In June of 2018, I took photos of this dress – my first fantasy design.

It was also around then that I got an email from Etsy telling me they would be raising my fees. I was a bit nervous about my shop. I’d heard things about Etsy’s CEO (who had done a lot of for-the-greater-good projects) being fired and replaced with a new one. The new CEO was making a lot of changes very quickly.

From when I joined in 2007, Etsy was always a place where I knew I needed to drive my own traffic. Even as Etsy had gotten bigger over time, it was still a given that success on Etsy required doing your own marketing and promotion. Particularly if you sell something unique. Etsy would bring a few buyers that care about handmade in general to the platform, but if you want the buyers that care about the type of stuff that you make, you should work on bringing them yourself. In return for this, we paid low fees, and the number of buyers on Etsy’s platform kept growing thanks to the hard work of all the sellers in the ecosystem.

The fee increase seemed justified, because Etsy let me know that they would be changing that deal. They told me they would be using the extra money I would send them to bring more buyers to the platform. It was a large increase – from 3.5% to 5%. It would bring the yearly cost I paid to sell my designs on Etsy just in transaction fees (they charge us separate fees for hosting listings, and to process each payment) from about $1100 to nearly $1600.

But more buyers would make it worth it to me. I would continue with my marketing efforts, and with Etsy’s push to bring me new buyers as well, I would end up making more sales.

2018 was my best year. Towards the end of it, it did seem like they brought more buyers to me.

Sadly, that would be shortlived.

The graph shows Etsy’s active buyer counts each quarter for a year and a half before the 2018 fee increase and a year and a half after the 2018 fee increase. That information is public, because they release it to their investors each quarter.

What you see in the blue line on the left is a combination of people like me working hard to grow the platform, and the marketing Etsy was doing for a 3.5% fee. On the right you see two lines. The blue trendline, which is what you would expect to happen with no fee increase. And the red line – what actually happened.

Do you see that jump between the third and fourth quarter of 2018? And how the line goes nearly parallel afterwards?

I really believe Etsy ramped up marketing to buyers for a few months – for as long as they thought their sellers were paying attention. That red line going near-parallel is what would happen if they stopped all new marketing-to-buyer efforts after that point, but we sellers kept working hard to grow the platform. I certainly did.

And look at what happened with sellers in the same timeframe.

I had an amazing end of 2018, followed by a shrinking 2019. It’s exactly what I would expect to happen if Etsy only tried to bring me more buyers for a few months, and then used my money to bring themselves more sellers.

I really believe they took my money, and the instant I stopped paying attention, they used it to make themselves even more money.

They lied to me.

But I didn’t know that back then.

I wouldn’t find out until later.

This post is part of a series telling the story behind the 2022 Etsy Strike. Click here to start at the beginning.

Hi, I’m an Etsy seller.

I say that, and I feel the import of the words, and I realize something.  It might not mean the same thing to you as it does to me.  I should explain to you what I actually mean when I say that phrase…

Hi, I identify as an Etsy seller.

I guess it makes sense.  When you tell people “Hi, I’m an Etsy seller” for more than 15 years, it starts to become a part of your identity.

15 years ago, I would have told you those words, and then I would have said, “Have you heard of Etsy?”

Most likely, you would tell me no.  In return, I would say, “Oh my gosh!  You should check it out!”

I would explain to you how Etsy is this amazing online shopping site kind of like Ebay but for artists and craftspeople!  You can also get supplies on there, and they allow vintage too – which is totally cool, since vintage items are so fun and unique.

Really, it’s kind of an ecosystem for creative types!  In addition to the shopping, there are forums where you can connect with likeminded people. And oh!  The stuff you can find on there is so amazing!  It’s people – actual real people – making stuff, and sharing it with the world!

Would you smile?  Would you engage? If so, then I would babble on excitedly about Etsy for quite a while to you.  It’s hard to overstate just how enthusiastic I would have been.  If there were a choir devoted to singing Etsy’s praises, I would have been a lead soloist.

But that was then.

This is now.

