Skeleton Corset: Jan/Feb Update

We have finally gotten some snow here in my area, unusual for us that it has come so late. The children are wanting to go out and play, but we have so little time between school and household chores that we haven't managed that yet.Hopefully they will get their chance this weekend, I have been instructed that I will be staying inside with my tea trying to get over this cold I have.

I have been making progress on the Skeleton Corset, though I have little to show for it yet, most of it has been in my head and written down, no sewing yet. I still haven't found the right fabric.

 In my last post I mentioned that I was procuring photos from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I am sorry to say that I am not getting photos. They didn't have any and new photos were not a possibility. To say that I was disappointed upon hearing that, is an understatement, the chocolate stash was decimated!

But the upside of this is that I am not spending several hundred dollars on photos and thus the pattern, when it comes out, will be more affordable.It also means that I am not waiting on photos for several weeks, pushing my work late.

 I have also been going over sizing of the corset pattern.

You see, just increasing the size of the zone waist and bust/hip bands will not produce a good fitting corset, the spacing between the verticals gets too great.

So I have come up with several size ranges, each with a different number of verticals. The size ranges overlap a bit so that some wearers may chose between 2 size ranges (having an odd or even number of verticals.) To determine this I thought long and hard about how close/far apart the verticals should be and then worked out in even increments how the size ranges should be.
I am working on the smallest size range first (the one that *I* am on the larger end of!) and will work my way up to the larger sizes.

My goal is to have this be a very customizable pattern where you choose the pattern based on your measurements to get the best possible fit. This is going to take some time, but I promise it will be worth it!

Skeleton Corset Pattern: January Progress Report

Slowly I am making progress on the Skeleton Corset Pattern.
Unlike original designs, such as my craft patterns, Historical Costume Patterns have many more steps in them, most fall under the category of research.

For this project I have spent several hours reading modern books, Antique books, Patents, Museum Descriptions, etc...

Historical Patterns can also be more expensive than an original design, especially if based of an antique garment or original antique pattern. You may be lucky enough to have been gifted it, but if you are serious, chances are high that you would have purchased it.

You need to handle the garments carefully to take patterns off them, and old paper is easily damaged too. Storing those items safely is also an investment, but one worth doing.

Along your path of research you will likely run into a roadblock and call out to your fellow enthusiasts. Sometimes they will have something right at hand, other times  they will remember something months later and inform you about it. Networking with others is valuable and I can honestly say without the help of a few key costumers I wouldn't be doing this now.

I purchased the first Skeleton Corset over 4 years ago. FOUR YEARS! Since then I have purchased the second, received help and research from others (I live on the wrong coast!) and waited with baited breath for the Metropolitan Museum of Art to get more photos up.

I believe this pattern will be my most expensive to produce. Not only have I purchased 2 antique corsets for a few hundred dollars each, I am also procuring photos from the Metropolitan Museum of Art for my research. I wouldn't be surprised if the final cost of items purchased to produce this pattern goes past $1,000! I STILL have to source a good fabric to make reproductions out of as my 2 Skeletons are not made of herringbone coutil, the commonly recommended fabric for professional corsets today.

So on top of the normal pattern making, grading, photography and instruction writing, there is a lot more work put into a historic pattern, which is likely WHY they are some of the more expensive patterns out there! I will try to keep my pattern prices low and competitive, so it may not be including all the possible variations.

Only one Corset can win first place.

So in Second pace we have….

1810 Corset en X
24% of votes went to the wrap around stays/corset
I have started grading the pattern,  which is the most challenging aspect of the pattern making process.

A comment on my blog worth sharing:
“I voted skeleton, mostly cos I have Dawn Luckham's pattern (available here) and can figure out the corset en x. If I didn't I'd totes vote for corset en x, as I have bought every available regency stays pattern. (a wee bit obsessed & wanting to support the production of them)”

I want to go on record thanking Dawn for first sharing an image and then creating her pattern. I later found more info and created mine. I shared all that I had discovered with her and you may very well see her make a new pattern, but that doesn’t mean I won't go ahead with my vision of it.


Which Means….
The Skeleton Corsets WON!

Anyone surprised that the Skeleton Corsets won with 51% of the votes?

No?

Oh well I guess that is where I am making my name, in the Skeleton Corset research. They are such an unusual style of corset and there are not many of them surviving. I am lucky to have the 2 that I have, though I really wish I had snagged the other one as well! (I saved the pictures from the ebay auction, but per the sellers request, I can not share them)

In the early part of the voting, Dragonlet was actually in the lead, then I went and asked for votes on the Corsetmakers LiveJournal Community and Dragonlet ended up in third place.

So again the breakdown of which pattern got what of the 37 votes cast.
Skeleton Corsets 19/37
1810 Corset en X 9/37
Dragonlet 6/37
Regency Girl 2/37
Medieval Child 1/37

One week left on the poll

There is just 8 days left to vote on the poll.
For a while there, it was a 3 way tie, and not in a way I expected! then I posted to some Live Journal Communities and that all changed.
As of this posting, there have been 20 votes.

Not much of a sample size, if you ask me.

