Sunday 22 April 2012

Corsets Photographed

Whilst I am busy at Uni I still have more than one or two ongoing projects to keep my hands busy.
I will admit to having a bit of a shopping spree of late. This spree involved the purchase of another tailors dummy- this time vintage but fully able to use for draping and much closer to my size which means I have been able to get some better photos of some of my corsets- still not as good as having a professional shoot, but that will come as soon as I can get round to organising it.

Next was a truly indulgent purchase of a second hand industrial 4 thread overlocker with ruffler, its not here yet, but I'm hoping it will be this week. This is something I will need for my own business so it was only a matter of time before I needed one, I cant wait to have one at home it will make several things so much easier to accomplish.

Anyway, without further ado some more corset for perusal.

The first one is based on a pattern of a 1798 pair of jumps from Jill Salens Corsets book. I drafted from scratch to my measurements and made a mock up first. It has a light amount of boning in it and squashes the breasts upwards to give s the slightly less severe silhouette at the end of the period. I have stuck close to the original materials, using a pure silk taffeta- which was lovely to work with, interlined with cotton drill and lined in pure linen. The boning casing are cotton drill and silk dupion and all the ends of the lacing are finished with gold coloured aglets. I have also made a black chemise made of cheesecloth and edged with cotton lace and broiderie anglaise threaded with the apricot ribbon(not pictured) and plan to finish the costume with a cartridge pleated skirt made from some lovely Liberty wool in burnt orange and a bum roll for shape, but have not had the time to make it up yet.



While the mannequin is not bad because it is so rigid you don not get the correct effect at the cleavage, but this gives some idea.



Next up is the 1911 long line Titanic era corset. This was done as part of a sew along and entered into a competition- it unfortunately did not win but there were so many beautiful corsets on display. It is constructed from a single layer of fabric with a waist tape and applied bone casings to the inside as the corset would have been made back in its original time. However the fabric cotton backed satin I used, although a good quality fabric did not quite stand up to the one layer so is not really thick enough. Next time I make a corset from this era in one layer I will be using some coutil or spot broche. The long slimming line of the corset is flattering but the aim is not to have a really small waist at this time compared to the rest of the body. Next time I would either shorten the length slightly as it was a bit too long or lengthen it to make a corset dress perhaps.




The corset will pull down nicely at the sides once the garters are attached to some stockings!


I have still yet to photograph the two metallic corsets I was making last month. They were both finished and worn and most importantly enjoyed and admired.
I hope to get them up this week but once again the mannequin is not really doing them there full justice, and neither am I.
So definitely need to find a willing photographer..


As usual more photos of these corsets can be found on my facebok page:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/IllustriousCreationsCostumeCompany

1 comment:

  1. This is awesome! Great work.
    Was there a pattern or certain technique you used for the longline corset? I love the shape around the bust area and the gores in the hips.

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