I'm not dead!!! Corsets, bras and exhibitions ...

... though you could be forgiven for thinking I was!

Well, what a year it's been (academic year, that is).  Needless to say, I've been incredibly busy, but now I'm back and if there's anyone out there still reading this little bloglet, I'd like to say hello and thank you for sticking around!

What have I been doing?  Mostly sewing and marking coursework for my students.  I doubt anyone wants to hear about the latter of those two (I certainly don't!), but the former, well ... I suppose I need a big long post to really explain and share all that, so that can wait for another day, but for now I'll give you a taster ...

Last week was the final exhibition for my City & Guilds Level 2 in Corsetry (mentioned way back when, with it being no coincidence that my blogging black-out coincided with the start of the course and the academic year!).  It has been an intense course and I've worked hard, because being over-ambitious, I came up with quite a complex design and I was determined to get top marks.  I'm so, so pleased to say that I did indeed get a Distinction (wewt!) and I'm very pleased with my final pieces.

I'm not going to explain all the ins and outs yet, that's for another day, but here's my display:

It was rather fortuitous that someone from a previous exhibition has used this pale turquoise in her display space, so my tutor, the redoubtable and wonderful Linda Lloyd-Willis, nabbed the space for me and my turquoise and teal creations!

For the qualification, we had to produce an overbust corset and a bra, as well as lots of paperwork and sampling (maybe I'll take some photos of that stuff, if anyone's interested?).

Here's my bra, together with some flower samples:

(And yes, it fits me!)

And my corset:

You'll notice it's not quite finished, but I'll explain about that soon!

So, there are lots of new things for me to share with you, new ideas, new knowledge, new skills.  I'll be updating you on 12 in 2012 (not that it's massively late or anything, lol!), giving details and information about the pieces for the City & Guilds, sharing some other bits and pieces I've made (somehow I've found time to make one or two other bits!) and talking about where things go from here and my plans for the future ...

But for now, hello lovely readers and thanks again for sticking around!  Take care and much love! x

(Big thank you to Nikki from the course for taking these photos on her rather swish camera!)