Corset Design, Drafting, Construction Pt 2

I have finally ordered my corset supplies! They should be arriving in a couple of weeks. Farthingales ships on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so my stuff won't be in the post until next week, but that is ok. As excited as I am to start working on my corset, I am also relieved to have a break from sewing for a few days. But I do need to sit down and get those curtains hemmed.... ugh...

I have ordered enough materials to do two corsets, and "fix" one of the purchased corsets that I have. I have plans to make an underbust (that will be the first one), and an overbust, and I would like to reinforce the bones in the back of my gold one. Last time I tried to lace it up, I noticed that the bones on either sides of the laces are quite flexible, leading me to believe that they are spirals. Not the ideal bones to have next to your laces! I will find out when I open it up and take a look inside... I am really hoping that I don't find the dreaded plastic inside! That would make me very disappointed, and I doubt I would ever shop at that store again, since that corset was almost $300 and they pride themselves on selling quality product.

Anyways, my shopping list consisted of spring steel bones, the flat white ones, that I will use for backs of the corsets to keep the grommets nice and stable. I also ordered a spiral steel kit. Because I am not 100% sure of the length I will need for each individual bone, I decided to get a spool of spiral steel and the tips, so I can cut them to fit. I am making up my own pattern, and have never done it before, so I can really only guess the actual final lengths of the bones. This gives me total flexibility. If the panels I made are too long, and they dig in on my lap or under my breast, I can shorten them, and make the bones the appropriate lengths.

I also ordered 2 busks: a shorter one for the underbust, and a longer one for the overbust. There is only a 1" difference between the two, because I am planning to have the peak in the top of the underbust, and a plunging sweetheart shape to the front of the overbust. I also ordered coutil, one metre each of black and white herringbone. I am not certain yet which one I will use for which corset, or if I will save one of them to do an entirely different corset. I have a hard time making anything that isn't black! Lol! Trying to expand my horizons. I do have light coloured outfits, and it would be nice to have a lighter corset to wear with those. I might do an underbust in white or a light colour, because I honestly think I will wear that more often....

Heck, I don't even know for sure if I want to do an overbust, now that I think of it!! I would most likely wear an underbust, because modern clothing just doesn't fit well with overbusts.

I am rambling now, rather than doing a simple update on the corset construction situation. I hope, once I have hemmed those curtains, that I will be able to start on cutting out and testing the shape on the pattern I drafted a few weeks ago, and do a proper informative update then!

Bridesmaids - Flower Girl - Pickups

An exceedingly rare event has occurred: I have taken on a sewing commission. This is usually only done for friends and family, people who are far more understanding, and willing to lend a hand to finish the project than a stranger. 


In this case, I am doing bridesmaid dresses. There is a fairly tight deadline, and a few techniques that I am new to, or rusty at! The two adult dresses are pretty basic, with the addition of a sash at the waist. My first attempt at the sash was a disaster! Too many straight lines in satin, and it was a wobbly mess. I don't know a seamstress who enjoys working with satin, and I have taken on three dresses made of the stuff. The patterned parts of the dresses have turned out as well as to be expected... it is the experimental areas that are going wrong!


I will break this up into separate posts, detailing some of the additions I am making to these dresses. Today, lets look at the pickups on the flower girl's dress.


The little flower girl dress is the most complicated of the three. Using a Disney princess dress pattern as a base, I am adding to it in an attempt to "match" the bridal gown. It has "pickups" on the skirt:

(not the actual gown, but similar style of skirt)

Having never done "pickups" before, I went in search of tutorials. One very clear tutorial was on the Burda website: http://www.burdastyle.com/techniques/pick-up-skirt-technique . It is on a short skirt, but the concept is the same.

I don't have pictures to go with each step, as I had hoped to. This tight timeline has me focusing more on the sewing than the photos. I will share what I do have.

You will need a skirt with two layers: Your outer layer that will have the poofs, and the lining, which you will attach those poofs to. 

The outer layer will need to be longer than the lining. The extra length needed will depend on the size of pickups you are doing, and how many. It is better to have too much, so if in doubt, cut more fabric than you think you will need. 

The lining should be marked where you would like your hem to be on the finished piece.

