the wrong way round

I can forsee one problem with the project: I didn't add seam allowances to the scraps, reasoning that the insertions would put back what seams took out, if that makes sense, but the wider insertion lace adds more than the seams remove, so I'm expecting the lower front to be a little too wide. Ah well. I'd planned to get to grips with pintucks at some point...

I've run out of black thread again (I really should buy it by the box) so the project is on hold till the weekend, but I'm cautiously optimistic about this one. I did try to position things for minimal transparency over the nips, though I do have sensible bras so it's not going to be revealing anyway. I'm hoping this will hit the sweet spot between what inspires me, what I find beautiful, and what I like putting on my own particular body. 

Bodice top and both sides complete - I just need to join the centre front to the side fronts.

Of course, after this is finished I still have to MacGyver a back for it...