Sempstress

Yet another dry, dusty pile of academic writing… This time, the topic is the corsetry/torso support of the 16th century.  I find the full history of the artificial silhouette totally fascinating, and I’m geeked beyond belief on the actual genesis of the corset.  In the 16th century alone, a bunch of different devices are in play.  Corsets, obviously – who doesn’t know about the Pfaltzgrafin and Effigy corsets by now?  Wardrobe warrants also list stomachers (for Tudor gowns) made of pasteboard covered with tapheta – that’s certainly stiff enough to smooth the front of the torso into the signature tudor inverted, featureless cone.  By the end of the period, warrants talk about busks made of whalebone and wire, quilted with sarconet.  (How does that fit into a channel in a corset?!?  Or does the end of the era, with it’s open-fronted gowns, turn back to the same infrastructure used by the earlier tudor gowns with stiffened stomachers?  I have my theories, obviously….)

So here is…. Everything I know About 16th Century Corsetry, Read the rest of this entry »

File this one under “possibly useful to some one, at some time, somehow”: this is a series of pictures of corsets I’ve made over the last several years. Each one shows me standing in profile, next to my dress dummy. This makes the changes in my shape imposed by each corset fairly obvious, and the pictures all together give you a pretty good idea what different types of boning and styles of corset can do for a girl. Read the rest of this entry »

I noticed a while back that most of the bodices in Alcega’s
book and several other period tailor’s books show a slight backwards S curve
at the front edge. That seemed like it would accommodate the bust and belly
a little, and I was feeling like being comfortable, so I decided to give it
a shot. I included a picture of what was left of the fabric after I cut the
pieces, because it looked surprisingly like bodice cutting diagrams shown in
period resources. The last picture is a boning diagram, just in case anyone
was curious.

Results and Notes:The resulting corset was quite
comfortable, and gives a very nice line. I was pretty happy with it. I didn’t
get that terrible sinking feeling you can sometimes get from a heavily boned
corset with a straight front

Would I do it again?: Yes. In fact, I’m actually planning to repair the one I made (the boning wore through wool surprisingly quickly, much to my dismay). But, honestly, to do it right I’d have had to remake all of my bodices with a curved front, and that was like work. Not sure I’ll do that. Trimming things gets complicated.

This is a corded effigy style corset. The idea of using cording
instead of a more normal boning belongs to Jen, who did a lot of research in
that direction in the course of her
Italien dress. The pattern for this corset more closely follows the actual
effigy corset than the effigy style corsets I have made in the past. The corset
is made of two layers of cotton broadcloth, and stiffened with hemp cord. Some
parts of the side back, which do not provide support to anything crucial, are
stiffened with jute packing twine (I ran out of hemp at an inopportune time).
Where hemp is used, there are two strands per channel. Where jute is used, there
are 4.

Results and Notes:The corset provides more than adequate support,
as you can see above. It is also extremely easy to move and bend in (I can do
backbends in this), and does not seem to have any serious effects on my attempts to breathe. The effigy pattern is generally far less restrictive than the standard issue back lacing corsets that some people prefer, but the corded effigy seems even more so. The only problem that I have noticed so far is that the line of the corset deformed in the face of rather extreme heat and humidity, as seen
in the picture to the right. However, I should note that when I say, “rather extreme”, what I mean is that it was 97 or so at faire that day, and I was overheating in a big bad way, so I stuck a hose down the back of my dress and turned it on. Hemp seems to lose some of it’s rigidity when soaked through.

Would I do it again?: No. I don’t think I’m willing to
rely on just hemp for boning in the more rigid, later elizabethan styles like
the effigy. I will most likely make up another “working class” corset with the
boning running straight up and down, solely done up with hemp. I will probably
also try to do up an effigy boned with reed, which is significantly less floppy
than hemp cord.

With the help of my lovely assistant, Janey (currently seen
modeling my absolutely excellent “Henchwoman” shirt (thanks, lynn!)), this article
will fulfill a need that does not exist (because drea already wrote the article
on it, but I was having fun with my parent’s digital camera, and am now trying
to use most of the resulting pictures), which is to say, it’s all about what
goes on under all the stuff you can see.

Picture one is just janey hanging out and being casual before
the shoot. (Note: I am not drinking now, nor was I when I took the pictures.
I’m actually like this without help.) Picture two shows the basics of Elizabethan
underthings: A chemise, corset, and overskirt. This is suitable as your sum
total of underthings for lower classes (more than enough for the lowest of the
low, in fact). Underpinnings get a little more complicated for the nobility.
Picture three has the addition of a farthingale. (Yes, that’s the one I wore
last year, and the year before. And Yes, I am aware that the fabric is not period.
In fact, I can think of few fabrics that would be less period. I suppose it
would be worse if it was, say, nylon instead of cotton, but that wouldn’t holdup
nearly as well. I hate making farthignales. It’s mind numbingly dull. I hate
making tucks in a-line skirts, which is technically what making farthingales
is all about. (Or is it? Alcega says make tucks, and that’s been accepted as
canonical truth, but the wardrobe warrants in QEWU mention bents being held
down under ribbon. That’s exactly what I did in this one, not out of any inherent
sense of authenticity (I didn’t have a copy of QEWU when i made it, and I thought
the tuck thing was how it was done because that’s what I was told by people
who sounded very convinced about the whole thing), but because it’s *just*bloody*easier*.
Never underestimate the power of laziness.)