Attach the two layers, gathering at the waistband. It works best if at least the top layer has a gather to it. You want the extra width for the volume. 

This mannequin is over 5ft tall at the neck, and the girl who will wear it is a little over 4ft tall. You can see the extra length on the skirt.

Put the skirt on your dress form, mannequin, or anything that will hold it as if it were being worn. Probably not a good idea to have a human model wearing it, because they are going to be standing there for a while! I am doing this for an 8 year old girl, so my dress form isn't small enough. This is the first time I have been thankful for my store mannequin having such a rediculously small waist!

I stagger the pickups so they don't look like lines up and down the dress.

With the skirt in position, I choose the first "pickup" location. In this case, I want two side by side at the top of the skirt front, one in front of each hip. You can pull a lot of material up for big voluminous pickups, or a small amount for a short distance for a smaller poof. This is for a young girl who is NOT the bride, so I want hers to be more subtle. With the little pinch of fabric picked up, I pin it to the lining. I check to make sure that the little poof of fabric above it will cover the little stitches that will hold it in place. Satisfied that the pickup meets all my criteria, I do the next one on the other hip. I go around to the back and do the same thing with 3 and 4, my top row of pickups now complete. Time to move down to the second row. I stagger these so they are in between the pickups in the row above. So this will have one in the middle, with pickups on the sides of the dress, and around the back.

If the pickups are close together, or the skirt is longer, you may want more rows of pickups.

Because this dress has a train, I do an extra set of pickups in the back only. 

I waited until I could try the dress on the girl before marking the final hem. I had a rough placement of it from an earlier fitting, just so I didn't put the pickups too far down the skirt. But I needed to see everything finished before marking the final hemline. Wearing her shoes, I had her try it on, and marked on the front and sides where the hem would be. I would leave the hem in the back where it is because she will have a train and bustle. I also took this opportunity to see which pickup would be used to hide the hook for the bustle.

After the fitting, I trimmed the extra material from the bottom, and pinned the hem. To keep in line with the fullness of the rest of the skirt, I chose to do a bubble hem. I will take photos of that when it is complete. Because of the bubble hem, the actual stitched part of the hemline will be hidden. I used matching satin bias tape to finish the hemline, just in case little flashes of it become visible when she walks, but I don't think it will be an issue. 

I will cover the bustle in another post, as this one is already getting far to long, and I still have to stitch the hooks in place!

Corset Design, Drafting, Construction Pt 1

I have mentioned before that corset making is currently beyond my skill set. I still believe that to be true, but I will never be good at it if I don't practise!

A good quality, well made corset will be comfortable and long lasting if cared for properly. These do not come cheap, and the supplies to make your own might save you a few dollars, but give you a huge headache if you don't know what you are doing, and a back ache if you don't do it well! In my personal opinion, if you want a good one that will hug your waist in all the right places, it is well worth the money to have a pro make one for you. If you want to make them yourself, be prepared to spend lots of time, some money, and don't expect the first one (or several) to be as good as the ones you can buy!

I have decided to have another crack at making my own.

Some of the construction ideas and tips have come from Lucy's Corsetry and various other places I can't remember but have seen over the years on the Internet. I apologise for not linking to some sources, but I honestly don't remember where I might have seen a certain technique that I found up to 8 years ago! I will source where I can.

For my first attempt, I will do an underbust, with a front busk and laceup back. I want a fairly flat front, with most of the reduction on the sides. I will make a 24" waist, as I can comfortably cinch down to 26 right now, and 24 is my goal. This will allow me to comfortably cinch to my regular 26", leaving a 2" gap in the back while I continue to train down.

I took very detailed measurements of my torso, including ribs, waist, hips, front from waist to top, waist to bottom, waist to lap, sides waist to armpit, waist to bottom, back waist to top, waist to bottom, and across the front, I also measured the width between the centre front and the bottom of the curve under the breast, and from the bottom of the curve to the middle of my side. This last set of measurements will allow me to make the curve as comfortable as possible under the bra line. This corset will have a peak in the front.

A rough idea of where I took some of my measurements.

