The Shop

Tailor of Two Cities is a one woman costuming company in Norman, OK run by long time seamstress and costumer Deborah Billingsley.  She specializes in corsetry, historical reproductions and re-imaginings, and fantasy clothing.

Behind the Scenes

Every shop has a story to tell, and I like to share mine.  If you'd like to peek behind the curtain, try my Facebook page.  I share pictures of upcoming projects, tips and tricks from a lifetime of sewing, and occasionally hilarious blunders to never try again.

See you around!

-Deborah

The Seamstress

My Aunt Judith taught me to sew when I was the 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 teenage 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 DVD’s.  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 actively building it ever since.  In January of 2015 I purchased an embroidery shop to expand what I can make, and now sew and embroider full time.