Unrelated Things

In my endless quest to a) improve skills b) improve garment functionality and c) make things totally challenging and unknowable, I have decided to add a little twist into my Ginger skirt project, penultimate of the Spring Basics Palette projects.

By twist I mean twists, more accurately, in the form of spiral steel boning:

Photo courtesy of On Pins and Needles

Why recreate the same skirt you love, I say, when you can make a bias cut version with a different waistband that's tailored? Yeah, that's really keeping it simple.

At any rate, I watched Gertie's yellow dress, boned-bodice project with interest, though I was totally freaked out by the level of complexity involved. More recently, she revisited the concept on a waistband, using the Ginger skirt as her muse. That, I thought, is something I might get with in the course of time. Truth is, for all of my love of my Ginger skirt, having used a very stiff denim, and given that my lower abdomen is not flat, I've got a bit of bunching where the skirt rises up to meet the waist as I walk. I intend to ameliorate this by using a fabric with better drape next time (the cerise wool blend), by making the straight (rather than scalloped) waist band and, you guessed it, by venturing into the world of waist boning.

Ah, I can see a corset in my (distant) future.

(On the topic of where and how I've purchased the boning and tips, stay tuned. What I will tell you is that I bought Canadian. And - hilarious, I'm sure you'll agree - I paid through the nose for shipping given that the outlet is 2 hrs away and the vehicle is Canada Post. Let's just say I'm waiting for some clarification and to see the size of the package / contents within.)

Item above is vaguely related to my next item, I suppose, about the Freya Nieve long line bra and the Freya Nina plunge.

The world of lingerie is never dull here. In short, I bought the Nina set and then decided to keep the Nieve after first trying to replace the Nieve with the larger cup size - only to find that it's completely gone everywhere now that it's sale season and that colourway has been discontinued.

The long version is that I couldn't get the Nina as a replacement for the Nieve and also get the 20% discount that was being offered on the bra on Figleaves. I either had to a) buy the Nina and return the Nieve - which means I'd pay shipping on the Nina (5 pounds 50) and return fees on the Nieve (8 bucks CDN) or b) buy the Nina as part of my return but pay the full price aka somewhat more expensive than option a).

Now, the price of both of these sets together comes to $130.00 CDN - less than I'd pay for one of the bras alone at a B&M store here. So, any way you slice it, the discount is deep enough to mitigate a return and new purchase.

I was all set to return the Nieve but I couldn't stop trying it on. Every time I did I'd notice that the gores don't sit flat against my chest - but that, in every other way, this bra is awesome. By awesome I mean "inspiring awe". My boobs look so spherical they're mesmerizing. And so pushed up they're practically hitting my chin.

This leads me on a diatribe about the merits of padding. Don't get me wrong, I don't love the concept and I'm much more about the natural shaped breast (not that every bra isn't artificially shaping one's breasts in one way or another, but you know what I mean). But I can totally understand how the younger women love it. It's very, um, youthful. And the padding really is a means to an end. It doesn't so much increase the volume of one's chest as it molds it into a modern cultural ideal. I'm still trying to understand what's doing what. Is it the vertical seaming that contributes to the shape? The longline? The padding? All of the above?

Point is, I couldn't bring myself to give it back. I wore it today and, while I felt like Jessica Rabbit, it was fun under a very modest crew neck. Its practicality may be limited, but it's an experiment I'm not done with yet.

The purchase of the Nina is merely a function of my indulgent tendencies. I couldn't let a floral/animal/pink combo get away.

So, I figure if you don't care about waist boning, chances are you care about push up lingerie. Please feel free to share your thoughts about either of these threads. I want to hear them.