The front will be a total of 14" high, and the back will be a total of 16" high. I will have the solid busk in the front, giving nice tummy control, and spring steel bones in the back near the laces. The sides will have spiral steel, giving me the most comfort and flexibility while still providing strength. I currently have a corset with spring steel (the solid flat bones) in the sides, and I find it presses into my ribs and hips. This doesn't allow me to cinch the waist as much as I would like, and creates pressure points on the widest parts of my body. Having spirals (the ones that look like squished coils) will allow the corset to flex inward at the waist, while allowing my hips and ribs the space they need.

Left: Spiral Steel.         Right: Spring Steel.

With my measurements, I took the computer. I work on a computer doing graphics all day, so this is very natural to me. Others may find a pen and paper easier to work with.

I made my artboard the maximum width of my hips, and placed guides marking my hips, waist, ribs, top and bottom peaks in both front and back. I used all those vertical measurements I took to place the guides in the right places, using the waist line as a base point. This is why I took all my vertical measurements from the waist, not just a total height!

I then marked out the general shape of the top and bottom lines. I refined this line using some of the horizontal measurements, such as the centre front to the bottom of the curve, and centre front to lap. This created the peaks and valleys where the corset will need to fit around my breast and my leg when I sit down.

You can see where the waistline is the area of most reduction.

Once the general shape is done, I added lines for the panels, using a different colour so I could easily tell where they were. I curved the lines inward for the waistline, making sure that the total width matched the intended waist measurement, in this case, for half the corset, the waist width is 12". I did the same for the ribs and hip lines too, so that the corset as a curvy shape to it. I want only a small amount of restriction on the hips (they won't move, so I just want it snug) and the ribs (I don't want to constrict my ribs that much). This will create a more dramatic curve, rather than a straight hourglass, but it does mean that my bones won't be under pressure, just the fleshy part in the middle!!

With the taped pattern, I am able to do rough adjustments.

Once I had everything double checked, I printed out each piece, cut them out, and taped the whole thing together. This way, I could check the shape, test the fit a little bit, and make sure that nothing is totally out to lunch! I did find that I had to take in a bit in the front, and add it into the side, because I had too much flair in the front panels. This made the front over my lap stick out. I want that belly to be nice and flat, not sticking out over my leg!! I took this opportunity to adjust the curves on the top and bottom, making sure that the pieces all lined up properly.

These now become my pattern pieces!! I cut the tape, careful not to cut the paper of the pattern pieces, and traced them out onto card. This gives me a nice sturdy pattern piece to work with, and preserves the original so I can compare, make further adjustments if necessary, etc.

So that is the construction of my pattern for my custom corset!! It was a lot of work, and probably about 4 hours of fiddling and drawing, printing, cutting, fitting, fiddling, adjusting, printing, cutting, fitting!

Next step is to make a mock up. This will allow me to insert the bones and really test the fit and comfort.

Victorian Outfit - The Headpiece

My Victorian Geocacher would not have been complete without something to wear in the hair. I was in the fabric store looking for something else when I came across the birdcage veil material in black! It had been at least a year since I had seen any, so I snatched some up! That was the start of the inspiration that would become my little Victorian hat.

I bought a packet of hair clips from the dollar store. They are flower shaped with a large frame I can sew around. I thought this would work fairly well to clip the piece to my hair. It turned out to be a little flimsy, so I will replace it eventually, but for now it works.

I stitched this to a small piece of fabric. The fabric is much easier to attach to the final piece than trying to glue or stitch the clip directly to the back.

I found some lovely red cherry blossoms at the craft store. I clipped a couple of short stems.

I wound a ribbon tightly around the bottom of the stems and stitched it in place. This would hide the cut ends, as well as provide some material to sew the stems to the feather pad below.

I glued a couple of loose blossoms to the bottom of the stem to hide the ribbon and stitching.

I gathered one side of the birdcage veil material and stitched it together.

I carefully sewed that around the underside of one half of the feather pad. I had decided to wear the piece on the right side of my head, above my ear, so I attached the cage so it would hang down over that ear and the right side of my face.

To avoid damaging the feathers further, I glued the fabric with the clip to the inside of the feather pad. I am not usually a big fan of glueing, but sometimes it is necessary!

Trying to take a picture of the back of your head is always tricky!! I think it took about 20 photos and this was the best one!

