Victorian Dress, update 1 -- the corset
Well, in the second half of the weekend and over the last couple of days I have made lots of progress, or so I feel. After scaling up all the pattern pieces I cut them out (in lining, interlining/interfacing/whatever and surface material) and sewed them together, as you do, and then started on the channels for the boning.
This is kinda what one half of it looks like layed out on the floor with no channels. And the second picture is one I played with in photo shop to try and get the colour in the photo to at least slightly resemble the real colour of the material.
For those who do not know much about corsets I will say how they are stiffened. Historically, I believe there were two broad categories - long, thin stiff stuff put into channels, or broad, flat stiff stuff between sheets of material, with combinations of both. Broad, flat stiff stuff might just be stiff material, or material stiffened with glue or some such thing, or "cardboard" (presumably not like our cardboard) and things like that. Long, thin stiff stuff includes whalebone, reeds, twisted linen and hemp cord. This channels were sewn in the material and the stiffener of choice inserted in the channels between the lining and the top material. Or there would probably be more like 3 or 4 layers of material, and the stiffener would be inserted in between some two of those layers.
Now-a-days you can theoretically buy various types of plastic and metal boning to use. Not really in Dunedin though. You can get "Rigilene", but for some reason I don't understand, that is not recommended by most costumers. Some people use cable ties however, those plastic things used to stop all your computer cables getting tangled up. As far as I am aware this is what they mean anyway. So I am trying them. Of course, once again, you can't get the size that people recommend in Dunedin. Mine are 37cm long and 7.6mm wide. Obviously the problem is you have to cut them shorter and you end up with wastage. With Rigilene you just cut lengths and don't waste, but maybe it is not as rigid. I will have to compare. I think it might still be slightly cheaper to use cable ties, even with the wastage. Not sure.... It definitely is if you buy a pack of100 cable ties at once, but then you have to be intending to make 5+ corsets with them.
Anyway, as for my progress, I have sewn most of the channels and tried out my cable tie boning. It looks like it will work really well. It looks cool. I have no pictures. I will get some. I think it looks so cool in fact that even if this doesn't work and the stupid thing doesn't fit I might not be too upset because I will still have something that looks cool. :) Or maybe I'm an idiot.
There seem to be two ways to make channels on the later period and fantasy style corsets. Either sew ribbon on the inside or outside and put the boning between the ribbon and material, or just sew channels in the material and put the boning between the inner and outer layers, like I said before. I was going to do ribbon. Spotlight didn't have enough of the colour I wanted so I got them to order me some. But I didn't want to wait so I realised that I not only COULD do it without the ribbon, but that it would also be easier. Woohoo!! And it is cheaper to not buy the ribbon. Bonus! Plus I decided the ribbon colour I had was ugly anyway. So it is all working out for the best.
Today I am going to try to test fit the corset and see how much of the 2" of material I have spare at the front and back centres needs to be removed. I really hope this works. I have a bad feeling though that the scaling is not right and that around the hips and bust it will be too big, even once it is laced up and my waist is a little bit smaller in comparison. We will see. Too much spare room around the bust can be fixed with padding and I will just look more hour-glass shaped....
I also hope to get some more of the petticoat done this week so that I actually end up with a finished item to boost my confidence in the whole endeavour.
This is my collection of material I bought to make this whole costume - the three on the left are for the actual dress with the light blue sheet being the lining. On the right is the linen for the petticoat, a white flannelette sheet for the drawers or whatever, and the teal suiting for the
corset (not period...).
This is kinda what one half of it looks like layed out on the floor with no channels. And the second picture is one I played with in photo shop to try and get the colour in the photo to at least slightly resemble the real colour of the material.
For those who do not know much about corsets I will say how they are stiffened. Historically, I believe there were two broad categories - long, thin stiff stuff put into channels, or broad, flat stiff stuff between sheets of material, with combinations of both. Broad, flat stiff stuff might just be stiff material, or material stiffened with glue or some such thing, or "cardboard" (presumably not like our cardboard) and things like that. Long, thin stiff stuff includes whalebone, reeds, twisted linen and hemp cord. This channels were sewn in the material and the stiffener of choice inserted in the channels between the lining and the top material. Or there would probably be more like 3 or 4 layers of material, and the stiffener would be inserted in between some two of those layers.
Now-a-days you can theoretically buy various types of plastic and metal boning to use. Not really in Dunedin though. You can get "Rigilene", but for some reason I don't understand, that is not recommended by most costumers. Some people use cable ties however, those plastic things used to stop all your computer cables getting tangled up. As far as I am aware this is what they mean anyway. So I am trying them. Of course, once again, you can't get the size that people recommend in Dunedin. Mine are 37cm long and 7.6mm wide. Obviously the problem is you have to cut them shorter and you end up with wastage. With Rigilene you just cut lengths and don't waste, but maybe it is not as rigid. I will have to compare. I think it might still be slightly cheaper to use cable ties, even with the wastage. Not sure.... It definitely is if you buy a pack of100 cable ties at once, but then you have to be intending to make 5+ corsets with them.
Anyway, as for my progress, I have sewn most of the channels and tried out my cable tie boning. It looks like it will work really well. It looks cool. I have no pictures. I will get some. I think it looks so cool in fact that even if this doesn't work and the stupid thing doesn't fit I might not be too upset because I will still have something that looks cool. :) Or maybe I'm an idiot.
There seem to be two ways to make channels on the later period and fantasy style corsets. Either sew ribbon on the inside or outside and put the boning between the ribbon and material, or just sew channels in the material and put the boning between the inner and outer layers, like I said before. I was going to do ribbon. Spotlight didn't have enough of the colour I wanted so I got them to order me some. But I didn't want to wait so I realised that I not only COULD do it without the ribbon, but that it would also be easier. Woohoo!! And it is cheaper to not buy the ribbon. Bonus! Plus I decided the ribbon colour I had was ugly anyway. So it is all working out for the best.
Today I am going to try to test fit the corset and see how much of the 2" of material I have spare at the front and back centres needs to be removed. I really hope this works. I have a bad feeling though that the scaling is not right and that around the hips and bust it will be too big, even once it is laced up and my waist is a little bit smaller in comparison. We will see. Too much spare room around the bust can be fixed with padding and I will just look more hour-glass shaped....
I also hope to get some more of the petticoat done this week so that I actually end up with a finished item to boost my confidence in the whole endeavour.
This is my collection of material I bought to make this whole costume - the three on the left are for the actual dress with the light blue sheet being the lining. On the right is the linen for the petticoat, a white flannelette sheet for the drawers or whatever, and the teal suiting for the
corset (not period...).
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