Fantastic design and handsewing. I am also a stage costume designer and sewer and would love to share this with our other designers. We have used V&A books in the past for inspiration and research for our period plays.

Love reading the comments from other avid sewers and designers. What a wonderful passion we all share!

We recently used these (what we call 'electrical ties') in a variety of weights for Elizabethan costumes for the stage. The slightly angled ends are helpful for distributing the pressure around the waist in tab-bottomed corsets, or in corsets that just come down slightly past the natural waist. All of the ties we used were easy to work with and inexpensive. And they didn't add any weight to the already heavy costumes. As another reader observed, they don't change shape, in our case, even after about five weeks of dress rehearsals and performances under hot stage lights. For dance costumes, with which range of motion and freedom of movement are more important, I would use coiled steel boning. But for anything less active, these are fabulous. And they are cheap enough to play with ... imagine the shaping possibilities!

Learning to sew, for me, has always been about sharing. It's such a powerful thing. Adult women shared what they knew with me when I was growing up, and my best friend Jane and I used to share ideas and techniques (she was always way ahead of me). I still learn more every day about sewing, and I'm grateful to be able to share it back out. I'm encouraging my two step-daughters, who are just starting to learn to sew, and I've taught some of the basics to the little girls I mentor through Big Brothers Big Sisters. Last year I organized a Costume Guild at Langham Court Theatre here in Victoria, BC, for those interested in costuming and getting involved in our shows. We gather to share what we know: our current workshops are on developing slopers. I'm also organizing and cataloguing the theatre's collection of vintage and recent patterns (600+ so far) as a resource for our costume designers. Someday, that might include one of the girls I'm sharing with now. I hope so.