Corset Construction Attempt - Intro

Digging out my old "fashion corsets" and occasionally wearing my proper one has re-awakened my love of corsets! I have been scouring the internet for information, and have begun to follow Lucy's Corsetry on Youtube. She truly loves corsets, and is willing to share her experiences, and provide tips and lessons on making your own. She has become an extremely valuable resource in my upcoming adventure!

Armed with my updated corset education, I have been looking for local corset makers, hoping to find an artisan to make a custom item for me. My goal was to have a solid, custom built corset to begin waist training. I was sadly disappointed. With prices soaring above $300 (which is fine for one of great quality) I didn't see anything that I felt was of that value. The shapes were terrible and boxy, and it made me wonder if they would stand up to the strain of waist training. I'm not looking to shrink to 20" or anything, but I would like to have something that I can wear regularly. I don't know if they just didn't bother to cinch them up properly when they took the photos, or if the patterns are really that flat, but there didn't appear to be much waist reduction at all. One of the local corset makers does have a shop, so it might be worth while to go there and try one on. I was there years ago, before I  had the money to buy one, and was impressed at the time.  I have learned much since then, and it might be worth another visit. I will refrain from mentioning the names of the shops for now, because without an actual customer experience, I can't say for certain if their products are good or bad. I just wasn't impressed with the photos on their websites.

So, I will turn to what I do have. I own two corsets that are built for this type of wear. They are steel boned, with strong laces, and sturdy construction.

One I purchased after seeing the vendor at a convention. I didn't have the money to buy one right there and then, but they did convince me to try one on. It was very comfortable, and fit like a charm. I took their card, and a year later, I did order one from their website, Felix and Kitty. I have mentioned them before in a previous post. I still find this underbust corset to be very comfortable. I have absolutely terrible posture from working at a computer every day, and I do find it tiring to wear it for too long, but I am never in any pain. I think that my body is fighting being in such an upright posture. After repeated wearing, I am certain that my shoulders and back will relax and I will not find it so exhausting to wear! I actually find that if I am more active while wearing it, the better I feel. Sitting for prolonged periods seems to be the trigger.

The other corset is an overbust, and is quite high in front and back. I get a very flat front when wearing this one. I have a fairly small chest to begin with, and this just squashes everything flat! And it comes up very high in front, so I don't get the two hills on top. Just very flat in front. I can cinch down quite a bit in this one, even though it is fairly straight. It doesn't have much in the way of curves, so I was expecting more pressure on my ribs and hips. My only real complaint in terms of comfort is under my arms. I am quite short, and so even though my torso is long in proportion to my legs, it is still very short compared to someone who is 5" taller than me. The corset was designed for someone much taller than me (which might explain the height of the front) and it digs into my armpits a fair bit. It forces me to keep my shoulders back much farther than I normally would. I think I fell in love with the fabric, and I had it in my head that I was going to buy a corset that day. The one I actually wanted was way too small (it was about 20") and the sales woman pointed out this beautiful black with gold dragons. It was one of the few they had in my size. (I think they get a lot of young women shopping there who have not yet developed the post-college spread.) Overall, this one is very nice, although because it is quite fancy and digs into my arms, I don't wear it very often.

I have come to the realisation that I won't find what I am looking for in my local shops.... kinda makes me wish I lived in Toronto where they actually have some fantastic corset makers! Instead, I am going to try making my own. I had dissected a very old fashion corset to discover (to my pleasant surprise!) it had spiral steel bones! I plan to use these to construct a new one. I also decided that I want a busk on this one. I found a Canadian supplier, Farthingales, and will order a busk (and a couple of spring steel bones for the back) from them. While I am at it, I may as well plan out my second corset and order the bones and busk for that as well! Just pay shipping once!

I have great plans to begin working on this.... and while I am super excited to sew my first real corset, I do have to wait unfortunately... my hope was to have it done in time to wear daily in the cooler fall weather. I may still be able to reach this goal, but for now I have a much more pressing project. I will be working on bridesmaids and flower girl dresses for a friend and her daughter. The wedding is in just a few short weeks, so my corset project will have to wait! Besides, this summer has been forecast as hot, dry, and long. We are just starting into the hot weather this week, and boy are we getting sticky! A corset would likely be quite uncomfortable for the next few weeks anyway!