Today, when I tell you, “Hi, I’m an Etsy seller,” I no longer feel any excitement.  Mostly, I feel tired.  And I feel frustrated.  Discouraged.  Betrayed.

Etsy is still a part of my identity, but it doesn’t feel like a healthy part.  I need to stop introducing myself that way.  Etsy is my master, and I am the abused dog that keeps coming back to them every time they call me.  I need to leave the platform.  I really could, if only I could stop believing in them.

And the phrase “Hi, I’m an Etsy seller” means so many other things to me too each time that I say it.

It means, “Hi, I’m so creative that I fail at life half the time, but holy crap, you should see the things I make!”

It means, “Hi, I’m an outside the box thinker who figured out how to build an online business from the ground up, with no training whatsoever!”

It means, “Hi, would you like to see my soul?  It’s on the internet.  Hang on, I’ll show you!”

This is the story of the death of my Etsy business.  I poured my heart and soul into my shop, and it is true that the first decade I spent with them was amazing.  

Since about 2018, however, they have done everything they possibly can to kill businesses like mine.

February 24th, 2022, was the final nail in the coffin of my belief in Etsy.  They reported a second year of record breaking profits to their investors, and at the same time, reached out to all of us, their sellers, to let us know they would be raising our fees… again.

At that moment, I realized I was done taking all of these horrible platform changes lying down.

I wouldn’t let Etsy kill my business.

I would fight back.

I’m working on a new section on my website to help with ordering custom wedding dresses and costumes from me.  So it makes sense to have a list of everything I can make – every skirt design and jacket design.  And I kid not, I’ve designed and drafted so many beautiful skirt patterns over the years that I have difficulty remembering them all!

One thing that makes it complicated is my skirts are interchangeable.  I have front patterns and back patterns – and you can combine different fronts with different backs for a ton of unique styles.  For instance, here are two fronts, and two backs, and depending on which front and which back you choose, you wind up with four different skirts!

Each time I’ve tried to list all my skirts, I’ve missed a few cute combinations.  And I definitely don’t want to miss anything in the new custom orders section for my website.  So I cut up a bunch of cardstock, did some reeeeeally quick sketches, and made cards for every skirt pattern I’ve drafted so far (or am in the process of drafting).

And then I looked at all of them and thought geez, no wonder why I’m getting confused!

Once you start combining all these patterns with eachother, it makes quite the plethora of available styles!  So I’m sorting all my skirt styles into “Silhouettes”.

And here they are!

I think because I’m a Late-Victorian-Era obsessed nut, this one’s my go-to.  When I design new things, I practically have to slap my muse to not design a new bustle skirt!  So there have been a ton of bustle skirts over the years.

Sometimes I like to cosplay a younger character – or an adult character with a cutesy personality, and when I do, I definitely want a petticoat skirt. 

High low skirts are awesome because they look 100% amazing worn by themselves.  If you want a cute look but prefer not to have to mess with petticoats, bustles, or other undergarments, high low is the way to go.

Apparently I need to actually make a few Flowy skirts!  Lol when I went looking for pictures of them, I realized that none made it past the sketch point.  Flowy skirts are based on a full circle’s worth of fabric, and they fall smoothly past the hips.  They are supremely twirl-able, and – well, flowy!

Sometimes, you just want to go all out.  The costume equivalent to this is wearing a hoop skirt!  Many of my skirts have an alternate version to the pattern that’s intended to wear over hoops.  And I have a few dedicated hoop skirt patterns as well.

And then that is only the tip of the iceberg, since every silhouette has multiple skirt patterns, and usually there are multiple looks you can create with a single skirt too, depending on what you wear it with.  For instance, “Vintage Diva” my most popular skirt, can be worn in no less than 6 ways!

Lol, I fail at making/designing anything simple…

Which could explain why I always run late with new designs! I started writing and organizing pictures for this new section of my website way back in June! And I expected to have it complete by mid-July.

It’s September now, and I believe I’m about halfway done. Sigh.

I planned to do the writing/organizing part in all the “free time” I thought I’d have once Virtual School ended, but it hasn’t quite worked out that way!

