Malotke Sews

Today's book review is on Valerie Steele's " The Corset: A Cultural History ." When I studied abroad my Junior year of college I attended the London College of Fashion (LCF) for a semester. How they operate their study abroad semesters is that you take 3 required classes and then you get x amount of hours to choose other classes. For my three classes I elected to take Shoe Design, Millinery, and Corsetry. A big part of my corsetry class was keeping a sketch book / research book. Well, if there's one thing I love it's research. My corsetry book was full of notes and images (See image below)! My sketching isn't the best but man oh man can I research. I loved LCF's library, Purdue had basically no fashion books available and LCF was filled with any topic you could want to look into. I spent a lot of my free time in the library reading books, collecting images, typing notes, and making wish lists of books I would want to purchase for my own home library. I...

Since my fall and winter shows have been postponed to next year, I have a decent amount of time on my hands. So far I've been using that time to take online classes, tune in to various webinar seminars, and read for fun. I've decided to finally work my way though some commercial patterns I own. I am currently in the process of hunting down all of the necessary notions for each pattern.  I've chosen two patterns to focus on at the moment. First is a Simplicity pattern #8229 by Madalynne for a matching underwire bra and panty set. The other is a lined button front unisex jacket: McCall's pattern #M7818 "W Melissa Watson for Palmer/Pletsch". My plan is to use as much fabric from my current stash as possible and only buying what I am missing. Since I don't typically sew stretch lace and spandex, I will be buying most of the fabric for the matching bra and panty set. However, I have plenty of fabric to make multiple lined jackets, so I will be able to make a ...