Yes, I have been sidling into thrift stores again, exchanging money for innocent victims, and harboring them home to where the rotary cutter of death awaits. Then again, who can blame me for wanting to maul these shameful pieces of attire forged in the early nineties, where profuse pleats on pants reigned over the fashion world! Seriously, some of these things are the sole reason that "What Not to Wear" exists on TLC. Plus, it's so much fun to go to thrift stores and look at the out-of-fashion clothing in a new light. I try to pick out the pieces that I strongly believe shouldn't even adorn another flesh and bones body in their present state, and in that way, I'm doing the world a favor by taking those things off the market! I'm well aware that my husband, who does all the cutting and grommeting in the corsets, loathes cutting the suitpants corsets! He's used to just pulling out a 54" bolt of upholstery fabric, folding it in half, and laying the corset patterns over it. With the pants, he has to carefully lay the patterns around certain elements of the pants, and generally, we aren't able to cut as many plus size corsets out of the pants, because, remember, these are generally tapered pants that just don't have enough room for the corsets built for women that have curves! Instinctively, I feel like I should lavishly adorn the suitpants corsets, even though there's a little practical voice in my head that suggests that if I leave them alone, then they'll be able to transcend more easily into modern day wear, rather than all of them looking like costume pieces for the extremely fashion forward individuals who have the confidence to wear these out in public with jeans. However, I have a hard time controlling the urge. I want to make ostentatious adornments! I want to vicariously live through the vibrant women who wear these around while I stay at home sewing all day in jeans and a t-shirt. Anyhow, I did just make a large purchase at the thrift store yesterday, and I promise to make some toned down "wear to work" type of corsets as well as the bold ones! I just want to say thank you to the bringers of "steampunk" fashion who have helped forge another appropriate and inspirational way to wear corsets! Thank you to the men who bought these pants in 1992, wore them to church a few times, threw them in their closet for 15 years, and then finally got rid of them, where they went from the trash bag to the sorting department to the hanger on the rack to my hands to my car to my sewing room to the cutting table through my sewing machine onto the mannequin into photographs onto etsy through the US Postal Service and INTO SOMEONE'S HEART! *Ahhhhh*

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This is my second post about sewing my quilted coat. My first installment in this series covers my fabric and patchwork design choices, and how I got started to making this garment. You can read it here. Once I had my fat stack of nine patch quilt blocks ready to go, it was time to think more c

Emily Bode is turning rare and forgotten textiles into workwear you’ll want to start collecting.