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.