The Shop

Tailor of Two Cities is a one woman costuming company in Oklahoma City run by long time seamstress and costumer Deborah Billingsley.  She specializes in corsetry, Steampunk attire, Renaissance costuming, and Victorian clothing. 

Behind the Scenes

Every shop has a story to tell, and I like to believe mine is unique.  It's been a long road to get to where I am, and that road has been full of trials and triumphs, hilarious blunders and spots of blinding fortune, and most of all a host of outrageous characters I have the fortune to call friends.


I try to share a little of this world through my sewing, but if you'd care to peek further behind the curtain try my Facebook page.  No stodgy advertising page, it is full of behind the scenes pictures of photo shoots, the latest creations from the shop (whether they are successes or flops to never be attempted again), and odd bits and pieces from around the web that make me laugh enough to share.

See you around!

-Deborah

The Seamstress

My Aunt Judith taught me to sew when I was a tender age of twelve.  I had just joined the Arthurian Order of Avalon, an educational group about the middle ages, and needed costumes.  The very first thing we ever sewed together was an underdress made of black crushed velvet that is still hanging in my closet.

Thus ignited my passion for sewing.  From the very meager beginnings of saving my allowance to buy fabric and borrowing my mother’s sewing machine, I grew to costuming myself, friends, and other actors for a variety of rolls and Renaissance festivals.

My love of history has always influenced my sewing, and was the inspiration for branching out from Medieval and Renaissance costuming to Victorian and Colonial costuming.  I’ve also made forays into modern clothing from the forties and fifties.

Over the years my hobby outgrew itself.  I doodled costuming designs at my day jobs.  My fabric collection started requiring its own room and furniture soon after I left for college, and I owned more sewing books and magazines than I owned DVDs.  I made myself dozens of costumes, though I didn’t have enough venues or occasions to wear them.

When I started talking my friends into letting me sew for them, because I had more ideas in my head than I could make for myself, I realized I should pursue a business in sewing.  In June of 2011 I opened Tailor of Two Cities and have been growing ever since.

In January of 2015 I left my day job to run a Silkscreening and Embroidery company.  Late that year we acquired Hard Edge Design, and Tailor of Two Cities has been moved to the Hard Edge location.