But until I finish, I thought you all might enjoy this little preview. 🙂

To those who have been enjoying my stick-fingers-in-ears and sing LALALA approach to the coronavirus, no worries!  Your daily dose of pretty (with no mention of scary) will resume tomorrow!

But – if I don’t at least mention SOMETHING in the midst of this national emergency, I’m kinda out of touch with reality!

So here’s my coronavirus update.  First: if you place an order anytime from now thru the next few weeks, please give me a few extra days to ship!  Next week they’re having early spring break in Rhode Island, which will be followed by tele-school.  So I’ll be effectively home-schooling my first grader, and my special needs 6th grader. I expect to be very busy!

Most events around the country are being cancelled – so my orders have shrunk to only a few wedding customers, which is scary financially, but will help me keep up!  I do still need to keep posting listings on my website (if I stop it will hurt my search engine rankings), and I don’t want to disappear on social media either.

Luckily, we just took a ton of pretty photos, and I have a few of last year’s shoots that aren’t edited yet, that will be ready to share soon.  Here’s a sneak peek!

I also have a completely irrational fear of being one of those people who have it, but feel perfectly good, and therefore don’t know and spread it to others!  It’s silly because I really don’t leave my house much, and my friends tend to be of similar ilk (no globe-trotting wanderers here!)  

But it led to me doing some research that I wanted to share.  In addition to being an online vendor myself, I do a lot of online shopping!  So I set out to answer the following question:

Coronavirus: Is it safe to shop online?

It comes down to this: How long can coronavirus live on a surface?  AKA, on an item in a box, that is being shipped in the mail.  For a while people weren’t completely sure – there weren’t any Covid-19 specific studies, and other strains of coronavirus can last up to 9 days on surfaces!  But finally we have a Covid-19 specific study.

The scientists found that coronavirus can live for up to 3 days (72 hours) on plastic and stainless steel.  They tested other surfaces too – 24 hours on cardboard, and only 4 hours on copper.  The study has yet to be peer-reviewed, but I’m assuming they’ll get to that quickly!  I’ll update this blog post when they do.

So we should all be safe shopping online.  If you want to be extra extra safe – check when the package was shipped, and if it’s one of those super-fast Amazon packages, and it contains something that can’t be washed or disinfected, disinfect the outside once it comes into the house, and let it sit until the 3 day point.

I’m young and healthy, so if I caught it, I’d be fine.  But I very much agree with the sentiment of trying to be responsible and not spread it to those less healthy than me!  So I’ll be extra extra careful over the next few weeks – disinfecting EVERYTHING, and doing that thing they call “social distancing”, just to be safe.  I prefer relaxing in beautiful, wide open natural spaces over crowds anyway!

Chocolate, pizza sauce, wine…

All these things have their (delicious) place in life – but hopefully you can keep them off of your corset. If you failed at this task, however, have no fear. I’m here to help!

How to spot clean a corset

There is a product that I swear by, when it comes to caring for and cleaning my cosplay clothing. It’s Clorox 2 liquid. The image below (an affiliate link) will take you to purchase on Amazon – but you can get this at your local Walmart too.

I don’t know how many 50’s housewives they sacrificed to achieve this… 😉 But I swear, this stuff will remove the worst stains from white – while colors either remain unchanged, or look brighter afterwards!

I recommend testing a spot first to be safe. If your corset has a modesty panel, there is a line along the attached edge that will be underneath the grommets when you lace up. Take a toothpick, dip it in Clorox 2, and put a tiny bit in an inconspicuous spot. Let it dry for 30m to an hour, then keep wetting the spot with water and blotting it with paper towels. Keep repeating, and be sure you don’t have a bleached spot. If not, you are good to go!

You’ll need the following:

• Clorox 2
• A couple Q-tips
• A bowl of water
• Plenty of paper towels

When the stain first happens, if you can, get as much out as possible by blotting it with dry paper towels, wetting just the stained portion, then blotting again until it lightens. Before you start with the Clorox 2, get the spot as dry as possible. The magic seems to happen only when it’s extremely concentrated.

