All posts tagged: Nana

A pair of ‘crap, these probably aren’t right at all’ drawers for Nana (and bonus stockings)

Other than finishing the corset, the last piece of my Nana ensemble to assemble was the drawers. The drawers are now done, only well, they are slightly problematic. How so? Well, look at them: And the back view: So. Ummm, yeah. Sexy they are not. Now, the whole colossal camel toe + super saggy bottom thing is just kinda how most mid-19th century drawers fit, but this pair is taking it a little to the extreme. The problem is the cut. 1870s closed drawers were just open drawers with the centre seam sewn up, and so they have this weird quarter-circle shape with lots of extra fabric in the crotch area. Looking at Manet’s Nana, the line of her chemise is quite smooth over her front and hips. With such bulky drawers, that simply won’t happen. So how to achieve Nana’s look? Well, one possibility is that she isn’t wearing drawers (I mean, she is Nana!). However, the way the lace is falling at her hem makes me think she definitely is. The other …

Remember the Nana corset?

Published by The Dreamstress

I started it oh, more than a year and a half ago. Here is what it looks like today: (hint: it’s the blue one) Yeah. It’s still not quite done. The problem is that I got it perfectly finished to the point of wearability, didn’t have an event to wear it to, and thus haven’t been really motivated to finish it. It is (obviously) inspired by Manet’s Nana, which rather amuses me, because I’m pretty much as far as you could get from Zola’s Nana as a person! So what does it need to be finished? Sleeves straps. That’s it. I’m hoping the ‘Wood, Metal, Bone’ challenge will motivate me to finish it, though in retrospect I should really have finished it for Literature! Still, even not-quite-done, I think it looks rather spiffy on me. It’s so, so, so comfortable! 1870s corsets with gussets really are amazing. Compare it to the original: And my favourite of this series of boring-white-wall timer shots:

Nana’s Corset – beginnings

Published by The Dreamstress

Remember how I posted that I wanted to finish a corset so I could make shorts so I could make panniers? Well, you have seen the shorts, the panniers are done but yet to be posted about, but the corset isn’t quite finished. But it looks pretty amazing anyway, and here is a sneak-peek: This corset is my long planned, long awaited version of the Nana corset for me. I’m never going to achieve quite as many curves as Nana (and also, I’m not a teenage courtesan who destroys the lives of every man she encounters – but Manet didn’t know that) but I’m pretty pleased with how I look in it. The images of me in the corset are courtesy of Mrs C, who kindly took photos on her camera at a sewing night at her place when I stupidly forgot to bring a memory card for my camera. D’oh! I’ve been working on it since the sewing night, and the corset is almost done. I just need to finish the binding on the …