I realize that instructions are far more helpful when you can print them out and put them on the worktable while you’re using them. I also realize that pages upon pages of full color photos do not a happy printer make. I’ve made a not-so-chatty (yes, I actually can edit) PDF version of the Basic Conical Draft directions, redone with black&white line art.
Now that I’ve got all the photography done, it’s time to pick up where we left off in The Basic Conical Torso Block (Part 1). We’re completing a basic torso block that we can use for the simplified, conical torsos popular in Renaissance, Elizabethan, Jacobean, Pompadour, Colonial, and all other eras between the Sixteenth and Eighteenth centuries. (She says, throwing as many keywords into one sentence as humanly possible.) One block, three hundred years of fashion – how can you lose?
For several hundred years, beginning where the High Middle Ages met the Renaissance and continuing through the eve of the French Revolution, fashion treated the female torso as something of an inconvenience. The breasts were flattened, first by bands of wool or linen, later by corsetry and boned bodices. The sides of the body were straightened and the tum controlled. The torso became a conic shape. In some decades, like the 1590s, 1690s, and 1780s, it’s a very long cone. In others, like the 1640s, it’s a very short cone that disappears into skirts below the bust. During these times, a very basic conical torso block can be used as a basis creating custom patterns.
The Shoulder to Shoulder width is crucial for making wide necklines that don’t fall off the shoulder. It is also crucial for spacing the straps on corsets and bodices so that they stay on the shoulder and you don’t have to fuss with them all day.
I made my first Elizabethan corset back in the dark ages of internet time, when it was still pretty common to ask Real Live Humans(tm) how to do things. I got instructions that were relatively simple – a bust, a waist, divide by two, draw some lines, and presto-change-o, a corset pattern. It’s the method that had always worked for the lady who gave me the info. For me, it was a spectacular failure – too tight, too high in back, and completely uncomfortable to wear. I blamed it on my generally costume-clue-impaired state. But was there something else going on, that could result in two people having completely different luck with the same pattern draft?
So I was out trimming the privet hedge the other day, like you do (she says, sounding perfectly British about the whole thing) when I stopped to think, “Gee, I wonder if I could bone a corset with some of these clippings? I should give that a try…” So I did.
The Waist to Full Hip measurement is used to fit pants, fitted skirts/dresses, and very long line corsets. It’s the secret measurement that lets you make patterns that keep skirt hems and prints level on figures with a pronounced tum or bum. (For historical purposes, making patterns up using a modified Waist to Full Hip measurement taken over hip pads/skirt supports can be used to keep hems and fabric patterns level.)
The Waist to High Hip measurement tells us how long the curve between the waist and the curve of the hip is. It’s used in making pants and fitted styles of skirts and dresses that fit properly, and is extremely important in creating long line corsets that are comfortable to wear.
The Armscye to Waist measurement, sometimes called the Side Length, is important for properly fitting bodices, jackets, blouses, or any other fitted torso garment. Properly used, it helps us create garments that don’t wrinkle or poof at the sides of the torso. The Armscye to Waist measurme becomes critical in boned bodices and corsets, because it prevents garments that dig in to the waist or armpits – problems that are uncomfortable at best, and leave scars at worst…
The Armscye measurement, loosely defined, is the size of the hole you need to put into a bodice, shirt, doublet, etc in order for your arm to fit through. I suspect that many people guess on this point, and tend to guess large. For many periods of history, including the Elizabethan era, however, the armscye measure needs to be fairly precise to help create the long, unbroken torso seen in period artwork.
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