Use a q-tip to apply Clorox 2 just to your stain. Let it sit for 15m. If the stain is still there, apply more Clorox 2, and let it sit for another 15m. Repeat until the only added color in the spot is blue – up to an hour total. Remove the Clorox 2 by applying water to the spot with your second Q-tip, and blotting it out with paper towels. Repeat a butt ton of times, until the blue is gone and the water spot is barely visible. It should disappear once the corset dries all the way.

I’ve used this technique to remove a black ink stain from an ivory corset (as well as less taxing stains) – with perfect results.  It’s time consuming, but it does work!

How to Wash a Corset

My official recommendation: Don’t!  Corsets should be dry cleaned.  If you live near a big city, there may even be a dry cleaner who has experience with them.  You can call around and check.

Confession, however: I hand wash my own corsets.  One of these days, I plan to open up the banding on a couple of them that have been thru the process at least three times, and pull out the steel bones to see if I’ve ruined anything using my technique.  If I find no rust, I’ll post a tutorial outlining the process.  It is a rather long undertaking – and requires owning some specialized equipment (namely, a tailor’s ham designed for ironing sleeves) – but the end result is a corset that looks and feels brand new.  If and when I post the tutorial, I’ll update this post with a link.  🙂

Best Storage Practices for Corsets:

If you wear your corset on a warm day (or if you sweat a lot on a cold day) be sure to air it out before putting it away. Flop it over the back of a chair (with laces spread wide so the modesty panel can breathe too) and put it away the next day.

It’s best not to wrap the laces around the corset when storing it. It will sometimes leave random weird looking dents in the waist area, and I’ve heard it isn’t good for the corset either. If you buy a corset from me, it will come with a fabric storage bag, like this:

Rather than simply stuffing the corset in the bag, I recommend lacing it up first. Fold the strings, then fold the corset around the strings, and put it inside the bag. The bag will keep the corset safe from other items, and your other corsets if you store them together. If you’re packing the corset for a trip, it will also keep the corsets busk and/or any hardware from messing up any of the items in your bag.

And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed my Ultimate Guide to Corsets. If you think you may have missed one of the parts (there are 8!) you can access each via the links below.

Part 1: History

Part 2: Types

Part 3: Real Corsets

Part 4: Anatomy of a Corset

Part 5: Pattern Matters

Part 6: Sizing

Part 7: Comfort

Before I did this series of posts, I posted this question on facebook and instagram:

And I was surprised when about 90% of the responses were questions to do with sizing!  As well as kind of pleased – because that’s a subject I feel that I’ve really got a handle on!

My Story

I’ve been selling made to measure clothing online since 2006 – but it was in March of 2013 that I started specializing in corset costumes.  And as always, the first thing I did is put my proverbial mad scientist hat on – and I did a ton of experimentation!  I trolled facebook groups and volunteered to supply costumes to local collaborative photoshoots.  I took measurements for all the models, and made notes of which size they wore in my corsets.  And I did the same thing with friends and family – until I had a big database of measurements, along with the size that each person wore in my hourglass corsets.

And I used that data to come up with a sizing strategy for my corsets.  It’s very different from the way most other stores out there do it… but it works!  Here’s what I have learned.

Tip 1: Don’t size by waist.

Most stores recommend to size your corset according to your waist.  But very often, this won’t work.  The reason why is simple: Your waist squishes when you wear a corset, but your rib cage and hips can’t squish.  So the most important measurements to determine your size are actually bust (or underbust for an underbust corset) and high hips.

Tip 2: Don’t lace a corset closed

Corsets aren’t supposed to lace closed.  If you have purchased one that laces down to less than a 2” gap in the back, return that sucker and get a smaller size.  Part of what makes them work is some heavy duty steel boning beside the grommets in back.  And that boning should rest on top of the muscles on either side of your spine – and never too close to your spine.  A corset that laces too close together is bad for your back.

