Visitors and corsets.

This office special is my tribute to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I read it on my flight to and from the East coast, and in some moments in between, and it made me laugh and laugh—and trust me, I needed the laugh. I was hesitant to read it, being a Jane Austen purist, but it was bloody hilarious. My friend Laura gifted me the book and insisted I read it. It was silly beyond words, but so ridiculous in everything, that it made it wonderful. Just what the doctor ordered. The drawing was done with a fine-point graphic pen from my pencil box, a ball point for shading and sketched with my mechanical pencil on copy paper.

Anyway… Onto my Monday mumble…

I wonder if it’s odd to be overwhelmed by having three women in one’s kitchen? Well I was, yesterday. I sat in my chair in my tiny dining room, and watched three women pour tea, eat crème brûlée and cupcakes (thanks to evil S-II), laugh and chat while standing around my teeny butcher-block island. I became overwhelmed. I suppose it can be odd and overwhelming when you normally have nobody in your kitchen except for the memory of a brief moment when one’s husband is home and you see him at the sink as he rinses out the dog dishes—or you recall when one’s older sister moved in for half a year and could be heard grumbling from the kitchen about you leaving a dish in your own sink and not making the extra step of putting it in the dishwasher. I realized this weekend how infrequently I have visitors.

For the past few weekends, S-II, the evil pastry chef extraordinaire, has been my weekend visitor. I carved out some room for her to sleep in my frigid craft-room for overnighters, and she has been a quiet and comfortable friend to me while I putter about my house doing what I do while watching House on DVD. I’ve also had visitors in Laura, a fellow historic-group creator, and most recently as this Sunday, and Tessa, the recipient of the sewing services I’ve been providing. On Sunday, all three of these little individual little she-worlds collided in my kitchen over Summer Pudding tea and caramelized sugar.

Nobody comes to see us way up on the mountain. We might as well have a house on Mount Hood’s icy summit, because nobody cares to do the drive. Except the hardy creatures, like S-II, Laura and Tessa. Laura came to talk about the things we always promise to talk about and never quite get around to, S-II was there for the sake of being there and was happily camped on my sofa with a blanket over her legs, dogs burrowed under it, and her laptop balanced precariously on the whole pile. I was frantically binding raw edged arms eyes on a Victorian bodice on my dining room table when Laura arrived with a book of artwork we never got ‘round to looking at, and then Tessa arrived to try on my very first Victorian Corset.

I’ve been trying to tone down my activity levels a bit. I was so stressed with the issues with my father, and my work that I had actually gotten physically ill from it. I was having severe digestive issues and was not sleeping at all. I’ve put the ORS on the back burner for now, I will only freak out when it comes ‘round to ball-time. I’ve backed off on my complete dictatorship for now… allowed others to do things in the name of ORS and do it without my control-freakish gaze over their shoulder. I’ve decided to trust people to do their thing. And they have shown they are more than worthy. Right now, I need to do things that I can focus on and that calm me. I need to find my center. My core. I need to find peace and quiet.

One of those things is sewing. It calms me. The hum of my machine is comfort to me, and I’ve allowed myself too much procrastination on my sewing projects. Tessa needs a Victorian-style costume. Four clothing pieces and some underpinnings. And I recently tackled my very first Victorian corset. It was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be, even with the little fastening busk thing… but I AGONIZED about it fitting her. It looked SO SMALL. I forgot though, how small that little thing is, that Tessa. And when she came in yesterday, stripped off her top and bra in the middle of my living room (certainly to the delight of my seasonal neighbor who happened to be at his cabin and working in the garden yesterday within view of my window) and we lay the corset on her and it immediately took its shape before I could even lace it up, I nearly wept. No kidding! It was SO perfect. It fits her like a glove, and it shapes her into the perfect hourglass. It was the most satisfying feeling I’ve had in MONTHS. I felt happy… over a stupid corset! Now I want to make ten corsets. I have some pink Dupioni silk, and some dark grey cotton fabric with black whorls and scrolling on it that are both screaming to become corsets with little rose-printed and black velvet bindings…. Oh yeah, baby.

I’ll post pictures of the little vixen when her costume is done and she’s all trussed up in her gold and chocolate getup of Victorian style over her simple cotton corset. She picked a natural form look, no crinolines, no hoops, no bustle pads. She will be stunning. This is made from the Laughing Moon Dore Corset pattern.

[[Update: Here are some pictures of the corset ON Tessa.  Beware these pictures are a bit sexy... Tessa's a little minx]]

Beautiful shape. She is obviously not
wearing a shift ... very risqué. 

She is so pretty. The corset
enhances her sexiness for sure.
Even a simple cotton corset.

Anyway… I had three women in my kitchen yesterday! One took off with her new corset and left me to frantically finish her jacket and bustle… another settled back into the pile of comfort on the sectional, and the last cuddled with Simon on the chair--we ate my Puerto Rican special “Arroz con habichuelas y carne…” (Rice and beans and MEAT—steak in this case, mistaken for pork when removed from the freezer… hey we adapt), and we watched the pilot to Firefly, for neither of these ladies have been introduced to this icon of nerdiness, and I felt it necessary to indoctrinate them.

What a lovely Sunday! Shiny.