Press On!

Before I can complete my second muslin fitting, I need to make my grommet panels for this and future fittings.  Ideally, there will be several panels, so if one set is in use, there will be back-ups available.  I finally got to use the new hand press.  My verdict is that the press sets the grommets much more evenly than the results I was getting with the hammer method. The edge of the grommet is less likely to split, mush and get beat up.  This method is faster and creates a smooth, rolled grommet edge.  Less headache all 'round.

Here is the first panel, in the works:

Osborne Hand Press

First Toile

From the front, it’s easy to see that I will need to make a full bust adjustment to the armscye keeping the space for the girls, but not increasing the armscye at all.  Not really sure what's going to flatten out all that.

From the back, it won’t even close, so back to the drawing board on that.  I’ll need at least 5 extra inches through the back of the shoulders for it to begin to look like something.

It’s sitting too high in front, as well.  Pulling it down makes it feel as though it will fall off, as there is not enough fabric in back.  I absolutely have to wear a full-support bra, even with a corset.  The only corset I’d attempt to not wear a bra with would be a well-fitted 1860’s.  When I tried this on without the bra, it was a disaster that I don’t wish to share in a photo.

Well, That Was As Much Fun As...

...trying on bathing suits under fluorescent lights, or perhaps sticking a finger in my eye.  The graceful lines of this 1776 pair of stays are, shall we say, elongated and widened considerably.  I have nothing more to say here except I'm annoyed and had to go do something else for a while.

The bottom line: my waist is short (8") and I had to hook my lower center back length full around to the side over my ample hips in a really stupid sweeping arc, which I rather don't like very much at all.

Then, I had to get the bust to equal at least 22" inches (up from what a negative 0?) and then pull the front where the strap is supposed to attach up from where it was (sitting in the middle of my bust line - uh, no) to sitting up at least 4' - 5" higher at my shoulder and re-draw the armscye and hope for the best.

  Essentially, I had to grade this ancient pattern up from about a size 6 or 8 to a size 18 and now I'd really like a glass of champagne as I toss the whole mess from the balcony, but I won't because now I'm headed off to make the toile...
Post Script: Could she have trued that line a little better?  No, she couldn't as she's lost her drafting ruler and the Fiestaware didn't prove quite large enough.  :-(

The Obvious Culprits

I hate starting a project with no way to finish it.  So, I tore through the studio last to hunt for this relic from the 1980's, a deep purple, reptile-print leather mini skirt.   (Doesn't everyone have one?)

This skirt was actually a Salvation Army find a few years ago, in brand new condition and has been in my stash ever since, since not every project calls for deep purple reptile-embossed leather.  It's ready to have a new life as a binding.  The question remains: will it suddenly become tasteful in small quantities, or will it completely overwhelm the soft, ivory, brocade draperies?

Most extant examples of period stays from the last quarter of the 18th c. had tabs that were covered in white kid leather of some sort.  I've never been a white leather sort of girl, but I do have this fencing glove ready to re-purpose.

Since there isn't quite enough leather here to cover all of the tabs, I'm also using the random leather strip.  I had a boyfriend once who told me to never waste any good, usable piece of leather, and I haven't!

The lining will be a remnant of linen.

It looks as though there is just enough for two layers, one to support my old drapes, one to act as the inner layer. I've read several times about there being a removable inner linen lining in period stays, but I've not yet seen one and have no idea how that would attach except for catch stitches all the way around.  Since there is already quite enough work to do, here, I think I'll leave a whole other linen lining for another time.

My Draperies - A Scarlet O'Hara Moment

This will mark the fourth started (and, as yet, unfinished) project within this month.  This particular project is off-era, being a pair of 18th century stays (we'll just have to pretend that I'm on my way to participate in Sheridan for the season).

This is the first project for February. (Yes, there is one more unfinished project for January left to start in order to keep up.  Whew!  This is rather exhausting!)

Here are my beloved (over-lov-ed) draperies:

From afar, not too bad.  But I've had them for too many years (I'm embarrassed to say how many) as you can see.

I can't even really blame this on the cats.  It's time.  (Also time for a paint job in here!)  Will the fabric hold up to stays? Is it sun-rotted? Who knows? I'll just have to find out.  Giving it a tug didn't destroy anything.

Perhaps here you can see why I love them so:

So down they come, and into the wash they go.

First Mock-up for 1918

Yes, the extra panel was a good idea.  The main part of this corset girdle covers my largest asset quite completely, but what I hadn’t bargained on was the “mini skirt” effect of the garment.  Yuck. Not flattering!  I’ll pin the bottom in closer to my body where it flares out to conform it to my upper thighs better.

And yes, that's a boned, flat-felled seam on the right hand side of the picture and an unfortunate mistake on the left hand side of the picture.  That's what I get for talking while cutting.  See ya' seam allowances!