Note: I have read conflicting information to this statement – there are a lot of tightlacers who lace  their corsets closed.  I think that there may be exceptions to this rule when a corset is custom made to your form (with a mockup and a test fitting) that makes it possible to lace shut without back pain.  I can tell you – for me personally – If I lace a 26” corset (in any style, overbust or underbust, any shape, and any level of curve) all the way shut, I will experience back pain in 5-15 minutes time.  But it I don a 22 or a 24 in the same style, and lace it to a 4 inch or a 2 inch gap, I’m perfectly comfortable.

Tip 3: Underbust Corset Sizing

Are you tall, or long waisted?  If so, then yes, you can most likely wear an off-the-rack underbust corset.  If you are short waisted, well endowed, or any number of things that could mean you have a short torso (particularly a short waist-to-underbust measurement) then underbust corsets very often won’t fit you!  I’ve bought several from my wholesalers, and although I am average height, I’ve found that I need a shorter corset.  A “Waspie” is a term used to describe a very short underbust corset.  If you find that standard underbust corsets are too tall for you, try searching for a waspie.

Tip 4: Lacing Cheats

Corsets are made to have average bust-to-hip ratio – but if you have a bigger bust, or bigger hips, it’s okay to lace your corset in either of these ways to get it to fit:

…But!  After you lace up the corset like this, feel the flat steel bones by the grommets, and make sure they are flat.  If they are trying to twist on you, that means your corset does not fit – and you need one that is customized to your natural shape.

Tip 5: Wear a bra

Yes, it’s perfectly okay to wear a bra underneath your corset.  In fact, if your cup size is below C, I recommend wearing a push up bra beneath your corset.  But you’ll need a very specific style of bra to get it not to show.  You want a half cup or Demi cup bra – as shown in my sketch below. If your bra has non-removable straps, tuck them inside the corset before lacing down all the way.

If your cup size is DDD or above, you probably can’t wear a bra underneath your corset.  No worries, however, a real steel boned corset provides amazing support (much better than your best fitting bra!)  If you aren’t wearing a bra underneath your corset, lace up partially, then reach down the front and scoop – make sure both ladies are exactly where they are supposed to be!  This will help your corset lace down better, and your chest fill the corset’s chest area better.

Those are my best tips for how to get a corset to fit you perfectly.  Next week, I’m going to talk about how to be comfortable (yes you can be comfortable) while wearing a corset.

Today, most manufactured corsets seem to have a shape sort of like inverted parenthesis – like this:

) (

So the first thing I wanted to do is explain why that’s not good!

Your bones aren’t shaped like parenthesis!  They curve in at the ribs and have a sharp curve at the hips.  There are steel bones along each seam of the corset – and if the corset does not follow the shape of your bones, you will feel those steel bones digging in in places.  The red in the sketch shows the spots on which you’re likely to feel some discomfort, when you wear a corset shaped like that.

Hourglass corsets are much more comfortable.  They curve with your bones, which keeps the corset’s bones from digging in.

And here’s the really cool part.  Hourglass corsets will actually make you look curvier – and make your waist smaller, while being more comfortable to wear than a corset with a “parenthesis” shape.  This image shows just the corsets from my sketches above, with the comparison of the waist size for each.  See the difference?

Most people prefer hourglass, but there are other shapes out there too.  The picture below shows a conical or wasp waist corset.  You wouldn’t typically purchase a corset with this shape unless you are a waist trainer (someone who wears a corset daily to reduce waist size).  It will actually move your ribs.  When I’m waist training, I like wearing underbust corsets that have this shape.  Oddly, if I’m wearing a corset more than one day at a time, a conical shape feels more comfortable to me.

The shape below is called a pipe-stem corset, and it is only worn by serious waist trainers.  It looks rather painful to me – so I’ve never tried it!

 

And those are the primary shapes of corsets that you’ll see when shopping today.  I’ve drawn them in overbust, since that’s my personal preference – but all of these shapes come in underbust styles too.  If you are looking at patterns – you’ll also see historical corset shapes.  Women wore some form of corset for several centuries, so there were a ton of different styles throughout history!  If you want to learn more about historical corset shapes, I wrote a post about it previously in this series.

