New Leatherette Bustier Top

I made this bustier top from matte black leatherette to pair with my shiny black PVC one. It has an adjustable elastic lace up front and adjustable elastic halter neck strap.

Blue Zebra Print Corset

I started making this corset weeks ago but only just got round to finishing it. It’s made from gorgeous blue zebra print satin fabric to match the skirt I made recently. The corset is fully boned, has a sexy gothic lace up fastening at the back and pretty black lace trim around the top and bottom edges.

Oh and I also made the neck choker thing myself this morning out of leatherette and metal D rings.

New Star Print Mini Corset Skirt

About 6 months ago I made a new skirt in a black and white star print cotton with black netting, which I quite liked but it was quite a night mare to make and in the end I decided that the price I was selling it for barely covered the expense of materials, fabrics and the time used to make it. Since discontinuing this item I seem to have had quite a lot of interest in it and so I thought I should make a similar skirt using the same star print fabric to replace it….

Okay so it’s not THAT similar but my biggest problem with the old skirt was that it had a fitted waistband instead of a stretchy one like the majority of my skirts. This meant that unless my customers get a tape and measure themselves before buying it, it was unlikely that it would fit. So this new version has the easy fit waistband with a corset style front and the rah-rah style bottom half. I’m hoping this one proves as popular as the last, but I do have my doubts, mainly because the last one stood out in being a mini mini skirt, whereas this one isn’t quite as sexy. Oh well, I guess we’ll see.

The problem with clothes sizes and the rise in obesity rant

I thought I’d have a quick rant about the problem with sizing when it comes to selling clothes…

As you’d expect, being a small independent company, my clothes sizing differs slightly from all the massive chain stores in the UK. In fact I’m sure even the big stores all differ somewhat in the measurements they would consider to be each size. However people-customers seem oblivious to this fact and so when they buy from me, they ignore the measurements that come with the stated size and just go with whatever size they consider themselves to be in the mainstream stores.

And then there’s the sensitive issue of the rise in obesity and the possibility that customers might see my sizing guide as not very generous compared to other guides. And they might not want to buy the size that fits their measurements just because it is bigger than the size they usually fit because this will make them feel bad about themselves.

This causes massive problems for me because I absolutely cannot afford to be handing out refunds or exchanges every which way. It just loses me money. Yes, even exchanges because even though the customer only ends up with one item, I have to shed out twice the amount of money for the materials and not to mention the time! Then there’s always the question of how soon someone will come along and want to buy the original item so that I can make up the money lost.

This is the biggest stressor in my line of work, because while I can’t afford to let the customers walk all over me and allow myself to lose money for their mistake, I’m too honest a person to just keep their money and say words to the effect of "tough luck, choose your sizing more carefully next time." And that’s terrible custom, I want them to come back to me, I don’t want them to feel ripped off or scammed out of their money. Because that’s not what I’m trying to do at all!

I just don’t know what to do. This has been an issue for me right from the very start. The biggest problem is that most people don’t have a handy tape measure ready for measuring before they shop for clothes, most people are unaware of their measurements and so they go with what they know and what they know is their big chain stores, their standard size in those stores and the fact that those stores can more than afford to offer a refund or exchange system.

New Website Layout

This morning I decided to completely makeover my website as I was getting pretty fed up with it and was at a loss as to how to improve it the way it was. Having next to no skill when it comes to graphic design and photoshop, everything I tried always seemed to look amateur or half-assed. I also think having so many colours and pictures on the homepage was possibly quite distracting from the actual products and most likely caused the page to load slower anyway. So now I’ve gone back to the basic original layout with a simple banner and a not too overpowering background. Hopefully this will re-spark interest! Anyway feel free to let me know what you think!

Long Sleeved Slashes Top In Pink

Here’s the latest picture. The same as my long sleeved slashes top but in pink. A fitted long sleeved top made from stretch cotton, with gothic slashes across the front and diagonal slashes down the sleeves. This is available in sizes 6 to 24 from my website.

Plus Size Range extended to Size 28!!

My plus size range now goes up to size 28! I've just listed the below corset tops and skirts in size 26/28 in my ebay store.

New Gothic Black & Red Skeletons Skirt

The last skirt I think is my favourite that I’ve made so far. It has the same stretchy waistband with decorative red ribbon lace up detail on the front and the lower half is made from this gothic black stretch lace netting with red skeletons and crosses, layered over black cotton. The red sort of shimmers in the light and is really pretty. This one is also 16" and will be available in the same size range:6-24.

Green Spider Web Skirt : )

The second skirt I made recently is this one...black and green spider web skirt. It is pretty much the same as my red and pink versions of this skirt, only instead I have used black over green cotton, as opposed to green netting over black....Mainly because the netting doesn’t come in green, but I actually think I prefer it this way anyway. There is also a layer of black cotton beneath the green, so there are actually 3 layers to make up the lower half. As always the top waistband bit is made from stretchy cotton and has decorative matching fluorescent green ribbon lace up panels ending in bows. The length of this skirt is approximately 16" and will also be available in sizes 6 to 24 on my website and in my ebay store.

New Blue Zebra Skirt

A green and black punky gothic skirt made with a stretchy black waistband for easy fit. The lower half is made from bright green cotton overlapped with gorgeous black spider web lace fabric. There are decorative lace-up panels on the waistband with matching bright green ribbon. The length is approximately 16" and this skirt is available in sizes 6 up to 24 from our ebay shop.


A stunning blue zebra ra-ra style mini skirt. The waistband is made from stretchy black cotton allowing a good fit, with corset style lace up detail on the front. The lower half is made from punky blue zebra print satin and black cotton. The length is approximately 17" and this skirt is available in sizes 6 up to 24 from our ebay shop.

Self pitying rant

I’m feeling pretty depressed, everything seems to be a struggle at the moment. For a while everything was so perfect, I have great friends, a wonderful boyfriend, a roof over my head, and best of all, I was finally starting to be successful at what I do.

Now everything is changing. My best friend is moving away, miles and miles away, I’ll be living alone, away from my other friends and worst of all I’m no longer being successful at what I do.

My friends often offer words of comfort such as “we are in the middle of a recession you know!” but I can’t help feeling like I’ve done something wrong. How can it go so dramatically from one end to the other? Being self employed is great and I love living with the knowledge that I’m earning money to support myself and live off, from a business that I’ve built completely from scratch. But I swear the lack of stability will never stop causing me trauma!

I know that this is what I should expect. I know that to make something like this truly successful, it takes years and years of hard work and commitment. And I know that the majority of people in the western world tend to give up on something if it doesn’t work straight away, they expect everything to be easy or to be done for them. I also know that very few people have as much dedication or determination as I do. But you have to wonder, how long will it be, how many years of feeling this amount of worry and panic every time sales are slow before I reach the next level? Before I feel a bit more comfortable? Does it ever actually end?