All posts tagged: corsets

The Cymbidium Orchid corset for Madame Ornata

I’ve been working on a corset based on the 1890s corded corset pattern for Madame Ornata. She asked me to make a BRIGHT green corset for a Victorian Poison Ivy costume. There were lots of complications (it’s complicated) and ended up going with an 18th century take on the idea for the costume party. The brief for the corset was BRIGHT green. Unfortunately we just couldn’t find anything in visits to every fabric store in Wellington. We did pick up a cute ivy-leaf patterned green quilting fabric for the lining. And then Madame O found the outer fabric on her own. And it was BRIGHT green. Did I tell you it was BRIGHT? Yeah. It made the lining fabric look dull and brown. So I had a mad rummage through my fabric stash. I found a flowered pink cotton that was rather sweet. Too sweet in fact. It just couldn’t stand up to the green silk. Finally, I found a mid-pink quilting cotton. I’m not even sure why I own this fabric. I have no …

1850s? Or 18th century? Or…?

Published by The Dreamstress

I found these images of a fascinating pair of stays ex. Brooklyn Museum that were sold through Augusta Auctions. The catalogue describes them as: Bavarian Silk Stays, 1840-1860. Pink satin, white leather waist tabs, attached metallic lace stomacher, multiple layers stiffened w/ baleen stays, homespun linen lining, B 30″, CFL 13″, (satin & metallic lace worn, linen lining replaced, leather dirty) fair. Brooklyn Museum Now, I know that the regional peasant attire in many places stayed decades behind the current trends, but these look very 18th century to me. There is some obvious mistakes in the dressing: they are clearly meant to be spiral laced, and have been cross-laced instead, which just isn’t working, indicating that at least some of the people involved with documenting the stays didn’t know what they were doing. Does that include the person who dated them and wrote the description? So what do you think, oh gurus of 18th century and European peasant wear? Are these a localised throwback to earlier styles and construction techniques, or mislabeled?

Finished project: the ca. 1890 black satin corded corset

Published by The Dreamstress

My 1890s black silk corded corset was actually done two weeks ago, in time for the Dr Sketchy talk, where it looked gorgeous on the model, and was immensely popular with everyone. Not only had the original corset sold before the event, but I got three further inquiries about buying it or having one commissioned. I guess I had better get used to cording! This was a time consuming and nerve-wracking corset to make. As I mentioned before, I wasn’t sure it would really fit and work until the very last, but the results are more than worth it. As always, I do have some tweaks to make to improve the next version though. If you want to see it on a model, there are Dr Sketchy photos here, and here.