Caught in a Cage

Of all the pieces I did for Shrimpton Couture, this is the one I was the most excited (and nervous!) to make. I'd had this idea mulling around in my head for a LONG time, but I didn't want to just do a simple black cage harness, I wanted MORE!


I guess the thing that started me on this vintage lingerie inspired path was the elastic I found. Now, the hard thing about vintage elastic is that most of it has lost its elasticity and is useless. So when you find some vintage elastic that is still in lovely stretchy condition, you know it's the good stuff. I found one smallish roll of this particular elastic, so I knew whatever I made could only use "x" amount of elastic, and there was no room for measuring errors. So much pressure!


So in order to avoid cutting that precious elastic, I did ever other component of the piece that I possibly could first! I sourced the lovely dangly pearl bead fringe and found the great nude coloured shoulder pads and attached them to each other. Obviously that wasn't enough, so I pulled out all my vintage lace and started playing. Most of the laces I had were overly frilly and feminine, but then I found this great 60s cotton lace that had a more graphic feel to it, and blended perfectly with the colour of the pearl beads, and I knew it had found its home. This lace was hand stitched to the shoulder pad around the edges, and then further secured when I attached all the tiny pearl beads one by one (by hand) within the pattern of the lace.


All that tiny handstitching was orderly but not all that pretty on the underside of the shoulder pad, so I then used nude coloured mesh as an underlining for the shoulder pads, and hand stitched that in as well.


After all this, I had no choice but to start cutting the elastic. Terrifying, but it had to be done, Cherie was waiting! So after much measuring and calculating I started. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to incorporate some garter clips into this piece, so that made the measuring even more complex, but it was completely worth it in the end, I love those little clips! I finished the piece off with white plastic mini buckles to give the whole piece a more industrial/lingerie/less-girly look, and I just love the graphic repetition of all those little buckles.

To tell you the truth, I was a little sad to pack this piece up and ship it off to Cherie, but I'm sure it's going to find a glamorous new home and get lots of love and wear...and I'll be off creating some new goodies!

xo
Angie