The Floral Fifties

I just finished this little commission. Its a copy of an 1953 vintage shirtwaist, the original was a plain dark grey and the fabric had worn a bit too thin to be wearable.

I found the fabric in a lovely little shop called the cloth shop just off Portobello Road in London, the people inside were unbelievably friendly, i've never had my fabric cut with such a genuine smile before.

[link http://www.theclothshop.net/]

Beaded Flowers

Just testing out this new fangled (well, to me anyway) blog from your phone app, lets see if it works...

Finally got round to it

Last September I started making this corset as a little project for myself. I had been gifted several historical patterns, so I thought I would try one out. It was a bit more of a challenge because they were entirely in French, but I got there.

It had been tucked away in a corner since then, finished apart from the bones, bias binding and eyelets. A friend very kindly offered to do a photo-shoot for my Wollaton costumes for me, so it gave me a push to finish it off so I could add it in.

I really like the shape of the front. According to Harriet, my flatmate who kindly agreed to model for the shoot, its really comfortable.

I think she quite enjoyed herself.
I don’t really have a use for it, so I’ve put it in my etsy shop.

Oh La La Tea Party

It’s been speedy speedy working on this costume, a pretty short deadline. Not quite finished here, still work to do on the skirt.

I didn’t do much on the finishing off of this, mainly making very very long tubes for very long ruffles.

But I had to post the finished result all the same.

Titania

So here is my Corsetry and Structures project research part 2...Titania, queen of the fairies from Shakespeare's Midsummer Nights Dream.

There is not exactly a shortage of coverage of this particular outfit. Unsurprisingly because it is such an amazing costume to do.

There are lots of blues and greens and flowers and floaty fabrics.

If I did this it would have to be the most brilliant thing ever to stand out from the croud.

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;

And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.

Doing the wings would be a fun challenge. I read something recently about folding a piece of wire into a wing shaped loop, covering it with tights and painting on a pattern. They looked really impressive as well.

I love the one above. The colours, the wings, the head dress. Gorgeous.

Looking rather like a corset I would say.

So I have stitched the flowery corset fully together. I was not having the most together night when I did it, so I ended up having to unpick about 3 of the seams after I messed them up. Unfortunately it is too big for me (it was an exercise in using corset patterns, not making one fore me) and it is too small for the dummy, so I don't have a proper picture.

I am really pleased with the lining. Straight stitching all the way.

Now I just have to bone it and stitch on the bias binding. But seen as VenaCava sent me the wrong width artificial whalebone, it will have to wait a while.

How does it end up needing so many pieces?

I've acquired a bunch of new historical corset patterns that I have just begun to work through., there is the slight problem however that they are in French. Second to English, French is my best language, however that is not saying much, and beyond being able to buy a croissant and tell my sister she is a lemon it is pretty limited. And when it comes down to nitty gritty pattern directions it is nil, pity really scene as this one is covered in lovely little notes which I'm sure would be really helpful if I knew what they were.

So anyway, I'm jumping in blind, and managed to get all the pieces cut, and mostly all mounted this evening. Its a six piece pattern, so with outer fabric (the flowery one), two layers of calico, and the liner (The blue and green bits), that's 24 individual pieces. I admit in advanced corset terms its not a ridiculous amount, but they do seem to be everywhere.

...with flowers in my hair

Lots of silk flowers, hot glue and felt. A lovely few hours playing with glitter glue like primary school.

Lining, a debatable concept

Today I unpicked and reworked the last of the embroidery for Flatmate-Weathers' corset, I'm glad I did because I'm so much happier with it now, the larger flowers look much less weedy and much more complete. I also cut out and mounted onto calico all the facing pieces, grey for the four front-most panels, and white for the rest.

Now the issue is, how to line it? I have some lovely fabrics lying around but they would all have to be mounted. On the other hand I have some fairly standard denim-like stuff which wouldn't need to be. It would work, but the inside wouldn't look as pretty. Decisions decisions...

Finished the embroidery...or perhaps not

Well here is the "finished" front panel for Flatmate-Weathers corset. I am pleased with the stems, the buds, and the star-like flowers, but I'm really not feeling the tulip ones. I had a slight pink thread crisis half way through and had to go out and buy some more. But before that I tried to make it stretch further by using less strands. This made the flowers really weedy. I think I shall pick them out and start again.

Off to the museum...Court Mantua

The second little V&A outfit, 1775-85 court mantua. For some reason a bit of my brain fell out, and I didn't photograph the entire garment, so my sketch will have to do.

The fabric of this was stunning. I just can't get my head round having the patience for that much hand embroidery, I suppose they didn't have the internet to distraction which seems to be my main downfall.

Ye Olde Bag lady

Every corset should have a bag, this is what I have decided. According to reliable sources (Denise and the internet) rolled up after an airing is the best way to store a corset. But if you leave it out it could get dusty, or have something spilt on it, or any of the infinite number of things that can damage silk past any point of recovery...tea for instance. Therefore a bag is require, a carrier would do, but it really doesn't look like much.

At the Custom Costume Company, I have been made bag lady, I get to make the cotton lined storage bags for all the corsets we make. I've made four so far (missed one picture though), and mostly I use the fabric for the bag that we used for the corset. This means if you glance at several on a shelf you can instantly tell which bag contains which corset.

It also means I get to play around with the fabrics in whatever way I want. I started with very simple two-piece patchwork, but then branched out to triangles, and even a bit of piping, which I hadn't done before.

They are really quick little projects, and I'm improving my method each time I make one.

Off to the museum...Chintz Caraco & Petticoat

I went to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London yesterday. It is so huge, there was no way you could get round it all properly in a day,or even a week, and I only had half a day. I focused on the 18th century costumes, taking pictures and quick sketches.

My camera did a better job than I thought through the glass without flash. This outfit is a Caraco and Petticoat from 1770-80.

The right sleeve had a ruffle around the bottom edge, but the left one didn't. I think it probably must have come off with age, but other than a small tear on the inside, I couldn't see any evidence of it.

The front closed with 9 hook'n'eyes, three on each pair of tabs. They don't match up in a straight line. I thought this was strange, if you are going to spend so much time making a dress, you would think you would take the time to make sure the most visible part is neat. But then maybe is has just stretched that way from being worn.

The skirt was a wide box pleat with the pleats outwards from that being around 2" apart.

It looked like the hem was originally pale blue ribbon, but the museum had put some kind of net on it for conservation purposes, it looked like a modern addition.