Happy sewing!


Update: I did check out Nighshade Corsets on Whyte Ave. They do have another store on 124 street, but I was in the Whyte Ave area, so I decided to check out that location. It had been several years since I had been there. What I found was similar to what I saw on their website. The first time I went to Nightshade was many years ago, at their 124 street location, and at the time I was impressed with their selection. I just couldn't afford to spend that kind of money. I was sure that they were making their own corsets at the time. Looking at what they have in the Whyte Ave location now, it appears that they are getting them manufactured somewhere, and I am sure the quality isn't what it used to be. Most of their corsets were in the $60-$150 range, and none felt very sturdy. I saw many that used plastic zippers for closures! I didn't try any of them on, so I don't know about fit. Many of the sizes where "S/M/L" kind of sizing, which doesn't give you the fit you should have in a corset. The good ones will typically be the closed waist measurement, such as 20", 22", 24", etc, going up in 2" increments. I was disappointed with the Whyte Ave location. I will update next time I go to the 124 street location. That was their original spot, so I am hoping that they still carry the quality I remember seeing there before. I think that their products are just fine if you are looking for something to wear for a night out, but if you are looking for a waist training corset, I wouldn't buy off the rack there. I didn't ask, but they might still do custom work, like they did many years ago, so I would suggest asking if you are looking for a training corset.

Victorian Dress Finished

The Victorian dress is finished, and made it's debut on Saturday, at Can't Stop the Serenity. I was not able to bring my camera, as I still cannot locate the battery charger... toward the end of the move, I think it may have been tossed into a random box, and I can't seem to find it. I may have to bite the bullet and buy a new charger, and when I find my old one, I will have a backup! Yay!

I was not expecting to have any pictures at all, but I was fortunate enough to have been photographed by someone at the event, who then posted the pictures on the Facebook page. I wish I could give more direct credit than that, but I do not know the person's name. They must be one of the admins of the Alberta Browncoats page, because that is who posted the pictures. I thank you, who ever you are, for posting the pictures, and I hope it is ok that I am sharing them here, as they are the only photos I have of my dress! If I ever find out your name, I will give you full credit for the photos!

And on that note, here is the full dress:

It was pretty dark in the room, and there were few details to be seen in the picture, so I boosted contrast and brightened things up a bit. It made the photo grainy, but you can see a bit more of the detail this way! When I charge my camera, I will take it into the yard and get some more pics.

There is a closeup of the front:

I wish I had thought to put the popcorn and pop down!! 

The woman who was taking the pictures snapped a shot of the back of my head when I wasn't looking, and got a wonderful detail photo of my hair and hat.

Again, I wish I didn't have the popcorn right up near my shoulder!! I spent 2 hours doing my hair that morning, and wasn't able to get it dry in the curlers in time. I pulled most of the curlers out of slightly damp hair, which resulted in limp curls. But, that is what I get for choosing sleep over fashion!! Lol! 

Overall, I think it was a success! Like every project after it's first run, I found things I would like to fix. 

The jacket wasn't designed to fit over such a full skirt, so it puckered a lot at the top of the bell. I may need to make the top of the hoop skirt narrower, and consider adding a bustle over the back of the jacket for added volume in the back. It was fun wearing such a full skirt, but I think this particular dress just isn't designed for such a full set of hoops! My Queen of Hearts is, so that will have the fullest skirt I can manage!!

The ruffles around the collar and the wrists were too stiff. I used organza, as was suggested by the pattern, but I think this stuff might have been just a little too stiff. The result was a ruffle that stood right up, and often caught my hair, and made eating difficult as the sleeve ruffles jutted out right over my hand, and would not stay back if I pushed them up. Also, the sleeves were too long for me, by about 1.5 inches, so I will most certainly be shortening them for next time. That might help with the the ruffles at the wrist, pulling them back off my hands a bit. I am considering putting some beading around the edges of the collar ruffle, and that will add some weight to the ruffles, forcing them to lay flatter. 