Coming next week – Corsets 101 Part 6: Sizing

I was surprised when I started working on this post – and came up with 18 different terms to explain to you!  Corsets are a rather complex art – so to explain them well, it helps to dissect them into their parts – and define each one.  In this part, we’ll cover everything that goes into making a corset, as well all the terminology you need to become a corset afficionado.

We’ll start with the boning.  In most corsets, there is one steel bone along each seam, plus four in the back with the grommets.  The jury is still out on this – but in my opinion, the nicest corsets have spiral steel bones over the bust and all around the sides.  Sometimes you see them with flat steel – and some people prefer flat steel (saying it gives more support).  Spiral steel bones are extremely flexible (while still being strong as steel) and they mold to your form without digging in.  For me at least, the sensation of straight steel bones digging into my rib cage is extremely uncomfortable!  So I use spiral steel for my corsets.  The bones in the back beside the grommets, however, should be made from flat steel.  They will keep the edges of your corset straight as you lace up into it.

The diagram at left shows how the bones are placed in most corsets.  This is called a “Single Steel Boned Corset”.  But some corsets are double steel boned – meaning they have two spiral steel bones along each seam in place of one.  To my knowledge, all double steel boned corsets are made with spiral steel.  With two bones along each seam, you need that moldability!  Waist training corsets are usually double steel boned, since they are extremely durable when made that way.

In the front of most corsets, you have a busk, with hooks all the way down.  In some corsets, you instead have swing latches (or box clasps).  You see swing clasp closures very often in Steampunk corsets.

Corsets are made of two fabrics fused together.  The outer fabric is called the “Fashion Fabric” and the inner fabric is called the “Strength Layer”.  The fashion fabric will usually be something pretty – and the strength layer will be a nice thick coutil or cotton twill.  There are boning channels sewn to the back of the corset, and the boning is inserted inside.

Some corsets have reverse boning channels, which are made from a contrasting fabric and sewn to the outside instead of the inside.  This makes a really cool decorative effect.

Some corsets have waist tapes.  The waist tape reinforces the waist and keeps it from stretching.  I chose to leave the waist tape out of my hourglass corsets, because I find that the corset has a smoother shape without it.  I make these really pretty dress jackets, patterned to curve perfectly with the shape of my hourglass corsets.  The smooth shape in the waist looks nicer with my jackets, so that’s what I did!  But if you have bought a high quality corset elsewhere, you will likely see a waist tape on the inside.

In the back, between the two flat steel bones, are grommets.  (photos coming soon!  Lol, I forgot to mention the grommets when I originally wrote this post, so I’m now adding them in way after the fact.)  What are grommets?  They are the metal pieces that protect the lacing holes from getting wallered out over time.  You may think of them as “eyelets” – but eyelets are one piece.  The front looks the same as a grommet, but in the back, eyelets have what looks like metal flower petals that spread out around the lacing hole.  If you’ve bought a corset from a new maker, you might find eyelets instead of grommets.  Grommets are two part.  There is a front piece that curves around the back piece, and if set properly, both the back and the front is 100% smooth.  The flower petal-ed back of an eyelet will cause lacing to fray over time, so for a long lasting corset, grommets are necessary.

In back under the lacing, your corset should have a modesty panel.  This protects your back while lacing up, and covers up the crease you’ll have in your back after laced into the corset.

More rarely, corsets will also have a modesty placket in front, to protect your stomach while hooking the busk, and cover the tiny space that can happen in front.  My hourglass corsets have this piece.  I accidentally hooked stomach skin into a busk on a corset once.  (Holy friggin ouch!)  Let me tell you, that experience will make you insist upon always having a modesty placket in the future!

The trim at top and bottom of the corset is called binding.  It’s often made from the fashion fabric, or sometimes it’s made of contrasting fabric for a cool look.

The lacing in back is extra long, so you can loosen the corset to a very wide gap in back to put it on.  It’s laced so that there are bunny ears on either side at the waist – so they are easy to pull to tighten the corset.

That’s all the parts to a corset.  Was it a bit more complex than you thought it would be?  Coming next week, Corsets 101 part 5 – Pattern Matters