October 2022 trip to Marshall’s Fabrics in Edmonton

Trim at Marshall’s in Edmonton, October 2022

I was up in Edmonton (well, Nisku) in October for a conference and thanks to some very generous folks who drove me up – and were willing to take a 20 minute detour – I was able to pop into Marshall’s after a LONG time since I was there last.

The last time I was up there was in the spring, but since I’d be walking around by myself afterwards, I only got a little bit of elastic when I was there, and not the meters of fabric I was tempted to get… prior to that I hadn’t been there since pre-covid I think.

I find it fun (ish) to look back at my “shopping” posts when I actually USE the fabric I bought (to see how long I stored it… LOL) so I figured I’d do a quick shopping post this time around too.

PVC and chain harness/bra

Wearing my new PVC and chain harness at an event

I’ve been loving some of the strappy harnesses I see on goth-stagram (Goth Instagram… I guess it’s like goth-tok..lol) and went to order one for myself, but… felt the same feeling I often do when I see stuff I like on size 2 models…  Even though the measurements SOUND like they’re going to fit – I always worry with “one size” – that the proportions will be all wrong.

Instead of placing and order, I decided to make my own.

Custom-made Pink & Snakeskin underbust corset

The finished back of the pink and snakeskin PVC underbust corset on my dressform.

Back in 2020 I made a pink PVC hobble skirt for a friend, and with the leftovers I also made a circle skirt for myself as well.  There were still a few scraps left over which I hung on to… just in case. (Although I give most of my leftover fabric to a friend who sews doll clothes, things like PVC I usually keep because moderate sized scraps often come in handy.)

Well, I hadn’t seen my friend in several months, but then they were coming to visit in late January, so I figured I’d try to “whip up” a corset for them, using the hot pink PVC leftovers as exposed (decorative, not functional) bone casings.

I originally planned on using a black PVC for the main body of the corset, but when I was going through my stash, all of my plain black PVC fabrics were really too thin to use for a corset – or too soft to handle the wear that the lacing would cause.

However, I had this black and super-dark silver snakeskin PVC (from a Medusa costume I did years and years ago) – and I had lots of it… enough for a corset for a friend, as well as one for myself if I still wanted to make another. Together with the pink PVC, it looked really neat, so I started drafting…

Hot pink PVC hobble skirt

Lightweight hot pink PVC hobble skirt

After making so many different Courtesy Masks, I finally got the time to clean up my sewing space a little, and that really pushed me to finish up some of the “UFO”s (Unfinished Objects) in my sewing room, including this pink PVC hobble skirt.

Circle skater skirts

Red velvet skater circle skirt

I was attending a Valentine’s Day themed party, and at the last minute decided that I wanted something red to wear to the party, so I decided to sew up a super-simple circle skater skirt.