Some of the pleats didn't iron straight, and it showed when I had the skirt on. I do want to wash the skirt, because those little white marks are still there!! That will remove the starch, and I will have to re starch and iron the pleats again, but seeing as I need to do that anyway to fix a couple of crooked ones, and remove the dust from the gravel parking lot... I will have a nice clean, neatly ironed set of pleats for next time. I plan to wear this again for When Words Collide in Calgary in August. Not the full thing, but I think at least the skirt. I will see. WWC isn't a convention where everyone dresses up, so I don't want to go too crazy and costumey.

Until next time, Happy Sewing!

Crinoline

I have wanted a hoop skirt, or crinoline, for a long time, and had tried, with disastrous results, to make one myself. Ultimately, I want a big one for my Queen of Hearts, but first, my Victorian Geocacher needed one. Sad side note, we had to cancel the Victorian Geocaching day, so I have yet to wear my outfit. But that is OK, I managed to pick up some extra hours at work instead! And it bought me another two weeks to finish. My next chance to wear this outfit is the Can't Stop the Serenity event, on June 23rd.

I looked for patterns, instructions, even looked at buying one on eBay. After shipping, they were not as affordable as they were at first glance... A $20 set of hoops is great until you account for international shipping! And no one in Canada seems to be distributing them.

I found a site, http://www.deathbychutney.com/hoopskirt.htm, where she has a great set of instructions on how to make one, but the best part was her suggestions for materials. Once again, Home Depot has come to the costumer's rescue! She recommends using soaker hose for the hoops. It is flexible, yet strong, and is made of a foamy rubber. It is also inexpensive! I used a little over half of a 50ft roll, at $12 per roll! While it is not as light weight as other materials, it is certainly not too heavy. I tried on the finished product with no corset for support, and it was comfortable to wander around the house in, and didn't dig in at all.

I won't rehash the instructions on how to make it, as hers are pretty clear, complete with diagrams. I will show some photographs of the pieces, and make some suggestions of my own, in addition to her instructions.

The first thing I did was to choose a fabric that had stripes. All the seams in this are straight lines, and having a fabric that has those lines printed in it made it so much easier to sew!!

My first mistake was choosing a fabric that had stretch to it. The elastic properties of the skirt, combined with the rubbery hose made it very difficult to feed through the channels. My solution: tape. I wrapped a loop of tape around the hose at regular intervals, about 8" apart. I could then shift the fabric from one patch of tape to the next, working my way around the loop. Once I got the hang of it, it went quite quickly!

When the hose had been thread through the entire loop, I used a piece of hose, about 3" long, that fit inside the hole of the soaker hose, to snug the pieces closed.

I started with the bottom hoop, and worked my way up, until I had finished all the hoops. In the case of this one, I had 4 hoops. It isn't a wide skirt, so I didn't need as much support. For my Queen of Hearts, I will probably need to go with 6 hoops, and a fuller shape.

The finished product turned out quite well!

I will make a small pad to hold the back of the hoops out more, and probably sew ties to the inside front that loop back around my bum to help flatten the front and give it more poof in the back. But for now, this does the job.

I am also missing the petticoat, which I will tackle tonight and tomorrow. This should allow for the fabric to move smoothly over the hoops, and even out any bumps they cause. I did find that the fit was a little tighter than I intended, so I will consider shortening the hoops by a couple of inches to avoid puckering and bunching in the outer layer. It is easier to shorten than to lengthen!

With the outer garments over top, it looks very nice!

When I find the charger for my good camera, I will go out and take some nice photos! Probably in my yard near the maple, but I will get some and post those.

To recap, lessons learned while making this crinoline...
- Soaker hose is rubbery, don't use elastic fabric, or be prepared to use tape as lubricant.
- Striped fabric does wonders for keeping your channels straight!
- It is surprisingly easy to move and sit in!

Thanks to Death by Chutney for the great tutorial! Your suggestion for soaker hose was the major piece to this puzzle! Of all the tutorials on how to make a hoopskirt, yours was the only one with a suggestion for the hoop material.

****Update**** I noticed today that Death By Chutney's website is no longer available. Hopefully, it is a temporary thing. But, seeing as the great tutorial is no longer available, and as such, my links do not work, I will try to set up my own tutorial instead.