In terms of fit and flattery, I found Edwardian Promenade that addresses period diet and even a whole show in the UK devoted to Victorian/Edwardian reducing.  Wow!  Chew thoroughly and slowly!  Drink your water!  Take a daily constitutional!  Put your corset on!  Exercise!  Sweat!  (Funny, nothing new, here.)  However, I'm really glad I don't have to spit half my food out into a cup.  I wonder if cool showers would help for weight reduction?  They seem to be helping on The Diets that Time Forgot.

Yes, an Extra Panel, alas

I was initially tempted to just add an extra panel, but decided that was too lazy, and that I’d extend each piece by an inch or three.  But when I held each piece up to my body, the need for an extra panel become even more apparent.  I have large hips. Seriously large.  Denying it will only make this pattern look stupid on me, so I’m going to own up to it and add an extra side panel.  That will make a total of 2 front panels and 2 back panels for each side.  My only concern is that the number will change this beautiful pattern from its present strong-yet-dainty look into something ugly.  I hope not.  The front side bone will stay in place, the back side bone will also stay where it is, the only difference will be an additional bone or two running down the added side seam.  I can live with that.  When I make this pattern again, I’ll try adding the inches to each panel.

The Mock-Up Commences (or does it?)

Here is the start of the mock-up with a pair of my DH’s old pants:

They are cotton twill, a great, inexpensive (free!) stand-in for coutil.  However, what a waste of 100% cotton! I can do a sloppy, fast job and toss them OR I can treat this toile as important from the start, and in the end, have a well-worn, soft twill steampunk edition of this corset. I don’t foresee needing to cut them apart, which is what the toile is for – fitting, marking, dismantling, then creating an entirely new, trued pattern. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how it comes out.
Here’s today’s conundrum: See the ending place in the Waugh diagram for the elastic placement on the front? [The top piece in the picture.]  Where the heck does that end?  In this drawing, it just stops.  That makes no sense, because I’d have to fold my elastic under to finish it creating a huge lump near the center front of the garment’s waist, or it slips in-between two layers of corset material - the fashion fabric and the strength layer.  Now, that sounds like a reasonable option until I consider there won’t be anything for it to slide into.  I plan on flat-lining coutil to fashion fabric, treating the two fabrics as one piece, one layer.  There will be no seam to speak of to tuck it into.  I have two options.  One is to lay an additional bone casing in up against the busk, thus covering the elastic; the other option is to ignore the drawing and carry the elastic over to the busk and bury it in there someplace.  I like the first option much better.  It strengthens the over-all garment, and leaves no lump.

Elastic & Boning Issue

This corset has elastic around the top. This is troublesome to me, at first, because the (very 1980’s) elastic I have is finished on the edges (I think, I’ll have to locate it.)  So, if it’s finished and the bone casings allow the bones to go up into the elastic areas, then what?  How do I finish them off?
Locating this picture from ebay:

showed me that there is indeed binding around both the fabric and the elastic, not just the fabric. The boning channels are set up into the elastic, so what happens is the fabric is cut off just below the waist, then the elastic goes in at the waist to create one slab of fabric.  Also, the transition of the elastic into the boning channels is really smooth, very pretty.
This 1918 era corset, then, represents the direct opposite of a Victorian corset, where the control was at the waist and the hips were padded and petticoated to extreme extension.  Here, the hips are under control while the waist floats free for the first time since the First Empire.  (I’m missing the 1860’s already…)
I also located the lone piece of elastic I purchased a million years ago for something.  The edges are smooth, ready to slip into seam allowances and/or boning channels.  It’s going to work out fine.

My Edwardian Corset Girdle (circa 1918)

Technically, this corset, dated in C & C as c. 1918, is 8 years after King Edward VII had passed on.  In my head, I guess the fun Edwardian era ends with the advent of World War I, in July of 1914.  I doubt there was all that much “fun” to be had during that time period for much of anyone, and corsets are just beginning to cease production during this time.  I do like to include the corset girdles in this time-frame because they are still interesting.  They still have a center busk and older women are clinging to them in some respects, which is sort of symbolic, for me.  (Think Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard, and all that - Ah! the past!) 
What I mean to say is that I’ll define my own very loose, emotional terms for “Edwardian”:   I’d like to include the Fin de Siecle (I couldn’t cut myself off from all of that!) that is, 1890 thru until Armistice Day, November, 1918.  And then, my friends, it’s really, clearly over.  For real.
This is going to be so much fun!

Day the Second

The first thing I need is the proper Edwardian period silhouette.  This will require a new corset, as all the others seem to be either  from the 1860’s or otherwise inappropriate.  Norah Waugh has a 1901 example and I'm busy with it currently, but she also provided us a later model, a long-line from 1911.  I plan to make both anyway and will post further as things come along.