So I ask you again to Share this post and comment if you feel like it. Why did you vote for that one? Tell me what your second choice was. Tell me which one you are least interested in and why.

On the Left is one of my Antique Skeleton Corsets. I own 2 and they are so different that the published pattern will include both styles.

On the Right is my 1810 Corset en X, I entered it into Foundations Revealed's 2012 contest and placed. You can read more on it here. The pattern will be multi sized and have at least 2 variations.

On the Left is my Regency Era Girls dress, it has a flat fron, like the inspirational period dresses I talked about here, and I hope to round out the dress into a complete outfit.

On the Right is my Medieval Child's Era Gown. it comes in both boys and girls styles. I really need to share more about this garment, I just need to dig up more of the pictures. Here is some of the inspiration.

Last of course is my Dragon Pattern. 26" long, wired and magnificent. This pattern is not a toy for children, but I have other ones that are suitable for children.

Thanks to all those who voted, and thanks to those who comment, thanks also if you shared this link!

Introducing a POLL!

In my attempts to find the balance in my life, I have decided I need a good clear goal and a path to achieving it. I also need to be held accountable to someone. I think what I need is to do a month end post on the current project pattern, so which pattern should be first?

So here is the Poll, which you should be able to see at the upper left of this page. If you can’t see it, comment!

Which pattern should I FOCUS on first? It may not end up being the first one released, but it will be the one I focus on and blog about creating. All will probably become patterns in time, so don't fret if your first choice is not the one that comes out on top.

The Poll is now CLOSED you may see the results here 

Feel free to share this post, the wider audience the more variety of votes, the clearer the picture will be for me.

The Skeleton Corsets

Needs contact Met again, and the two patterns are SO different, it is more like 2 different corsets, not one in 2 sizes.


The 1810 Corset en X

Needs museum contacts, and grading, then testing. Read more here.

Regency girls outfit.

I have the basic pattern and instructions for the dress, I need to add the under and outer layers.
Read more about the inspiration here

Childs “Medieval” outfit

Refinement of pattern and instructions, additional layers added then off to testing

Dragon pattern.

CAD the pattern and make a new one, photos and testing.

Once again, the Poll should be in the upper left of my blog, and is open until January 31st, 2013. if for some reason you can not vote in the poll, comment! I will tally them all up at the end and anounce the scores on February 2nd.

Please SHARE this post to anyone you think would have an interest in these future patterns.

The Poll is now CLOSED you may see the results here

Skeleton Corsets in Modern Corsetry

Happy Halloween!
Thought that the Skeleton Corset would be a good blog topic for today.
A Skeleton Corset is a corset made without fabric panels between the bones. they showed up in the late 1860's and go in and out of fashion for summer wear throughout the Victorian time period.

Source: collections.vam.ac.uk via Corsetra on Pinterest

There are a few well known examples, first the Victoria & Albert Museum's 1890-1900 example is the most widely known having been published in books T.184-1962

This style has several horizontal bands holding the vertical bones together.

Source: metmuseum.org via Corsetra on Pinterest

Next is the Metropolitan Museum's 1871 Example  2009.300.3104a–c which the acquired from the Brooklyn Museum.

This style has a wide waistband but no other horizontal bands other than the top and bottom binding.

I also have two Skeleton Corsets from the Brooklyn Museum.

There have been a Few Brave Souls who have recreated Skeleton Corsets, like my friend Twila, who based hers off the Met and my examples. She won an award for the whole outfit too, well worth reading her Dress Diary on it.

Then there have been some on the Live Journal Community Corset Makers. this link will take you the the Tag for Skeleton and Mesh Corset Some posts may be locked, in which case you will need to have a Live Journal account (it's free) and join the community.

Now that We have a bit of the History on it, let's take a look at just some of the modern examples.

If you do a web search the two examples you are likely to run into first are the Jean Paul Gaultier skeleton corset for Dita Von Teese and Louise Black's underbust corset with Skeleton Cameo on the front. Those two images are so prolific, I am not even going to share them!

Alexander McQueen

Source: stylebistro.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

Paris Fashion Week Spring 2013

Source: style.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

Both these examples are qworn OVER other garments, likely structured as corsets.










Spring 2012

Source: coolspotters.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

Source: alexandermcqueen.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

This looks like it is either the mass produced example or more likely a Knock off with the zipper in front









2012

Source: cherryls.tumblr.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

Jean Paul Gaultier
Spring 2013

Source: stylebistro.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

Fall 2012

Source: vogue.fr via Corsetra on Pinterest

Source: vogue.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

Source: theplace2.ru via Corsetra on Pinterest

Source: geometricsleep.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Corsetra on Pinterest

Other Designers 

Source: nondonoir.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

Skeleton corset-Paul Seville

Source: ateliersylphecorsets.deviantart.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

Cage skeleton corset with nude net lining by ateliersylphecorsets

Source: google.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

Skeleton Corset by Lovesick

Source: trendland.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

fleet ilya

Source: coolspotters.com via Corsetra on Pinterest

La Perla Cage Bustier

I will continue to collect images of Modern Skeleton Corsets, so feel free to share with me, or if you need to correct my attributions, please do. I do not keep up with Modern Fashion well.