Anyway, picts 4 and 5 are petticoats. The first is a red to
peacock blue changeable silk with trim in pepto-abysmal pink satin ribbon, edged
with gold cord. (Why is that color called peacock blue, any way? I peacocks
are not predominantly blue.) The second is made from highly synthetic (but extremely
lovely, in a period kinda way) fabric from jo-ann’s…. There was apparently
an extreme trend for sari-wannabe fabrics this spring, which I thought was great
because they were great costume fabrics. Not sure I would ever wear them normally,
though. Since this petticoat fits over a bumroll, I had to make the back longer
than the front (which is par), but since the fabric had two distinct stripes
(one at the top and one at the bottom of the skirt), and I wanted it to look
nice all around, I shortened the front by taking a tuck right above the band,
which is hidden by trim. There’s more trim at the bottom of the band, and a
row of fringe. (Highly period, but not recommended if leaves are a part of your
venue. Will I ever learn?). the bumroll was put on under the petticoats. Someone
described these as ‘pretentious petticoats’. I rather like that. Nothing says
‘too rich for my own good’ like pretentious petticoats… Well, except maybe
for being an open catholic at court, which the character was.

After the underthings, the skirt then bodice of the underdress
are put on (picts 6&7), then the safeguard (that the red skirt lookin’ thang),
then the jerkin. In case you’re wondering, yes, it’s hot in there. I mean, if
it’s hot *outside* the dress, of course it’s hot *inside* the dress……

Yeah yeah yeah, so *everybody* is making an effigy corset
these days. I actually made this months ago, and the mockup a few weeks before
that, but I’ve only just gotten around to an entire faire season’s worth of
picts, costume updates, and what have you. Update: I’ve added pictures of my
newest effigy, which is stiffened entirely with hemp cording. I think it worked
out rather well.

If you’re looking for information on how the effigy corset is
*supposed* to be made, I’d advise reading drea’s article
or sarah’s article.
They’ve both got excellent articles and pictures and information an all that
jazz. If I’m not internationally notorious for failing to do things “the right
way” by now, I should be. I took the liberty of altering the pattern when I
made min to make the corset easier to make via machine. If you’re not familiar
with the actual article, the effigy corset has a pair of side back seams (which
may offer some shaping, but I believe are mostly there to prevent any part of
the corset from being cut on a true bias). This seam means that boning channels
exist with, well, a seam through them. Getting boning past a seam allowance
is not this little sempstress’s idea of a good time. What I have done is to
extend the line from the center dip of the corset all the way to the back of
armscye and separate the pieces/make the seam along that line. That’s where
a piece of boning falls anyway, so it was convenient. The two front pieces together
look rather like a shield. The rather alternative piecing style makes it possible
for the corset pieces to be sewn together into layers, then joined to form the
corset and then have the boning channels put in. The original piecing of the
effigy requires the pieces to be made up and boned separately, then joined together
by hand into a corset. I’m not convinced I trust my hand stitching to hold pieces
of a corset together. Images of (literally) bursting at the seams run through
my head and make me shudder. Maybe it’s just me…. Anyway, in this case, the
interlining and lining are made from medium weight cotton, made up, joined,
channeled, and boned, then the facing of teal silk is made up, and joined wrong-side
to wrong-side to the boned piece (yeas, that the opposite of how you normally
do things, and yes, it’s a real pain the the patoot to convince that to go smoothly
through a sewing machine). The reason that I joined it WS to WS is because I
didn’t want to try and turn the silk tabs against the boned tabs, because I
was afraid that either a) it just wouldn’t run, or b) the silk would fray and
the corners would pop in the process. The raw edges are trimmed, then the whole
thing got bound with soft leather (chamois, which has the tremendous advantage
of being a cheap leather that actually likes moisture – sarah beat me to posting
this little tip ;) If you noticed that it’s a little uneven when closed, you’re
on to something. Being a bear of very little brain, I forgot that I planned
to spiral lace, or maybe I just wasn’t thinking about the full implications
of spiral lacing, but one way or another I made all the grommets line up when
they should have been offset. I spiral lace it anyway because it’s the most
expedient way of lacing anything. :) For incredibly concise, helpful information
on how it’s supposed to be done, check out jennifer’s article
on A Festival Attyre.