NEW WEB SITE

Our new web site is just about ready to launch. It's ready to view and a good page to start on is our "Tips & Tricks" page. We're really excited about the look and functionality of this new web site that should be fully functional as of January 10th. The site will sell our corset making supplies and you can see our products there now - even the new busks! You can also create your account so that later - you just sign in and don't have to fill in all the info. Check it out!

Farthingales Corset Supply on TV

Tomorrow Linda of Farthingales will be featured during "Morning Live" in a brief segment at 8:20 a.m.
She'll talk about corset making and the upcoming Corset Fashion Show.

If you don't get CHCH TV or miss the 8:20 a.m. segment you can catch it any time later in the day athttp://www.chchnews.ca/  just scroll down the page of "recent news".

Black and Red Corset with fairy/butterfly wings

 Sharon Gashgarian has been on an incredible journey...of the corset making kind. A sketch for her corset is in one of my earlies blog posts.

Here you can see where Sharon has pinned her many fabrics to a dressform to get a visual for what she plans to build. I work very much the same way and ironcially I chose the same colour pallet for my corset contribution to the Creativ Festivals "Corset Fashion Show".

In this photo the corset has been sewn together and teh wings attached. The corset is not yet finished.

Sharon created the fabric from tiny bits that she sandwiched between two layers of water soluble webbing. This has created a very organic shading and patterning.

The white cages you can see at the hip is a creative version of an historic pannier.

I can't wait to see this corset on the runway.

There will be a videographer and two photographers at the show so I'll be posting pics from the show here on my blog and the video will end up on YouTube

New Look for Farthingales

We built the Farthingales web site 10 years ago and it's been rennovated many times since but now it's time to rebuild. The image on the left is one of our corsets during a photo shoot with Photographer Rebekah Boyle while I was in L.A. I've always loved this group of images so it will be the cover page of our new site due to launch in January 2011. 

It's obiously one of my favorites since it's also the image for my blog :-)

Corset Making Tip

There are many ways to make a corset and inumerable types or styles of corsets. A detail that had totally slipped my mind has been incorporated by Joan Scheerer. She stitched her two layers of coutil together - (note: this is vintage coutil) and as you can see in the photo she then heavily machine stitched a section above the one bone casing. This area will be under the arm when the corset is complete. The stitching ads support to the corset under the arm but keeps the bone away from the arm pit. If you're shorter than average in the torso you'll know how uncomfortable it can be to have a bone digging into your underarm!  This is a great tip!

Joan's corset will be a simple coutil Victorian shaped corset and she'll be modelling it at the Farthingales Corset Fashion Show during the Creativ Festival in Toronto on October 22, 2010 at 1:00

Hot Pink Silk and Machine Embroidery Inspires Corset

Hot pink silk duoppioni with machine embroidery in briiliant blue, green, red and white is the starting point for one of  Melanie Farrar Jacksons 3 corsets. The little bags hold Swarofski  crystals that will be hot fused on once the corset is complete. Melanie has made corsets in the past and is excited about building 3 new ones despite a tight schedule.        She's also working on a leather corset - not basic black but white leather with black patent.            The variety of corsets being creatied for the Farthingales Corset Fashion Show is amazing!  Come see the show during the Creativ Festival October 22, 2010 at 1:00. About 10 corsets will be on display for the weekend but there will over 30 on stage.

The corset fashion show will take place at the Toronto Metro Convention Center on October 22nd 2010 during the Creativ Festival. While Farthingales is producing the show there are about 32 women involved and a couple of men to! Everyone has submitted sketches or descriptions which means everyone who originally signed up is still on board which is pretty incredible for a volunteer project.

Kathi is the first one I've got some photos from; as a fiber artist with no corset building experience she's focusing on the fabric. She's creating two corsets for the corset fashion show. One corset is being featured in A Needle Pulling Thread magazine in a three part series - check out the August Issue for the first installment.

Several fabrics cut into bits and pinned securley between two layers of net.

The second corset Kathi is working on will be built from the same corset pattern - a modern take on an 18th century corset. She's taken several fabrics, cut them into bits and with decorative machine stitching anchorded them between two layers of open net. This one of kind fabric is only being used as a detail; it's being combined with other purchased fabric.

There will be over 30 corsets on the runway during the corset fashion show and many will be on display for the balance of the weekend. So mark you calendar and book a day off work Friday October 22nd this is a show worth seeing.